At the height of a thunderstorm, the tips of cell towers, telephone poles, and other tall, electrically conductive structures can spontaneously emit a flash of blue light. This electric glow, known as a corona discharge, ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 11, 2020
0
68
The largest-ever flying animal acted like a giant heron, plucking prey from the water and launching itself into the air.
Paleontology & Fossils
Dec 23, 2021
1
2089
Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but new research suggests it ...
Evolution
Feb 24, 2023
2
1140
Look around any wetland today and you're likely to see 3-foot-tall egrets or 4-foot-tall herons wading in the shallows in stealthy search of fish, insects or crustaceans.
Paleontology & Fossils
Dec 8, 2021
8
7222
(Phys.org) —Scientists have used selective breeding to create purple wings on the normally brown-winged butterfly Bicyclus anynana. Antonia Monteiro and her colleagues selected butterflies with wing scales that reflected ...
Spacewalking astronauts ventured out Sunday to install support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year.
Space Exploration
Feb 28, 2021
4
1579
A team of American and Chinese researchers has revealed the color and detailed feather pattern of Microraptor, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that lived about 130 million years ago. The non-avian dinosaur's fossilized ...
Archaeology
Mar 8, 2012
2
1
Tiny flying machines can be used for everything from indoor surveillance to exploring collapsed buildings, but simply making smaller versions of planes and helicopters doesn't work very well. Instead, researchers at North ...
Robotics
Jul 7, 2009
8
0
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with California Institute of Technology and the Karlsruh Institute of Technology has improved the efficiency of thin film solar cells by mimicking the architecture of rose butterfly wings. ...
(Phys.org) —Physicists William Irvine and Dustin Kleckner of the University of Chicago, have for the first time, created a knotted vortex in a fluid. They describe how they printed 3D airfoils and then accelerated them ...
