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1 week ago | 
boisestatepublicradio.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce |Geoff Brumfiel
If the U. S. does drop a powerful "bunker buster" bomb on a suspected underground nuclear weapons site in Iran, experts in radiation hazards see little risk of widespread contamination. The site in question, Iran's mysterious Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, is built into a mountainside and seems to be in the business of processing uranium isotopes. That means it would mostly be working with uranium in the form of a gas called uranium hexafluoride.
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1 month ago | 
envirolink.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce
From NPRHells Canyon is the deepest river canyon in the United States. Now scientists have solved the mystery of when it formed. (Image credit: Matthew Morriss)
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1 month ago | 
mprnews.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce
Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge in the United States, likely got rapidly carved 2.1 million years ago when a shifting landscape in Idaho caused a giant lake to start overflowing. That's according to a new study that looked at ancient river sediments that have long been hidden away inside the canyon's caves, which now lie high above today's Snake River.
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1 month ago | 
wgbh.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce
May 20, 2025 On an island in Panama, a fad that one researcher called “viscerally disturbing” has recently taken off among a group of young male monkeys. These adolescents and juveniles have started to kidnap the infants of another monkey species, seemingly just for kicks. That’s what scientists think after watching a bunch of male white-faced capuchin monkeys walking around with baby howler monkeys clinging to their backs.
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1 month ago | 
envirolink.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce
From NPRHuman eyes have only seen a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the areas of the world that are covered by deep water. Scientists want to change how they explore these regions. (Image credit: NOAA)
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1 month ago | 
kuow.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce
An unidentified cnidarian that resembles a Venus flytrap from the family Hormathiidae, sits at 1874 meters water depth. A new study finds that the vast majority of the deep sea floor remains undocumented. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute Bizarre creatures like vampire squid and blobfish make their home in the dark, cold, depths of the deep sea, but most of this watery realm remains a complete mystery.
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1 month ago | 
npr.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce |Regina G. Barber |Kimberly McCoy |Rebecca Ramirez
Why astronomers are unconvinced K2-18b is home to alien life : Short Wave Recently, a group of scientists claimed they found possible signs of life on a planet called K2-18b. The news made headlines. Researchers said they'd detected sulphur-based gases that, on Earth, are strongly associated with life. But the research caused an uproar in astronomy circles because other scientists don't think the data is strong enough to celebrate an alien find just yet.
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2 months ago | 
wfit.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce
Astronomers have been poring over last week's claim of the detection of life-associated gases in the atmosphere of a distant planet named K2-18b — "the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system," as a University of Cambridge press release put it. But already, one independent check suggests the announcement was overhyped.
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2 months ago | 
m.kuow.org | Nell Greenfieldboyce
Scientists are debating whether data from the James Webb Space Telescope is really pointing to biosignature gases in the atmosphere of planet K2-18b. NASA-GSFC Astronomers have been poring over last week's claim of the detection of life-associated gases in the atmosphere of a distant planet named K2-18b — "the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system," as a University of Cambridge press release put it.
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2 months ago | 
wrvo.org | Regina Barber |Nell Greenfieldboyce |Rachel Carlson |Rebecca Ramirez
Some scientists are convinced that beyond Neptune, there's a planet they've yet to see. This so-called "Planet 9" is so far away, it would be a faint object. The stretch of sky researchers would have to search is huge. But a new astronomical facility on a mountaintop in Chile could help tackle the search. The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has been under construction for years.
