It’s very early days, but two papers published today have detected hints of elusive dark matter within data collected at the International Space Station (ISS). Dark matter is the hypothetical substance that makes up 26.8 percent of the known Universe, and explains why our Universe holds together. For decades, scientists have struggled to detect it,
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Six engineering undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed a portable device that converts text to braille in real-time. Their first prototype was created in a 15-hour hackathon in early 2016. Since that time, the device, called Tactile, has undergone extensive development. Now, it’s the size of a candy bar and completely portable. The
Unexpected findings about the atmosphere of a distant Neptune-sized world have surprised scientists, acting as a reminder that as we discover more about planets beyond our Sun, the lessons we’ve learned from our own Solar System certainly don’t always apply. In this case, HAT-P-26b – located some 437 light-years away from Earth – is what’s
Physicists at CERN have reported an unexplained phenomenon in their giant ion collider device – for the first time ever, particles called ‘strange hadrons’ have been observed in rare proton collisions. These strange hadrons aren’t new – we find them in quark-gluon plasma, which is the incredibly hot and dense state of matter thought to
For centuries, people have puzzled over how our Universe began. But the heat just got turned way up on a debate that’s quietly been raging between cosmologists, with 33 of the world’s most famous physicists publishing a letter angrily defending one of the leading hypotheses we have for the origin of the Universe. The letter is in response
A new global analysis of the distribution of forests and woodlands has ‘found’ 467 million hectares of previously unreported forest – an area equivalent to 60 percent of the size of Australia. The discovery increases the known amount of global forest cover by around 9 percent, and will significantly boost estimates of how much carbon
You’ve probably heard countless renditions of how the Universe and everything in it came to be, but you haven’t heard it like YouTuber Bill Wurtz tells it. It’s hard to look away, I can’t explain it, so you’ll just have to watch it and appreciate how delightfully bananas the whole thing is. After some scary realness about
Mas Subramanian, a chemist and Oregon State University professor, became known in 2009 when his lab discovered the first new blue pigment, called YInMn Blue, in 200 years. Now, Crayola is making the blue into a crayon. As NPR notes, the scientific breakthrough was a happy accident. In 2009, a student in his lab combined yttrium, indium, and manganese oxides (a
Humans have a centuries-old reputation as poor smellers. Though we can see more colours than the average mammal, our noses are simply no match for the questing snouts of rabbits and hounds. Sure, the aromas of coffee and pie are great. But intelligent humans outgrew the need to sniff our way through life. Or so
Upcoming missions to Mars have grabbed plenty of headlines in recent years, but before we set off for the Red Planet, a lot more research is needed – and that’s why NASA has a new plan for sending astronauts into orbit around the Moon. It’s been a while – we last set foot on the
For the first time, scientists have subjected quantum entanglement to extreme levels of acceleration, and there’s nothing fragile about this “spooky action at a distance”– it’s way more robust than we thought. In recent experiments, entangled particles held firm even while being accelerated to 30g – 30 times Earth’s acceleration – and the results could
The world’s most accurate timekeepers have brought their powers to bear on the next leap in quantum research – moving from quantum control of single atoms to entire molecules. This step up in manipulating something more complex than atoms could offer new options in how we might store or convert quantum information, or even allow
Do you wear runners, drink coffee or own a mobile phone? The chances are that these products cruised to you on a ship. In 2015, the global merchant fleet carried a record 10 billion tonnes of cargo, a 2.1 percent increase from the previous year. However, while it’s an essential part of international trade, shipping
There are now 22 of them, and we still have no idea what they are, what they mean, or where in the Universe they come from – fast radio bursts, those brilliant bursts of energy that last mere milliseconds, but are a billion times more luminous than anything we’ve seen in our galaxy. The latest
If there were awards for most powerful and persistent active volcano in the Solar System, first place would go to the awesomely named Loki Patera on Jupiter’s moon, Io. Two years ago, researchers took advantage of a rare astronomical event to create a detailed map of this king of volcanos, finding a wave of fresh
Even as the Trump administration weighs withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, a new scientific paper has documented growing fluxes of greenhouse gases streaming into the air from the Alaskan tundra, a long-feared occurrence that could worsen climate change. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that frozen northern
Last night, Elon Musk announced via Twitter that orders would begin today (10 May, 2017) for his revolutionary solar roof hardware. In another tweet, he promised that ordering would be available in most countries throughout the world. He also clarified that people could expect to see delivery begin in the United States in late 2017,
Time seems to pass faster or slower depending on the language you speak, new research has revealed, because of the way your native tongue speaks about time. In English, you might talk about a “long” day, whereas in Greek, you might talk about a “full” day – and those slight variations seem to alter our
Humans are still evolving, So, where will evolution take us in 1,000 years? Chances are we’ll be taller. Humans have already seen a boom in height over the last 130 years. In 1880 the average American male was 5’7″ (170 cm). Today, he’s 5’10” (177 cm). We may also merge with machines that can
Disaster struck early in the morning of 24 January 1961, as eight servicemen in a nuclear bomber were patrolling the skies near Goldsboro, North Carolina. They were an insurance policy against a surprise nuclear attack by Russia on the United States – a sobering threat at the time. The on-alert crew might survive the initial
An adult orca found dead on the Scottish island of Tiree last year wasn’t just notable for being one of the last surviving members of her species in the UK – she also died burdened by some of the highest levels of toxic pollutants ever found in a marine mammal. The 20-year-old Lulu died by
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it doesn’t get more desperate than the Emirates Iceberg Project – a new plan to lug giant ice cubes halfway across the world to combat drought in the United Arab Emirates. The project, which was announced last week by Abu Dhabi-based firm, the National Advisor Bureau Limited, involves
Researchers have developed a new kind of transistor laser that can switch between two stable energy states – electronic and photonic – which could one day enable data transfer 100 times faster than conventional digital devices. The transistor prototype features what’s called bistability – the capability for a single switch to alternate between optical and
Don’t let the fact that the objects known as Prince Rupert’s drops are made out of glass fool you – the pretty, tear-drop shaped baubles can withstand some pretty harsh punishment. Until you gently snap their tail, at least. New research has literally shed a light on the drops’ odd balance of incredible strength and
Homo naledi, a strange new species of human cousin found in South Africa two years ago, was unlike anything scientists had ever seen. Discovered deep in the heart of a treacherous cave system – as if they’d been placed there deliberately – were 15 ancient skeletons that showed a confusing patchwork of features. Some aspects
Eating more salt has long been associated with feeling thirstier and drinking more water, but a new study of Russian cosmonauts training for life in space has turned that well-established idea on its head. The research found that within 24 hours, increased salt intake actually made the trainees less thirsty, as their bodies started to
The bodies of as many as 7,000 former patients of Mississippi’s first mental institution could be buried in the grounds of what is now the University of Mississippi’s Medical Centre campus, researchers say. Completed in 1855, the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum housed some 35,000 patients between 1865 and 1935, thousands of whom were eventually buried
Quantum communication is a strange beast, but one of the weirdest proposed forms of it is called counterfactual communication – a type of quantum communication where no particles travel between two recipients. Theoretical physicists have long proposed that such a form of communication would be possible, but now, for the first time, researchers have been
If we want to find extra dimensions lurking within our Universe – something that string theory attempts to explain – gravitational waves could be our key to locating them, physicists suggest. This new hypothesis seeks to answer the long-standing mystery of why gravity appears to be weaker than the other fundamental forces in our Universe,
In case it wasn’t already awesome enough, physicists have found a new way to turn ‘wonder material’ graphene into a ridiculously powerful superconductor, capable of shuttling electricity with zero resistance. Graphene is already an overachiever – just one atom thick, it’s stronger than steel, harder than diamond, and incredibly flexible. And last year, it became
Brain surgery is precision business, and one slip can spell doom for affected patients. Even in one of the most skilled jobs in the world, human error can still be a factor. Researchers from the University of Utah are looking to provide less opportunity for those errors to occur. A robot that the team is
If we want to cut the environmental impact of livestock, switching to insects and imitation meat products is our best bet, according to a new report. The inevitability of turning to insects to feed the world’s growing population has been looming for a while. And now we finally have some data on how much this
Seeds from the morning glory flower can withstand huge doses of ultraviolet radiation, scientists have discovered, giving us more evidence that certain types of plant could be able to hitchhike between worlds through deep space. That long-standing idea is known as panspermia – the hypothesis that life can be seeded throughout the Universe, carried by meteoroids,
Our liver is a pretty resourceful organ – it detoxifies our blood, helps regulate our metabolism, and if up to two-thirds of it is removed, it can regenerate. But new research suggests livers are even more unique than we expected. While mice are awake, their livers grow by almost 50 percent, before shrinking back to their original
An undergraduate at New Jersey Institute of Technology made his own plastic braces using a 3D printer, US$60 of materials, and a healthy dose of ingenuity – and they actually worked. Amos Dudley had braces in middle school, but he didn’t wear a retainer like he was supposed to, so his teeth slowly shifted back.
An experimental US Air Force space plane called the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) has landed after a record-breaking 718 days in orbit, but with military officials keeping tight-lipped about the specific details of the operation, we’re no closer to understanding the objectives of its secretive mission. X-37B OTV-4 touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre
Biology is really one big horror story. You don’t need to look much further than the various types of parasites that drive their hosts into the mouths of hungry predators. If you’re keeping track of these tiny monsters, you should know that there’s a species of flatworm that parks itself inside the eyeball of a
In one of his videos from earlier this year, YouTuber Joe Scott, host of “Answers With Joe,” takes on the glaring question of the speed of light. In a vacuum, the speed of light is 299,792 kilometres per second (186,000 miles/second). That seems really fast in terms of speed as we know it here on
Researchers have created the world’s first artificial retina using soft synthetic tissue, which they say could be used to develop a new generation of less-invasive bionic eye implants in the future. Made from a combination of water-based hydrogel droplets and light-sensitive proteins, the synthetic retina is designed to mimic the functionality of its biological counterpart
More than a million people are estimated to have been caught out by a Google Docs phishing attack that spread like wildfire this Wednesday –even though Google managed to shut down the vulnerability in less than an hour once it became aware of the scam. Aside from highlighting just how easily and quickly phishing attacks
Everyone likes a shortcut and a quick trip somewhere cool, which means that everyone loves a wormhole – at least in theory. In actuality, these space-time tunnels are probably not the alleged intergalactic shortcuts we’re looking for – and this isn’t a mind trick from Obi-Wan, either. But first, let’s talk about what wormholes are
From a single species of plant comes many teas. The tea tree, a shrub called Camellia sinensis, produces white, green, black and oolong teas. The tea’s destiny is a matter of variables. The final drink reflects the tea cultivar, the growing environment and how the leaves are processed – dried, crushed, steamed, blended. Farmers pluck
Neuralink – which is “developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers” – is probably a bad idea. If you understand the science behind it, and that’s what you wanted to hear, you can stop reading. But this is an absurdly simple narrative to spin about Neuralink and an unhelpful attitude to have
Back in 2011, scientists discovered the world’s only known example of a vertebrate cell hosting the cells of a completely different species in an act of symbiosis between a salamander and a species of algae. While similar relationships can be found in animals without a backbone, such as coral and molluscs, this unusual discovery posed
Scientists are always on the lookout for new materials that can enable improved energy storage and quicker energy transfers, and a new study suggests what could be a dramatically simple approach for achieving those ends: just add water. By adding atomically thin, nanoscale layers of water to an existing material, researchers found it was able
As complex as the human brain is, it more or less has the same fundamental structure as most other backboned animals – which means it can be divided into three general regions: forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. Researchers have long thought that these three sections all evolved from three simpler versions in our vertebrate ancestors. But a new map of
If your internet rabbit holes have ever taken you to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle ‘death trap’, you’ve probably come across one explanation where methane bubbles create a bizarre sinkhole situation in the middle of the ocean. It sounds cool, but as the video below explains, it’s a load of, well, sea farts, because
What would it be like to go about your life without ever seeing colours such as green or purple, and then one day seeing the world in all its colourful glory? Most people with colour blindness can only hope for such a moment to come, but for Noll Stafford from Florida it actually happened at