What killed the dinosaurs?; frogs’ remarkable tongues; can hydrogen be turned into a metal?; even smarter phones; CO2 and the flow of a major ocean current; interstellar slowdown – just a few of the themes in today’s eclectic collection of SciNews. Share these stories with your students and get them excited about science.
SciNews is published twice weekly. Stay tuned for more.
Biology
What killed the dinosaurs? Science News for Students
Below the turquoise waters of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula lies the site of a long ago mass murder. In a geologic instant, most of the world’s animal and plant species went extinct. Drilling through hundreds of meters of rock, investigators have finally reached the “footprint” left by the accused. That footprint marks Earth’s most notorious space rock impact. Read more…
What gives frog tongues the gift of grab. Science News
Frogs’ remarkable power to tongue-grab prey — some as big as mice or as oddly shaped as tarantulas — stems from a combo of peculiar saliva and a supersquishy tongue. Read more…
Chemistry
Scientists claim to have turned hydrogen into a metal. Science News for Students
Scientists may have just given hydrogen a squeeze strong enough to turn it into a metal. The important point here is that they “may” have. In fact, some critics strongly dispute the new claim. Read more…
Physics
Watch: Phones of the future could detect your gestures without touch, thanks to two-way LEDs. Science Mag
Your phone screen may soon be able to detect the shadow of your hand, responding to touchless gestures. Read more…
Earth and Space Science
Climate change could stall Atlantic ocean current. Science News for Students
Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide — or CO2 — in the atmosphere tend to boost temperatures at Earth’s surface. But CO2 increases could eventually shut down the flow of a major ocean current, a new climate study concludes. Read more…
Space travel visionaries solve the problem of interstellar slowdown at our stellar neighbor. Science Daily
In April last year, billionaire Yuri Milner announced the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. He plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the development of an ultra-light light sail that can be accelerated to 20 percent of the speed of light to reach the Alpha Centauri star system within 20 years. The problem of how to slow down this projectile once it reaches its target remains a challenge. Now researchers propose to use the radiation and gravity of the Alpha Centauri stars to decelerate the craft. It could then even be rerouted to the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and its Earth-like planet Proxima b. Read more…