Two people stationed at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station have arrived safely in Punta Arenas, Chile, for medical treatment. The arrival completes a nine-day, global evacuation operation that NSF coordinated to prioritize the health and safety of station and rescue personnel. “NSF is committed to supporting scientific exploration — which often […]
For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window to the cosmos. Gravitational waves carry information about their […]
Weddell seals have biological adaptations that allow them to dive deep–as much as of hundreds of meters–while hunting, but also an uncanny ability to find the breathing holes they need on the surface of the ice. Now, researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) believe they have figured out how they do it–by using […]
Scientists have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long “growth blip” among southwestern Native Americans between 500 and 1300 A.D. It was a time when the early features of civilization–including farming and food storage–had matured to a level where birth rates likely “exceeded the highest in the world […]