A Year on the Sun — May 4, 2013

A Year on the Sun

The picture above is a composite of 25 images recorded in extreme ultraviolet light by the Solar Dynamics Observatory over the course of the past year.

bigthinkeditor

The picture above is a composite of 25 images recorded in extreme ultraviolet light by the Solar Dynamics Observatory over the course of the past year.

Image Credit: NASA, Solar Dynamics Observatory

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: What are white holes, and do they really exist?

In General Relativity, white holes are just as mathematically plausible as black holes. Black holes are real; what about white holes?

Life

Strange life forms create an “alien” ecosystem in an abandoned uranium mine

Slimy biofilms made up of bacterial and eukaryotic life forms have taken over an abandoned, flooded uranium mine in Germany.

Hard Science

Earth has an eerie “sodium glow,” and astronomers use it to image stars

Air currents in our atmosphere limit the resolving power of giant telescopes, but computers and artificial stars can sharpen the blur.

Health

How saliva changes the flavor of food

“It’s a liquid, but it’s not just a liquid.”

High Culture

Why are flood myths so common in stories from ancient cultures around the world?

Could the prevalence of flood myths around the world tell us something about early human migration or even the way our brains work?

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Personal Growth

Minutes After Meditating, Your Genetic Profile Improves

Just minutes after meditating, participants in a recent experiment showed beneficial changes to their genetic profile with helpful genes becoming more active and harmful ones becoming less so.