Newly discovered island is the closest land to the North Pole

Man can change his pupil size on command, once thought an impossible feat | See Hurricane Ida from 1 million miles away in this NOAA satellite view | Why did Hurricane Ida stay so strong for so long? Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( August 31, 2021 CONNECT WITH LIVESCIENCE  [Facebook]( [Twitter](  [LIVESCIENCE]( [LIVESCIENCE]( Amazing science every day [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE](  [] Top Science News [] [Man can change his pupil size on command, once thought an impossible feat]( [Man can change his pupil size on command, once thought an impossible feat]( (Shutterstock) A 23-year-old student in Germany can shrink and enlarge his pupils on demand, according to a new case report — a feat that was previously thought to be impossible. Two tiny opposing muscles in the eye act as puppeteers of each pupil (the dark center of the eye), dilating or enlarging them in a dark environment to let in more light and constricting them in a bright environment to limit the amount of light that flows in. This process was thought to be completely automatic; when you step into a dark room, you don't have to consciously tell your pupils to change size. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/31) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Natural Disasters [] [See Hurricane Ida from 1 million miles away in this NOAA satellite view]( [See Hurricane Ida from 1 million miles away in this NOAA satellite view]( (NOAA) When Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana as huge Category 4 storm on Sunday (Aug. 29), the tempest's sheer size was evident from nearly a million miles away. A new photo from NASA's Epic camera on the NOAA Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) shows Hurricane Ida as it appeared from Lagrange point 1, a a point between the sun and Earth that's about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet, just as it hit the U.S. Gulf Coast."From about 1 million miles away, NASA's EPIC camera on NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory saw Hurricane Ida as it was approaching landfall in Louisiana yesterday," NOAA officials wrote in a Twitter update Monday (Aug. 30). Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/31) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Why did Hurricane Ida stay so strong for so long?]( [Why did Hurricane Ida stay so strong for so long?]( (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Ida remained a hurricane for 16 hours after it made landfall on Sunday (Aug. 29), and was a major hurricane (defined as a storm of Category 3 or above) for six hours of that time. How did the storm have so much staying power? It basically didn't know it was over land, meteorologists say. Hurricanes draw their energy from warm ocean waters. But when they make landfall over a wet, marshy, or saturated spot, they can still power themselves with evaporating moisture. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/30) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Amazing Earth [] [Newly discovered island is the closest land to the North Pole]( [Newly discovered island is the closest land to the North Pole]( (Morten Rasch) In July, a group of scientists accidentally found themselves on a tiny island in northern Greenland made up of mounds of silt and gravel. The expeditioners thought they had traveled to the island of Oodaaq, the northernmost island in Greenland — but they were really standing on a previously unknown island that was even further north, likely making it the closest piece of land to the North Pole. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/30) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Space Exploration [] [Could a spaceship fly through a gas giant like Jupiter?]( [Could a spaceship fly through a gas giant like Jupiter?]( (MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images) NASA has plunged three spacecraft into gas giants. Two of them, Galileo and Cassini, were at the ends of their missions when they met their doom in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. But the Galileo spacecraft arrived with a passenger — a probe designed to drop into a gas giant atmosphere. NASA lost contact with the Galileo probe after about an hour, when it had reached 93 miles (150 kilometers) into Jupiter's atmosphere. Scientists aren't sure how deep the probe got before it was destroyed by Jupiter's high pressures and temperatures. But could we one day send a spacecraft deeper into a gas giant such as Jupiter or Saturn? Given that these enormous planets may not have a solid surface on which to crash, could a spacecraft fly through a gas giant? Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/31) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [SpaceX's Dragon docks at ISS in time for astronaut's birthday]( [SpaceX's Dragon docks at ISS in time for astronaut's birthday]( (NASA) SpaceX's latest Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Monday (Aug. 30) to deliver an experimental robotic arm and a wealth of other research equipment and supplies just in time for one astronaut's birthday. "Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX teams and many thanks. No one's ever sent me a spaceship for my birthday before," NASA astronaut Megan McArthur radioed Mission Control just after docking. It's her 50th birthday today."That's a most excellent birthday present," NASA's Mission Control in Houston replied. The gumdrop-shaped Dragon docked with the station's Harmony module at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) today, ending a 32-hour-orbital chase. The station and Dragon were sailing 264 miles (425 kilometers) above western Australia at the time. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/31) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Your Health [] [Intense exercise could trigger ALS in those with genetic risk]( [Intense exercise could trigger ALS in those with genetic risk]( (The Stanley Weston Archive / Getty) Exercise may trigger the onset of the deadly nerve disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a new study finds. The research showed that people who exercised vigorously, and who also carried genes tied to ALS, developed the disease at younger ages than those who were sedentary. The findings suggest that exercise could exacerbate a genetic predisposition to the devastating disease. "We are used to thinking of exercise being good. In this unusual case, intense exercise is bad for you," said study co-author Michael Snyder, chair of the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. Full Story: [LiveScience]( (8/31) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Daily Quiz [] POLL QUESTION: What is the fastest animal on land? (Learn the answer [here]() [Vote]( [Tiger]( [Vote]( [Cheetah]( [Vote]( [Hare]( [Vote]( [Pronghorn]( [Sign Up]( | [Update Profile]( | [Unsubscribe]( [Privacy Policy]( | [Cookies Policy]( | [Terms and Conditions]( CONTACT US: [FEEDBACK](mailto:livescience@smartbrief.com) | [ADVERTISE]( © Future US, Inc. 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004