Researchers say they have created metal hydrogen, but critics are skeptical
By Aphra Murray, Staff Writer On January 26 2017, in the midst of an array of news about the presidency, Science featured an article that claimed scientists had finally achieved the goal of turning hydrogen into a metal. Researchers from Harvard University claim that under a pressure 4.9 million times that of atmospheric pressure, they observed a shiny quality to hydrogen: one of the defining features of a metal. This, they say, is...
Pickled dinosaur: First fossilized dinosaur brain discovered
By Aphra Murray, Staff Writer Dinosaur smarts were a mystery — until now. Researchers in the United Kingdom claim to have found the first fossilized dinosaur brain, leading to more concrete information about the external “plumbing” of the brain. Believed to be about 133 million years old, the fist-sized brain was discovered in a tidal pool in southern England. The brain would have been buried in sediment at the time when the...
The quick rundown on the record breaking supermoon
By Aphra Murray, Staff Writer November 14 was a pretty big day. On this night, the moon was the biggest it has been in almost 70 years, January 1948, and it will not be this big again until the year 2024. On the eve of November 14, this “supermoon” was around 30 percent bigger and 14 percent brighter than the average full moon. So how does a supermoon form? The moon has an elliptical orbit which means that are at one side,...
Atmosfear: Is climate change really that scary?
By Aphra Murray, Staff Writer Climate change is scary, and here’s the chilling scenes of yet another once in every 500-year weather event that has killed people. This is the usual headline that is running across most news outlets in the US in response to recent environmental events. As recent as the past week, two UK scientists have announced that climate change isn’t as scary as people might think, and that the media only succeeds in...
Emily Graslie: “I don’t do sexy science”
By Aphra Murray, Staff Writer In the fall of 2014, Youtube science blogger of The Brain Scoop and the Chicago Field Museum’s first ever Chief Curiosity Correspondent came to visit Gettysburg College about her role as a science educator and public figure within the science community. As a young woman, Emily Graslie has proven to be an inspiration and role model, in particular to women in STEM, starting with the fact that her title at...
