Science

JACKSON, WY - AUGUST 20: Traffic clogs the main road on August 20, 2017 in Jackson, Wyoming. People are flocking to the Jackson and Teton National Park area for the 2017 solar eclipse which will be one of the areas that will experience a 100% eclipse on Monday August 21, 2017. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

The eclipse will make skies dark, not fall. So why are people planning for disaster?

Many first responders and emergency managers say preparing for the coming solar eclipse is unlike any challenge they’ve faced.

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Voyager 2 mission director Dick Laeser looks at a mock-up of the Voyager spacecraft during a news briefing on Aug. 26, 1981, at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif.

NASA and PBS celebrate 40 years since launch of Voyager spacecraft

The anniversary is being marked by NASA with tweets, reminisces and photos taken by the craft, while PBS is showing a documentary.

1 day ago

Tips for safe driving during the solar eclipse

Traffic officials advise not traveling during the eclipse, but they have suggestions for those who must drive during that time on Monday.

1 day ago

Colton Hammer tries out his new eclipse glasses he just bought from the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City in preparation for the eclipse.

Eclipse-glasses-Pittsburgh-other-viewing-options-parties-streaming

Your options on Monday include going to an event that offers safe viewing of the solar eclipse, watching online or viewing it indirectly.

2 days ago

David Turnshek, left, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, and long-time friend Ed Potosky at the Allegheny Observatory in Observatory Hill on the North Side. The men, who as teenagers traveled together to Virginia Beach, Va., to view the total solar eclipse in 1970, will travel to Tennessee to study and document Monday's total solar eclipse.

Together again, almost 50 years later, for the eclipse

Pitt astronomy professor and a childhood friend got their dads to drive them from Irwin to Virginia Beach for a transforming 1970 eclipse.

2 days ago

This NOAA-NASA Goes project satellite image taken Tuesday shows Hurricane Gert in the Atlantic off the U.S. eastern coast. Hurricane Gert is heading into the open Atlantic but is still dangerous enough to generate life threatening coastal conditions.

Tropical Storm Harvey forms amid warm Atlantic waters

The storm comes ahead of what could be the busiest phase of the Atlantic hurricane season later this month.

3 days ago

In this Wednesday photo, Colton Hammer tries out the new eclipse glasses he just bought from the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City in preparation for the eclipse.

An eclipse is just the opportunity for experiments that the American power sector’s been waiting for

The solar eclipse is set to plunge parts of the U.S. into darkness Monday — and provide a completely predictable stage for experiments.

3 days ago

South Fayette will delay the start of its school year after it concluded that it would be impossible to prevents students from looking at the sun during dismissal.

South Fayette district delays first day of school due to solar eclipse

The first day of school for the disrict’s students will be Tuesday instead of Monday.

3 days ago

Will cloud cover obscure Monday's solar eclipse in Pittsburgh and beyond?

Weather could ruin Monday’s eclipse if random clouds obscure the astronomic phenomenon, but the forecast is good — so far — for clear skies.

3 days ago

Mallory Vopal, living collection manager at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, holds Patrick the alligator during the Live Animal Encounters on Wednesday.

Is that a gator in your hand, ma'am? Rescued animals star in Carnegie Museum's new program

Carnegie Museum of Natural History is building a collection of living rescued animals and brings them out for daily Live Animal Encounters.

3 days ago

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson presents a lecture March 21 at the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend, Ind. Mr. Tyson has a suggestion for anyone with a view of next week's solar eclipse: Put down your smartphone and experience the phenomenon in the moment.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s solar eclipse tip: Don’t video it, experience it

“Experience this one emotionally, psychologically, physically,” the prominent astrophysicist told an audience in New York.

4 days ago

Countdown to the eclipse: Your complete coverage

In Pittsburgh, the passing moon will be positioned to block up to 81 percent of the sun, but along the "path of totality."

1 day ago

The downtown business district of Makanda, Ill., that is marketing itself as the "Solar Eclipse Crossroads of America" as seen on July 19.

Why is the eclipse longer in some places than in others?

The Illinois village of Makanda is about to experience nearly three minutes of fame.

6 days ago

This photo shows a "diamond ring" shape during the 2016 total solar eclipse in Indonesia. For the 2017 eclipse over the United States, solar astrophysicist Henry “Trae” Winter, who works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., decided to build an app to help blind people experience this summer’s eclipse.

Helping blind people ‘see’ the solar eclipse

It sounds like the beginning of a riddle. How can someone who’s blind “see” the upcoming eclipse on Aug. 21?

1 week ago

This painting was created for upcoming Painting with a Twist classes around Pittsburgh by I Leah Keilman of the Robinson Painting with a Twist. Attendees of the Pittsburgh Eclipse classes will get step-by-step instruction in recreating it.

Even the partial eclipse can be totally fun at Pittsburgh-area events

Science Center, Children’s Museum, libraries and other places are hosting viewing parties and other fun tied to the Aug. 21 solar eclipse.

1 week ago

Traffic from Route 51 inbound approaches West Liberty Avenue and the entrance to the Liberty Tunnel in June. Route 51 is one of the corridors that will be home to an "adaptive" traffic signal system, part of a planned $30 million program to improve traffic flow in Pittsburgh. The exact locations of the smart signals is not yet known.

Pittsburgh, PennDOT planning $30 million smart-signal system to improve traffic flow

Pittsburgh will use signals that change based on traffic at 126 neighborhood intersections and build a traffic management center Downtown.

1 week ago

NASA's projection of the August 21 solar eclipse.

When the sun goes dark: 5 questions answered about the solar eclipse

In an area affected by an eclipse, the darkening of the sun leads to a sudden drop in temperature.

1 week ago

Meteorologist April Hiscox and students practice for the big day with a weather balloon.

Scientist at work: Why this meteorologist is eager for an eclipse

Meteorology all goes back to the sun: Is a brief period without solar radiation enough to cause detectable changes in turbulence and

1 week ago

Ben Franklin's lifelong quest was spreading scientific knowledge to regular people.

Eclipsing the occult in early America: Benjamin Franklin and his almanacs

By the time he was 20 years old, colonial American Benjamin Franklin had already spent two years working as a printer in London. He

1 week ago

A solar eclipse observed over Grand Canyon National Park in May 2012.

Solar eclipses were regarded as omens in the ancient world

More than 2,000 years ago, the Babylonians calculate that there were 38 possible eclipses within a period of about 18 years

1 week ago

A woman touches fresh eggs at a chicken farm in Gaesti, southern Romania, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017.

Fear spreads over tainted eggs despite low risk to consumers

Dutch farmers have destroyed millions of unsellable eggs and culled about 1 million hens, but nobody has been reported to have fallen ill

1 week ago

In an undated handout photo, a Maiopatagium fossil — one of two newly discovered species of gliding mammals from China that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs.

When dinosaurs ruled the Earth, mammals took to the skies

To paleontologists, early mammals were just tiny nocturnal insect-eaters. In recent years, scientists have significantly revised the story.

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In an undated handout photo, piglets whose genes were edited to remove a retrovirus.

Gene editing spurs hope for transplanting pig organs into humans

Researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might cause disease in humans.

1 week ago

In this July 21, 2016, file photo, the sun sets beyond visitors to Liberty Memorial as the temperature hovers around 100 degrees in Kansas City, Mo.

American weather agency said 2016’s weather was far more extreme or record breaking than anything approaching normal

The NOAA highlighted numerous records including hottest year, highest sea level, and lowest sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctica.

1 week ago

Alesi, the skull of the extinct ape species Nyanzapithecus alesi.

Discovery of 13 million-year-old ape skull shows what human ancestors may have looked like

They told anthropology professor Isaiah Nengo, “There was nothing useful to be found” there.

1 week ago

An artist's rendering of a Lemmysuchus, a sea-dwelling crocodile.

Meet the brutally violent prehistoric crocodile named for Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister

Much like Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, this crocodile “ain’t no nice guy.”

1 week ago

Leslie Trotter Oldfield posted this photo on Facebook last week of her and her daughter Ellie's wrists with their matching moon tattoos.

This Western Pennsylvania family will always remember the 2017 eclipse -- with moon tattoos

Hempfield librarian, her sister and niece get crescent moon tats for the big day Aug. 21; two more relatives will get theirs on the trip.

1 week ago

The downtown business district of Makanda, Ill., that is marketing itself as the "Solar Eclipse Crossroads of America" as seen July 19.

Total solar eclipse could create once-in-a-lifetime road hazards across America

The moon will block out the sun, and day will plunge into night. And some drivers will stop in the middle of the road to take a selfie.

1 week ago

In this 2015 file photo, a patient has her blood drawn for a liquid biopsy during an appointment at a hospital in Philadelphia.

Scientists have first major evidence that blood tests called liquid biopsies hold promise for cancer screening

Hong Kong doctors tried it for a type of head and neck cancer, and boosted early detection and one measure of survival.

1 week ago

This near-infrared, color view from Cassini shows the sun glinting off Titan's north polar seas.

Titan, a weird Saturn moon, has some essential ingredients for life

Researchers have detected a compound that can form a membrane like the kind that envelops cells, and long chains of carbon atoms.

1 week ago

School children wearing protective glasses pose for photographers outside The Royal Observatory during a partial solar eclipse in Greenwich, south east London March 20, 2015.

For the coming eclipse, cover your eyes!

Scientific groups warn that you can’t look at the Aug. 21 celestial event without properly rated glasses or other viewers, so get them now.

1 week ago

FILE - In this June 1 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks about the U.S. role in the Paris climate change accord in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington.

New federal report finding strong link between climate change, human activity, awaits Trump approval

Its conclusions about the far-reaching damage already occurring from global warming are at odds with the administration’s views.

1 week ago

In this May 20, 2012, file photo, the annular solar eclipse is seen as the sun sets behind the Rocky Mountains from downtown Denver.

Do eclipses drive animals wild? Here's how you can help scientists find out.

“So, we look down and . . . llamas. Llamas all over the place.”

1 week ago

Nine-year-old Jack Davis applied for the planetary protection officer job at NASA — and NASA responded.

‘My sister says I am an alien’ — a 9-year-old applies to be NASA’s planetary protection officer

Jack Davis’ final assertion is perhaps the most persuasive: “I am young, so I can learn to think like an alien,” he wrote.

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In this July 31 photo provided by Oregon Health & Science University, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, left, talks with research assistant Hayley Darby in the Mitalipov Lab at OHSU in Portland, Ore. Mr. Mitalipov led a research team that, for the first time, used gene editing to repair a disease-causing mutation in human embryos, laboratory experiments that might one day help prevent inherited diseases from being passed to future generations.

Gene editing for ‘designer babies’? Highly unlikely, scientists say.

Now that science is a big step closer to being able to fiddle with the genes of a human embryo, is it time to panic?

2 weeks ago

People who talk to themselves may have something to tell the rest of us

Talking to oneself may offer clues to how the human mind works.

2 weeks ago

Appalachian crayfish (Cambarus guenteri)

Carnegie researcher discovers three more species of Appalachian crayfish

James Fetzner Jr. is part of a team that added three crayfish species to a list of more than 420 species in North America.

2 weeks ago

Al Gore in Greenland as seen in "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power."

Al Gore returns to the subject of climate change in ‘An Inconvenient Sequel’

The former vice president offers signs of hope and also some dire warnings in the sequel to “An Inconvenient Truth.”

2 weeks ago

This illustration by Marianne Collins/Royal Ontario Museum shows a Capinatator praetermissus.

New fossils help scientists discover a prehistoric sea worm with 50 spines on its faceless head

Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a bizarre creature with a Venus flytrap-like head swam the seas.

2 weeks ago

Scientists ID tiny prehistoric sea worm with 50 head spines

WASHINGTON — Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a bizarre creature with a Venus flytrap-like head swam the seas.

2 weeks ago

Carniolan honey bees climb on the frame of a hive owned by Bureau County Honey Co. near Hennepin, Illinois, on July 3, 2014. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Daniel Acker.

Good news for bees as numbers rise and mystery malady wanes

The number of commercial U.S. honeybee colonies rose 3 percent to 2.89 million as of April 1, 2017, compared with a year earlier.

2 weeks ago

Vice President Mike Pence, center, is flanked by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, left, and Patrick Forrester, NASA chief astronaut, as they walk out of crew headquarters at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on July 6.

NASA is hiring a ‘planetary protection officer’ to guard us against alien life — and vice versa

It pays well, and you get to work with really smart people as part of the three- to five-year appointment but don’t have to manage anyone.

2 weeks ago

These newly fertilized eggs are about to undergo gene editing. In a major milestone sure to renew ethical concerns, scientists have successfully edited genes in human embryos to repair a common and serious disease-causing mutation, producing apparently healthy embryos, according to a study published in Wednesday in Nature.

In breakthrough, first embryo gene-repair targeting mutation that causes heart condition holds promise for inherited disease

A research team led by Oregon Health & Science reported that embryos can help fix themselves if scientists jump-start the process early.

2 weeks ago

Marc Malandro is the founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute. He is joining Palo Alto, Calif.-based CZI Science.

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