The Most Boring Number in the World Is ...

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March 10, 2023

Mathematics The Most Boring Number in the World Is ... That prime numbers and powers of 2 fascinate many people comes as no surprise. In fact, all numbers split into two camps: interesting and boring By Manon Bischoff

Water 'Pretty Epic' Mountain Snowfall Stuns Californians A near-record amount of snow in California could ease some water restrictions after years of climate-change-fueled drought By Anne C. Mulkern,E&E News

Planetary Science Newfound Asteroid May Strike Earth in 2046, NASA Says Preliminary estimates suggest that a 50-meter space rock called 2023 DW has a roughly one-in-600 chance of colliding with our planet in 23 years By Brandon Specktor,LiveScience

Sponsor Content Provided by PNAS Subscribe to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Highlights Newsletter Discover the latest and most exciting scientific discoveries from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences. Stay informed and engaged with cutting-edge research!

Climate Change Old Bomber Plane Will Sniff the Sky for Geoengineering Particles NOAA will use a converted Air Force bomber to search the upper atmosphere for substances that could help the U.S. reflect sunlight away from Earth By John Fialka,E&E News

Policy Lab-Leak Intelligence Reports Aren't Scientific Conclusions Intelligence reports supporting the lab-leak theory for COVID are not based in science By Cheryl Rofer

Anthropology Humans Started Riding Horses 5,000 Years Ago, New Evidence Suggests Archaeologists have found a handful of human skeletons with characteristics that have been linked to horseback riding and are a millennium older than early depictions of humans riding horses By Meghan Bartels

Animals Bumblebees Show Off Their Own Puzzle-Solving Culture Like chimpanzees, bees can learn specific strategies for opening a puzzle box and accessing a reward inside by mimicking the behavior of their trained mates By Rachel Nuwer

Psychology The Weird Reason We're Afraid of Clowns Scientists figure out the origin of our fear of clowns By Sophie Scorey,James Greville,Philip Tyson,Shakiela Davies,The Conversation

Climate Change Record-Breaking Boreal Fires May Be a Climate 'Time Bomb' Fires in North America and Eurasia spewed record-shattering amounts of CO2 in 2021 By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Animals What Chernobyl's Stray Dogs Could Teach Us about Radiation A multiyear project studying stray dogs around Chernobyl aims to uncover the health effects of chronic radiation exposure By Freda Kreier,Nature magazine

Artificial Intelligence These Researchers Used AI to Design a Completely New 'Animal Robot' “Xenobots” are living, swimming self-powered robots that measure less than a millimeter across. They are evolved by artificial intelligence and built out of frog stem cells—and they could open new medical frontiers. By Luke Groskin

Sleep The Scientific Secret to Soothing Fussy Babies Some animals’ babies physically relax when their parents whisk them away from danger. The same thing works for tiny, wailing humans. By Karen Hopkin | 04:46

Planetary Science Mystery of Ancient Space Superstorms Deepens A fresh analysis of tree-ring data suggests barrages of cosmic radiation that washed over Earth centuries ago may have come from sources besides our sun By Katherine Kornei

BRING SCIENCE HOME Unlocking the Secrets of the Pinecone Credit: George Retseck Depending on where you live, this time of year the ground might be covered in snow, ice and, most importantly, pinecones! We see pinecones everywhere during the winter—in wreaths, on trees and in our yards. But did you know that pinecones have a vital job? They keep pine tree seeds safe, and protect them from the freezing temperatures during the winter! To protect their seeds, pinecones can close their “scales” tightly, keeping out cold temperatures, winds, ice and even animals that might eat their precious cargo. In this activity we will observe how pinecones respond to different temperatures by mimicking changes in weather, all from our own kitchens! As an added bonus, after this activity your pinecones will be ready to be added to your house as a holiday decoration or as a reminder of the plants of the season.

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