Showing results by author "Sarah Kaplan" in Tutte le categorie

The settlement looked like little more than 11 mounds of earth surrounded by a sunken ditch. But if Jonas Gregorio de Souza closed his eyes, he could imagine the Boa Vista site as it would have appeared 800 years ago. Perhaps, the archaeologist said, those mounds were houses circling a central square. Outside the defensive ditch, gardens and fruit trees might have flourished. The mile-long road leading to the enclosure may have had a ritual purpose, its surface hardened by countless ceremonial processions. Or maybe it linked the village to others, forming a chain of communities that crisscrossed the whole southern Amazon basin.

"Archaeologists Discover 81 Ancient Settlements in the Amazon" is from the March 27, 2018 National section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

A group of the Environmental Protection Agency's current and former advisory board members sued it Thursday over Administrator Scott Pruitt's controversial decision to bar scientists who receive agency grants from serving as outside advisers.

"In 'Defense of Science,' Researchers Sue EPA Over Move to Overhaul Advisory Boards" is from the December 21, 2017 National section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and Brady Dennis and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Shortly after NASA was established in 1958, the nation's top scientists compiled a list of missions they thought the brand-new space agency should pursue. The proposals were heady, considering at that point only three satellites had ever been launched. Researchers suggested an Earth-orbiting telescope that could detect the universe's most distant stars, probes that would venture to the solar system's other planets, an initiative to land humans on the surface of the moon.

"This NASA Spacecraft Will Get Closer to the Sun Than Anything Ever Before" is from the January 22, 2018 National section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Some 110 million years ago, in the swamp that would become the Washington suburbs, a hulking, armored nodosaur trudged along a riverbank, leaving a telltale print in the mud. Its offspring scrambled after it, slipping in the parent's print.

"Spectacular Dinosaur Stomping Grounds Discovered Just Outside D.C." is from the January 31, 2018 National section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Cheers erupted when the H.L. Hunley broke the ocean's surface for the first time in more than a century. Since it vanished during a 1864 naval battle, the Confederate submarine had lain on the seafloor off the coast near Charleston, S.C., its heavy iron hull gathering barnacles and rust. In 2000, when the vessel was recovered, scientists and historians expected to be able to solve the mystery of why it sank.

"Science May Have Solved the 150-Year-Old Mystery of a Sunken Civil War Submarine" is from the August 24, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Some 130 million years ago, in a galaxy far away, the smoldering cores of two collapsed stars smashed into each other. The resulting explosion sent a burst of gamma rays streaming through space and rippled the very fabric of the universe.

"Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves From a New Kind of Nova, Sparking a New Era in Astronomy" is from the October 16, 2017 Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and Ben Guarino and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Torch-bearing white supremacists shouting racist and anti-Semitic slogans. Protesters and counter protesters colliding with violence and chaos. A car driven by a known Nazi sympathizer mowing down a crowd of activists.

"Why Are People Still Racist? What Science Says About America's Race Problem." is from the August 14, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by William Wan and Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the symbolic Doomsday Clock a notch closer to the end of humanity Thursday, moving it ahead by 30 seconds after what the organization called a “grim assessment” of the state of geopolitical affairs.

"The Doomsday Clock Just Moved: It’s Now 2 Minutes to ‘Midnight,’ the Symbolic Hour of the Apocalypse" is from the January 25, 2018 National section of The Washington Post. It was written by Lindsey Bever, Sarah Kaplan, and Abby Ohlheiser and narrated by Sam Scholl.

There are some things you do need to do to prepare for this total solar eclipse, and you can read everything you need to know about it here. But there are also things you don't need to worry about. Like the apocalypse.

"Doggy Glasses, Doomsday Omens and Other Eclipse Myths — Debunked" is from the August 11, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Jenny Hoops.

It was well past midnight when Michael Abrams, Claire Bedbrook and Ravi Nath crept into the Caltech lab where they were keeping their jellyfish. They didn't bother switching on the lights, opting instead to navigate the maze of desks and equipment by the pale blue glow of their cellphones. The students hadn't told anyone that they were doing this. It wasn't forbidden, exactly, but they wanted a chance to conduct their research without their PhD advisers breathing down their necks.

"Scientists Just Discovered the First Brainless Animal That Sleeps" is from the September 21, 2017 Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Jenny Hoops.

By the standards of the Paleolithic age, members of Homo neanderthalensis were the height of sophistication. These ancient hominins ranged across Europe and parts of Asia for more than 300,000 years, producing tools, jewelry and impressive cave creations. They cared for their sick and elderly. They perhaps even performed a primitive kind of dentistry.

"Humans Didn't Outsmart the Neanderthals. We Just Outlasted Them." is from the November 01, 2017 Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

In March 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returned from an unprecedented 340-day mission on the International Space Station. A year later, his doctors released preliminary results of an extensive study comparing his health to that of his earthbound identical twin brother, Mark. And this past January, NASA announced that attendees at a recent scientific workshop agreed on the initial medical conclusion — that space travel takes a significant toll and can result in changes at the molecular level.

"The Truth About Astronaut Scott Kelly’s Viral ‘Space Genes’" is from the March 16, 2018 National section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Jenny Hoops.

This is not the proposed “Planet Nine,” a ginormous body that Caltech scientists believe could be tugging at the orbits of the solar system's most distant inhabitants. And it's not Pluto. (Sorry Pluto, you still don't count).

"A Mysterious Mars-Sized Planet May Be Hiding at the Edge of Our Solar System" is from the June 27, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Kristi Burns.

In a bleak new study published this week in the journal Science Advances, 31 top primatologists warn that the planet could see a mass extinction of nonhuman primates as a consequence of human activities. Some 60 percent of species are in danger of becoming extinct, the researchers write, and a full 75 percent are in decline. If the effects of habitat loss, hunting and man-made climate change aren't mitigated, they say, our closest animal cousins will start to vanish in the next 25 to 50 years.

"The World Might See a Mass Extinction of Primates if Humans Don’t Act" is from the January 19, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

The human-pig hybrid — dubbed a “chimera” for the mythical creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail — was “highly inefficient,” the researchers cautioned. But it's the most successful human-animal chimera and a significant step toward the development of animal embryos with functioning human organs.

"Scientists Create a Part-Human, Part-Pig Embryo — Raising the Possibility of Interspecies Organ Transplants" is from the January 26, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Tiny, tubular structures uncovered in ancient Canadian rocks could be remnants of some of the earliest life on Earth, scientists say.

"Newfound 3.77-Billion-Year-Old Fossils Could Be Earliest Evidence of Life on Earth" is from the March 01, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Millennia passed, the continents broke apart and bunched back together, mountain ranges rose up and eroded away, countless creatures — trilobites, dinosaurs, woolly mammoths — evolved and went extinct. But the debris from that 466-million-year-old breakup continued to fall. And fall. And fall. Even now, they make up the largest group of meteorites that land on Earth.

"A 466-Million-Year-Old Space Collision Is Still Raining Shrapnel on Earth" is from the January 23, 2017 Speaking of Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Emmanuel Macron, France's liberal former economy minister and a leading candidate for president, has a message for U.S. climate researchers who are worried about the fate of their research under President Trump: “Please, come to France, you are welcome."

"French Presidential Candidate to U.S. Scientists Afraid of Trump: ‘Come to France’" is from the February 10, 2017 Health & Science section of The Washington Post. It was written by Sarah Kaplan and narrated by Jill Melancon.

He's a doctoral student who is gay. In his homeland of Iran, his sexuality could get him jailed or even killed.

Is Pluto a planet?

It's not a question scientists ask in polite company.