Story archive
Browse SciQuest reporting and explainers in reverse chronological order, with the newest evidence-led stories first.
news Chemistry Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Laboratory synthesis and measurements
Chemists isolated uranocenium, the +5 cation of uranocene, a uranium sandwich first made in 1968. Its bonds barely shrink, and the team explains why.
news Astronomy Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Single event
A 1.7-second gamma-ray flash and a 51-second burst, 4 minutes apart from one spot, test as merger and collapsar types. What GRB 160425A shows, and its limits.
news Anthropology Evidence status: Peer reviewed (accepted manuscript) · One marine sediment core
A 500,000-year Indian Ocean dust record dates ten Green Arabia wet phases and brief ice-age rains, and models about 11 times more hominins in green times.
news Astronomy Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Observational study
Keck spectra show two faint star-forming galaxies near a near-pristine gas cloud from 2 billion years after the Big Bang. The link is inferred, not proven.
news Physics Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Accepted manuscript
Delft physicists ran NMR on one titanium-47 atom with an STM tip, resolving nuclear spin lines near 50 and 85 MHz. What they measured, and what is unknown.
news Earth Evidence status: Peer reviewed (accepted manuscript); one rock section plus a regional fossil compilation; statistical association
Rocks near Beijing date the Cambrian SPICE event to about 2.2 million years and show sea-level swings ran roughly 70,000 years ahead of seafloor species losses.
explainer Astronomy
How hot is the Sun? The surface is 5,772 K (5,499 °C, 9,930 °F), the core about 15.7 million K and the corona 1 to 2 million K. See how…
explainer Physics
Count seconds from flash to thunder and divide by 3 for km (5 for miles). Why it works, a worked example, and why any thunder means go indoors.
explainer Earth
How deep is the ocean? About 3,682 m (12,080 ft, 2.3 mi) on average and 10,935 m (6.8 mi) at the Challenger Deep. Depth by ocean and why sources differ.
