ScienceIQ.com

Why Do Leaves Change Color In The Fall?

Every fall the leaves of many trees turn magnificent colors. One of the great benefits of the season is looking at the fall foliage, with its bright reds, oranges and purples, before the leaves fall off for winter. How exactly do the vibrant green leaves turn so many different colors, and why? ...

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WhyDoLeavesChangeColorInTheFall
Astronomy

The Big Bang Model

The Big Bang Model is a broadly accepted theory for the origin and evolution of our universe. It postulates that 12 to 14 billion years ago, the portion of the universe we can see today was only a few ... Continue reading

TheBigBangModel
Medicine

Malaria and Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder in which the red blood cells collapse into a 'sickle' shape and cannot carry oxygen very well. They also tend to get stuck in narrow blood vessels, causing ... Continue reading

MalariaSickleCell
Biology

Water, Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink

That line, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, captures a truism -- we cannot drink salt water to quench our thirst. But why not? The answer lies in understanding the ... Continue reading

WaterWater
Medicine

Smallpox, Chickenpox . . . Monkeypox?

This past summer a few people in the midwest came down with monkeypox, a viral disease related to smallpox but less infectious and a lot less deadly to humans. Oddly they all seem to have caught the ... Continue reading

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Lunar Explorations

LunarExplorationsEver since the beginning of intelligent life on Earth, the moon has been a focal point of human curiosity. Galileo’s discovery in 1610 that the moon had craters, valleys and mountains, instead of the smooth surface previously believed, only added to a burning desire to learn more.

So when exactly did our up-close-and-personal explorations begin? It was in 1959 that the Russians started sending their Luna probes to the moon. The first man-made object to land (actually, crash) on the moon was Luna-2. That same year Luna-3 sent the first images of the far side of the moon – the side hidden from the Earth for more than 4.5 billion years. The USA caught up with the Russians in 1969 when the first manned mission, Apollo 11, landed on July 20. 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,' Neil Armstrong proclaimed as he stepped onto the lunar surface. (He was supposed to say 'one small step for a man,' but he misspoke under the pressure of that historical moment.) Since that day, five more manned Apollo missions have landed on the moon. The last one, Apollo 17, left the moon on December 14, 1972, and no humans have returned since. All together only ten humans, none of them women, have walked on the surface of the moon.