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Experimentation is fundamental to the scientific process and is at the heart of being human and questioning the world around us.
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors The first star map and practiced alchemy, the precursor to chemistry.
Even Sir Isaac Newton, the father of physics, was an avid alchemist. Create the legendary Philosopher’s StoneThis stone was believed to transform any metal into silver or gold.
Chemists in the 1700s tried to dismiss alchemy as a pseudoscience, but the ancient alchemists actually Developed technologies and discovered chemical elements It is still widely used today.
Now, new discoveries have revealed the link between astronomy and alchemy in one intriguing Renaissance figure.
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe changed people’s understanding of celestial objects in the 1500s by discovering supernovae and suggesting that the Moon orbits the Earth — all before telescopes existed.
But in the basements of the castle where his observatory was located, Uraniborg, the astronomer secretly conducted his alchemical research for an elite royal clientele. Little is known about Brahe’s work, other than that he focused on developing medicinal formulas rather than gold.
New analysis of glass fragments from a destroyed alchemy lab reveals Ingredients used by Brahe in his mysterious concoctionTungsten is one of them, but it was not officially described until more than 180 years after his death.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have spent more than 50 days aboard the International Space Station after piloting the first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, and there is still no set date for the astronauts to return to Earth.
But NASA and Boeing are now The “root cause” of the spacecraft’s problems Problems arose during the journey, including helium leaks and thruster issues.
Mark Nappi, Boeing’s commercial crew program manager, said engineers have been conducting ground tests for weeks to replicate the anomaly, and additional testing this weekend should provide a full picture of the problem.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has been approved to continue launching using its Falcon 9 rocket, which recently experienced a mission-ending failure during a routine flight. Once the Starliner mission ends, SpaceX will transport four astronauts for NASA’s Crew 9 mission to the space station.
Marine scientists have discovered a rare type of oxygen that is produced without photosynthesis more than 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, which could help shed light on the origins of life.
When Professor Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Institute for Marine Science first spotted this unexpected phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean 10 years ago, he thought it was a malfunction of his sensor equipment: light doesn’t penetrate deep into the ocean, and organisms on the seafloor aren’t known to produce oxygen.
But the new research by Sweetman and his team shows that “dark” oxygen It is made up of potato-sized metal nodules that act like “geobatteries” in the deep sea ecosystem.
Shocking moment captured on camera by endangered shark The ship collided with a marine animalThis may be some of the first footage to show how ship collisions are a common occurrence for ocean residents.
Researchers don’t know if the seven-metre-long basking shark, which lives in the waters around the Blasket Islands off the coast of Ireland, survived the collision, but it clearly left large scars and paint streaks on the shark’s spotted skin.
The footage aims to shed more light on the feeding habits of the basking shark, which feeds at the ocean’s surface with its mouth wide open, as scientists try to better understand this species, one of the world’s largest fish.
Instead, the video highlights why basking sharks and other endangered marine creatures need protection.
Separately, Cocaine found in sharks The drug lives off the coast of Brazil and is the first time it has been found in wild sharks.
The Perseverance rover has found something that suggests Mars may have been home to microbial life long ago.
The robotic probe is investigating a rock formation nicknamed Cheyaba Falls. Analyzing Leopard Spot Rock They found chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by life billions of years ago, when water was present on Mars.
“These spots are a big surprise,” said David Flannery, an astrobiologist on the Perseverance science team. “On Earth, these kinds of features in rocks are often associated with the fossil record of microorganisms living below the surface.”
These new findings may surprise you:
The Komodo dragon is the world’s largest lizard. The iron teeth have serrated edges stained orange. New research suggests that it helps these fearsome predators tear their prey apart.
— The Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates its 25th anniversary in space. 25 Shining Images of Space You’ve Never Seen Before However, budget cuts at NASA could mean the mission ends sooner than planned.
— Humans aren’t the only ones who can blush. Researchers working on a farm in France have observed domestic chickens blushing to express fear or excitement. Here’s a picture of a pink chicken to prove it.
Have you read it and liked it? Ah, but there’s more to come. Register here Get the next issue of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN’s space science reporter, by email Ashley Strickland and Katie HuntThey marvel at the discoveries of planets and ancient worlds outside our solar system.
