In The News: College of Sciences

MarketScale

The harshest arctic winters have got nothing on the chill from deep space. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to provide gifts for scientists and space enthusiasts with its latest discovery: ice found within the deepest reaches of an interstellar molecular cloud. As reported in the journal Nature Astronomy, the JWST measured the frozen molecules at minus 440 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 263 degrees Celsius).

USA Today

A Jan. 22 Instagram post shows a person holding a shiny rock that appears to produce electricity and illuminate a small light connected to it by wires. "Electrically charged stones discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo," reads text in the post.

PolitiFact

Experts say that while minerals within rocks can conduct electricity, rocks cannot store it or function as batteries on their own.

KTNV-TV: ABC 13

A minuscule bit of material in you car's exhaust system is attracting thieves, causing big headaches and costing victims thousands in repair bills.

Associated Press

As proof, social media users shared a video showing several people inspecting a small, shiny rock. One of the individuals connects two ends of what appears to be a wire to the rock, which activates a light on the wire. “Electrically charged stones discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” one Twitter user who shared the video wrote Saturday. The tweet was shared over 27,000 times.

Cast Cast Las Vegas

Prompted by video last week of a coyote pack trotting merrily along a Henderson street — to say nothing of mountain lion sightings in edge-of-town neighborhoods — we talked to an expert in the human-wildlife interface.

Science News

Our modern lives depend on rare earth elements, and someday soon we may not have enough to meet growing demand. Because of their special properties, these 17 metallic elements are crucial ingredients in computer screens, cell phones and other electronics, compact fluorescent lamps, medical imaging machines, lasers, fiber optics, pigments, polishing powders, industrial catalysts – the list goes on and on. Notably rare earths are an essential part of the high-powered magnets and rechargeable batteries in the electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies needed to get the world to a low- or zero-carbon future.

KNPR News

NASA’s long in-development ARTEMIS lunar space missions completed its first phase last month. The idea is to land someone on the moon in two years. Then from there, head to Mars. And the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is helping out.

KNPR News

NASA’s long in-development ARTEMIS lunar space missions completed its first phase last month. The idea is to land someone on the moon in two years. Then from there, head to Mars. And the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is helping out.

Newsweek

Spread between Nevada and Arizona—Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the U.S.—is best known for its rapidly declining water levels due to the ongoing megadrought gripping the western states. The lake is integral to surrounding communities, as it is also formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River—which generates electricity for thousands of people. If the water levels continue to decline, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Las Vegas Review Journal

The team of UNLV microbiologists set up their equipment in the end of a pipe connected to a natural spring, hoping to filter some of the smallest known living things out of the nearly 4,000-year-old water.

CNN

Scientists have identified two minerals never before seen on Earth in a meteorite weighing 15.2 metric tons (33,510 pounds). The minerals came from a 70-gram (nearly 2.5-ounce) slice of the meteorite, which was discovered in Somalia in 2020 and is the ninth-largest meteorite ever found, according to a news release from the University of Alberta.