Mother Nature Network Originally Posted: September 30, 2019 While plenty of birds — such as swallows, hawks and hummingbirds — migrate during the day, the majority of land birds travel at night. Although it would seem more difficult to fly when it's dark, there are good reason for the nighttime maneuvers. "Migration at night has at least three advantages," writes Herb Wilson, a professor of biology at Colby College, in Maine Birds. "Birds do not have to worry about falcon or hawk attacks. Second, the air in the atmosphere is usually less turbulent than during the day. Lastly, the air is cooler at night. A migrating bird produces a huge amount of excess heat that needs to be released. Most of the heat is lost from [...]

Science Times Originally Posted: July 3, 2019 It may be possible for Southern Methodist University (SMU) researchers to determine if icy moon of Saturn, Titan, has ever been home to life long before NASA completes an exploration visit to its surface by a drone helicopter. In late June, NASA announced that its "Dragonfly" mission would launch toward Saturn's largest moon in 2026 with an expectation to arrive in 2034. The purpose of the mission is to use a rotorcraft to visit dozens of promising locations on Titan to investigate the chemistry, atmospheric, and surface properties that could lead to life. Also in June, SMU got an award of a $195,000 grant to reproduce what is happening on Titan in a laboratory setting. The Houston-based Welch [...]