Elusive

Rarity can be an elusive concept for some vintage Marvel, and the Marvel/Atlas humor line contains a number of undiscovered gems.In several recent showcase auctions, we've had discussions about some of the rarest in-demand comic books within the collecting focus in question.  Rarity is a surprisingly difficult concept to pin down when it comes to comic books, and it's even more difficult to discuss when it comes to vintage Marvel/Timely/Atlas comic books.  For most other publishers or collecting categories, defining…

Frank Ocean stood on the main stage at Coachella on Sunday night wearing an ice-blue parka, his hair under a black durag and fuzzy slides on his feet, and told the crowd of tens of thousands that he wanted to explain why he was there.When was the last time you heard an artist justify their presence in front of you? The reason, as always, seemed axiomatic: Ocean was performing because that’s what performers do.Except actually he hasn’t for years: Ocean’s headlining set here was his first concert since 2017, the year after…

When will those trials lead to autonomous construction machinery doing real work on construction sites? “We'll get there,” Weiss says, but Caterpillar’s partners need to be comfortable with the technology’s maturity. “There are risks involved, and we're on that journey, learning with them as we go, so that when we are commercially ready, they’re ready and comfortable with the product.”Weiss says that Caterpillar started work on automating mining operations and construction sites around the same time, more than a decade…

The growing popularity of crispy chicken sandwiches has left restaurants chasing a relatively rare bird: small chickens. Restaurant companies, including KFC and Chick-fil-A Inc., have come to prize chickens that weigh about 4 pounds, a slimmer bird than the big-breasted varieties that have come to dominate the U.S. chicken industry.  Some fast-food chain executives say the smaller-size birds that are often used for sandwiches and chicken-on-the bone offerings are more tender and flavorful than their bigger counterparts.…

LISA – Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. Credit: Simon Barke – University of FloridaA new SISSA study proposes an array of interferometers in space to detect subtle fluctuations in the background gravitational signals that may reveal the secrets of <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>black hole</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>A black hole is a place in space where the gravitational field is so strong that not even…

Chinese scientists are searching for signs of the world’s most elusive particles. The search has taken these scientists almost a mile beneath the ocean’s surface, where they hope to catch glimpses of these subatomic particles called neutrinos.  Neutrinos are special particles that spend most of their time not interacting with the rest of the world around them. In fact, tens of thousands of neutrinos stream through our planet and our bodies every second, only occasionally interacting with other atoms. When…

Manganese is a chemical element that is commonly found in rocks and soils. It is a hard, brittle, gray-white metal that is often used in steelmaking. Manganese is also an essential nutrient for humans and animals, playing a crucial role in the metabolism of amino acids, cholesterol, and carbohydrates.Penn State researchers have developed a new biosensor that provides scientists with the first dynamic images of manganese, an elusive metal ion that is essential for life.The researchers crafted the sensor using a natural…

As big as they are, whales are still needles in the proverbial haystack of the ocean—hard to spot, and even harder to track. But now, an international consortium of researchers has charted the movements of one species—southern right whales—over the past few decades by comparing chemical analyses of their skin samples with maps of the ocean’s chemistry. The work reveals new insights into the species’ foraging patterns through the Southern Ocean, information that…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new study from a University of Chicago scientist suggests there may be a layer of surprisingly fluid rock ringing the Earth, at the very bottom of the upper mantle. The finding was made by measuring the lingering movement registered by GPS sensors on islands in the wake of a deep earthquake in…

The East Smithfield plague pits, which were used for mass burials in 1348 and 1349. Credit: Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA)The researchers analyzed over 600 genome sequences of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for causing the plague.In an effort to gain deeper insight into the origins and spread of bubonic plague throughout history, researchers from McMaster University, the University of Sydney, and the University of Melbourne have conducted a thorough and detailed analysis of hundreds of modern and ancient…