Extinction, gender gap in science fame, Musk’s solar batteries, and asteroid water. This eclectic collection of current science news stories is brought to you by STAOBlog.
SciNews is published every Monday and Thursday. Stay tuned for more.
Biology
Canadian museum urged to address gender gap in science hall of fame. Globe and Mail
Nearly 100 faculty members at the University of British Columbia and other universities across the country are pressing the head of the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa to take swifter action in addressing the lack of female nominees to the hall of fame it hosts.
The issue was first reported in The Globe and Mail last month after Judy Illes and Catherine Anderson, both UBC faculty members, resigned from the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame’s selection committee because no women had been nominated for the second year running and the museum had declined to reopen nominations. Read More…
Chemistry
What Is the Heaviest Noble Gas? About Chemistry
Question: Which noble gas is the heaviest or most dense?
Answer: Usually, the heaviest noble gas is considered to be radon, but some sources cite xenon or element 118 as the answer. Read More…
Tesla’s Elon Musk Unveils Solar Batteries for Homes and Small Businesses. Scientific American
From a man who made his name and charted his career with lofty goals and often unexpected financial decisions, the news came with little surprise: Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., unveiled a product line of electric batteries late last night in Los Angeles. Read More…
Canadian research advocates criticize ‘big science’ budget. Globe and Mail
An election year budget that focuses on investments in research infrastructure and partnerships with industry but flatlines funding for basic science is being lamented as a lost opportunity by Canadian research advocates. At issue is the funding for the three federal granting councils that distribute money for academic work in the natural, health and social sciences. Read More…
Physics
Fabian Oefner: Painting With Physics. World Science Festival
The works of Fabian Oefner are a perfect illustration of Vladimir Nabokov’s assertion that “there is no science without fancy and no art without facts.” Oefner’s multimedia art often uses paint, photography, and other tools in the artist’s toolkit, but he often puts aside brushes and palette knives in favor of a different set of tools: the forces of physics. Read More…
Lens turns smartphone into a microscope: Costs only 3 cents. Science Daily
Researchers have created an optical lens that can be placed on an inexpensive smartphone to magnify images by a magnitude of 120, all for just 3 cents a lens. Read More…
Earth and Space Science
Fresh evidence for how water reached Earth found in asteroid debris. Science Daily
New research strongly suggests that water delivery via asteroids or comets is likely taking place in many other planetary systems, just as it happened on Earth. The quantity of water on Earth is not unique. Read More…
7 Remarkable Lessons from Messenger’s Mission to Mercury. Discover
Through most of its life, NASA’s scrappy Messenger probe was something of a unsung hero. The first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury didn’t have the you-are-there immediacy of a Mars rover, the daredevil appeal of landing on a comet, or the romance of visiting a beautiful ringed planet. But with today’s death–the result of a long-anticipated crash into the planet it studied–we can clearly see what an incredibly successful explorer Messenger was. Read More…