Tag: science

• Mars has a weird long daily cloud (October 20, 2026)

  I have to admit I’m brought up a little short by things presupposed by this article by the European Space Agency about AMEC, a cloud in the Martian atmosphere that forms daily (by Martian reckoning) over a certain mountain, then stretches over 1,000 miles before dissipating until the next sunrise. First of all: Mars has clouds? By which I mean: Mars has water, or anyway water vapor in its atmosphere? I guess it does?? OK!

• Climate-hastened archaeology (October 7, 2026)

  Raymond Zhong of the New York Times reports that as Alpine ice vanishes faster than any other place on the planet, hurried away by climate change, at least it’s revealing a trove of fascinating, millenia-old human artifacts, including fragments of skis and snowshoes.

• The toy-making raccoons of Cozumel (September 25, 2026)

  On a Mexican resort island, scientists observe raccoons creating toys from trash and teaching other raccoons how to do it, a first for this species.