April 2022

How Do Fireflies Glow?
Columns Quirky Queries

How Do Fireflies Glow?

Sarah McNamara

The Lampyridae family, more commonly referred to as fireflies and lightning bugs, are neither true bugs nor flies… but within these colloquial names, it sure is apparent where the “lightning” and “fire” came from! But how do fireflies produce light in the first place?

Firefly. Photo by @yb_woodstock on Flickr, cc-by-sa-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Fireflies are winged beetles, and there are over 2000 species distributed across the temperate and tropical areas of the world; in fact, especially when considering that not all species glow, it is likely that there are multiple species within your own backyard alone! An abundance of fireflies in Delaware County (Catskills), NY. Photo by @s58y on Flickr, CC by 2.0, via Flickr.  Fireflies are bioluminescent, meaning they produce and emit light through chemical reactions in their bodies. Light is produced in a firefly’s abdomen — the “light organ” — when oxygen, calcium,...
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Marking the Passage of Time: Spring 2022 Stargazing
Columns Stargazing

Marking the Passage of Time: Spring 2022 Stargazing

Karen Masters

While it may feel like we’re stuck in a repeating loop of Spring 2020, watching the night skies can remind us that the seasons do actually keep passing by. Here is your stargazing guide for Spring 2022.

While it may feel like we’re stuck in a repeating loop of Spring 2020, watching the night skies can remind us that the seasons do actually keep passing by. Indeed many cultures throughout history have used the night skies to mark the passing of time. In my home country of England, ancient peoples built Stonehenge, probably to track the motion of the Sun (the brightest star in the sky!) and mark the year. In New Zealand, the Maori used the first sighting of Matariki (also known as the Pleiades) to set the start of the new year. The hottest part...
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What Actually Happens When You Black Out From Drinking?
Columns Quirky Queries

What Actually Happens When You Black Out From Drinking?

Simon Thill

What exactly happens in your brain if you black out from drinking? Why does this happen, and how dangerous is it?

Quirky Queries answers your random science questions. If you have a query, let us know! — To be honest, this was a very fun, and also very alarming question to research and write about. A lot of what I learned, especially about the human brain, was surprising, but I was shocked to learn just how potent alcohol is — it can completely shut down entire regions of your brain.  There are many different types of memories, including long-term, short-term, and muscle memory. These are all stored in different, interconnected regions of your brain. Interestingly, binge drinking does not prevent you from creating...
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The Extraordinary and Disastrous Eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Volcano
News

The Extraordinary and Disastrous Eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Volcano

Ashley Schefler

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Volcano in January 2022 was the largest our planet has seen in decades, wreaking destruction on the island nation of Tonga in which the volcano resides. Studies of this volcano can help us understand the causes and effects of such massive eruptions, and may even give insight into the geological processes that have shaped the landscape of Mars.

Media from NASA Earth Observatory On January 15, 2022, the largest volcanic eruption in decades devastated the island nation of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean. The blast released a massive amount of energy, equivalent to between 4 and 18 megatons of TNT, which is hundreds of times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The explosion created a low-frequency pressure wave that circled the Earth, causing the entire atmosphere to oscillate. Ash has coated the islands, causing a serious shortage of clean drinking water, and a tsunami caused by the eruption wrought widespread damage. The effect on...
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Don’t Look Up: A Scientific Review
Science in Society

Don’t Look Up: A Scientific Review

Kate Braverman

How realistic is Don’t Look Up? What does it tell us about NASA, the importance of peer review, and asteroid-fighting technology in the real world? (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)

Don’t Look Up, a film released on Netflix in December 2021, provided a metaphorized take on the relationship between the scientific community, the political sphere, and the public in regard to climate change. In a fictionalized United States, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), an astronomer at Michigan State University, and his PhD student, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), try to warn the public about a comet, first discovered by Dibiasky, scheduled to collide with the Earth in six months. Encountering the ineffectual POTUS Orlean (Meryl Streep) anda CEO tech billionaire, Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), only concerned with making a profit, Mindy...
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