Ecology

The sky of December 2025, the last astronomical events of the year between the Supermoon and the Geminids

Why the water of comet 3I/ATLAS is so different from ours: the discovery of the ALMA radio telescope

Amateur photo of 3I/ATLAS taken with a Celestron EdgeHD 800 telescope on November 16. Credits: Satoru Murata, Wikimedia Commons. There interstellar comet 3I/ATLASdiscovered in July 2025 and already at the center of a media case due to the statements of Avi Loeb on its alleged alien origin, widely denied by the scientific community, continues to prove of enormous scientific interest ...

The "fake snow" in spring is not pollen, but paps from poplars: they do not cause allergies

The “fake snow” in spring is not pollen, but paps from poplars: they do not cause allergies

The streets and parks of many Italian cities are invaded these days by “spring snow”, those white puffs that resemble cotton that fly out of control. But what is it? Often confused with “pollens” and called “poplars” or “pioppini”, they actually are pappi and are used to transport with the wind poplar seedsa very widespread plant in the Po Valley. ...

Why wavy lines appear in photos of PC screens and what is the moiré effect

Why wavy lines appear in photos of PC screens and what is the moiré effect

The arrows and yellow curved lines indicate the obvious moiré effect present in the image. By pointing our smartphone camera at the computer or television screen, they will almost inevitably appear strange streaks or waves in the captured image. But why does this happen? For a very specific phenomenon, known as moiré effect. And no, it is not due to ...

High school students are not as anxious as psychiatric patients of the 1950s: we explain Twenge's study

High school students are not as anxious as psychiatric patients of the 1950s: we explain Twenge’s study

In recent days, the news has been circulating on social media and various information sites that today’s high school students have levels of anxiety comparable to those of patients admitted to mental asylums in the 1950s. This statement, however, is incorrect: it derives from an excessive simplification of a study published by the psychologist J.M. Twengea meta-analysis from which it ...

Salaries in Italy are stable compared to 1990 net of inflation: OECD and Istat data

Salaries in Italy are stable compared to 1990 net of inflation: OECD and Istat data

Those who work in Italy today earn, in real terms, less than they did in 1990. It is not a sensation, and it does not depend only on the inflation of recent years. This is data certified by the OECD, confirmed by Istat and reiterated by the Bank of Italy: Italian wages have been stagnant for over thirty yearsin a ...

Slingshot carousel, the cable breaks in Seville: the explanation

Slingshot carousel, the cable breaks in Seville: the explanation

We’ve all asked ourselves that question at least once in front of videos of a slingshot ride: “Ok, what if a cable breaks?” Yes, because you all know it: two people closed in a spherical capsule, shot tens of meters into the air, and almost always that moment, viral on TikTok and Instagram, in which they seem to faint for ...

5 Italian words whose accent we most often get wrong: among these are edile and persuade

5 Italian words whose accent we most often get wrong: among these are edile and persuade

It is said Friuli or Friuli? Aedile or èdile? Some words generate real doubts unrelated to grammar or spelling. This is the case oftonic accentthat is, the syllable on which the intonation of the voice falls when we pronounce a word. Unlike thegraphic accentwhich in Italian is written only in some cases, the tonic accent is almost always implicit. This ...