While we’re on Earth grappling with one of the biggest pandemics in modern memory, NASA’s Curiosity rover is still pottering around Mars, probably enjoying the serenity – just as it has been for the last eight years. We’re still receiving great selfies from the rover, too. Just last month, on February 26, Curiosity took
A comet that entered our Solar System from interstellar space may not make it out again. As it zooms away from the Sun, 2I/Borisov has been spotted spewing out material in two cometary outbursts. These outbursts show that the comet is disintegrating, according to Polish astronomers from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the
NASA said it has suspended work on building and testing the rocket and capsule for its Artemis crewed mission to the Moon due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the community. The space agency is shutting down its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the Space Launch System rocket is being
Tropical forests are hugely important carbon sinks. We need these beautifully diverse areas to help maintain Earth’s atmosphere – and now, a new study has looked into just how much carbon these forests absorb. It’s not just a curiosity. Estimating the efficiency of such natural carbon sinks is one of the numerous factors that
One of the key challenges of getting quantum computing working in a practical and useful way is to do with temperature – being able to put together a machine that doesn’t need ultra-low, laboratory-maintained temperatures to stay stable enough to operate. Now scientists have found a new technique to get qubits, the basic building
Every planet in our Solar System, including our own, is enclosed in a bubble of solar wind, emanating from our Sun at supersonic speeds. The particles making up this wind create an invisible magnetic field, which protects us from the rest of interstellar space. For decades now, astronomers have been analysing this system of radiation
Butterflies have taken the colour black to an entirely new level. The scales that shingle this insect’s dark wings are nearly on par with the blackest of black coatings made by humans – except they’re only a fifth of the thickness. At just a few microns wide, these natural nanostructures absorb 99.94 percent of
The way oral bacteria sets up shop in our mouths is not unlike how we humans settle into our cities, a new study has found. There’s a reason bacteria are said to live in ‘colonies’, and the more we learn about how these tiny architects build their communities, the more familiar their behavior seems to
A rare freshwater reserve has been discovered underneath the sea off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand, which could help head off future droughts and mitigate the impact of climate change in the coming years. The offshore freshened groundwater (OFG) was discovered through a combination of seismology and electromagnetic wave scanning
Restoring and protecting the world’s soil could absorb more than 5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – roughly what the US emits annually – new research showed Monday. Last year the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the world needed to work harder to retain the land’s ability to
If the United Kingdom put aside even a small fraction of its urban land to grow fruit and vegetables, it could quadruple the amount of food the nation produces from current horticulture, according to new research. Using the city of Sheffield as a case study, researchers showed that if just 10 percent of this
Mercury has a reputation, one largely informed by where it exists – closer to the Sun than any other planet in the Solar System. That unforgiving proximity means Mercury gets hot. Really hot. Daytime temperatures on Mercury can reach a scorching 430 °Celsius (800 °Fahrenheit), but they also plummet to –180 °C (–290 °F)
At night, they rise. As the Sun disappears over the horizon, a vast movement takes place in the world’s oceans, as countless sea creatures begin the long trek upwards towards the surface waters above. They do not stay long. When the Sun rises, bringing light and the threat of watchful surface predators, they will
The shape of the earliest building blocks of life dating back as far as 3.5 billion years ago may have been identified, due to a new effort to envisage the molecular arrangements of the planet’s very first proteins. Using computer modelling to simulate the configuration of ancient molecules that no longer exist on Earth,
The proliferation of fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic has been labelled a dangerous “infodemic“. Fake news spreads faster and more easily today through the internet, social media and instant messaging. These messages may contain useless, incorrect or even harmful information and advice, which can hamper the public health response and add to social
Not all dogs cope well when their owners leave them at home. Some get so anxious they end up barking all day long, while others destroy the house and precious objects in their cooped-up state. Still, pinning it down to ‘separation anxiety’ isn’t particularly helpful for pet owners. Instead, new research suggests this is
From our vantage point here on the surface, it might not seem like it sometimes, but we live on a breathtakingly gorgeous world. And it’s incredibly special. Of all the over 4,000 exoplanets scientists have found out there in the wider galaxy so far, none is exactly like Earth. Unfortunately, most of us are
In the heart of a galaxy cluster 200 million light-years away, astronomers have failed to detect hypothetical particles called axions. This places new constraints on how we believe these particles work – but it also has pretty major implications for string theory, and the development of a Theory of Everything that describes how the physical
Sure – after cracking open that refreshing bottle of chilled mountain spring water you have every intention of throwing it into recycling, right? Sorry to say, but just unscrewing the lid unleashes a dusting of tiny plastic particles, according to new research. Just how much of a dusting depends on a variety of factors,
Since the 1970s, a parasitic worm that infects fish, squid, whales, dolphins and sometimes even us has increased globally by 283-fold, according to a new meta analysis. That’s no small amount, and yet because this creature is so tiny and the oceans so vast, it’s somehow evaded our notice until now. Not even the researchers
NASA’s InSight lander, which is currently on the surface of Mars, has faced some unexpected problems during its mission to explore and study the planet. Namely, a digging probe that was built to burrow beneath the surface like a jackhammer got stuck because Mars’ soil is clumpier than scientists expected, Popular Science reports. After
Back when fearsome dinosaurs roamed the land, an unimpressive avian, about the size of a very small duck, somehow survived alongside them – eking out a life along a prehistoric European seashore. It had the long slender legs of a shorebird, and a face like a chicken, according to the Cambridge University researchers, who
The Abel Prize for mathematics was on Wednesday awarded to Israeli-American Hillel Furstenberg and Russian-born Gregory Margulis, both probability experts, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters said. The pair were honoured “for pioneering the use of methods from probability and dynamics in group theory, number theory and combinatorics,” the Academy said in a
A year ago, history was made. The long, painstaking work of scientists around the globe produced the very first direct image of the event horizon of a black hole, a supermassive monster called M87* 55 million light-years away. That glorious, golden, blurry image confirmed many of our ideas about black holes. But the science
Published in 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species made a number of bold claims about the nature of evolution – including the suggestion that an animal species with greater diversity in its line will produce more sub-species, too. This assumption is not as obvious as you might think at first. Only a
For hundreds of years, it lay undisturbed. Then, almost a century ago, archaeologists discovered it: a single pine tree, buried amidst the grandest of all the great houses of Chaco culture. Pueblo Bonito (Beautiful Town), in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, has long been considered the cultural hub of the Ancestral Puebloans who dwelled here
The four-limbed animals of the world have several things in common. Spines. Bilateral symmetry. And most of us have (or, in the case of birds, had) five digits at the end of each of our four limbs. When and how these digits emerged in animals has been something of a mystery. Palaeontologists have just
The world’s oceans are awash with millions of tiny plastic Lego pieces, and these toys-turned-pollutants are not going anywhere anytime soon. New research has found those classic Lego bricks take between 100 and 1,300 years to fully disintegrate at sea, depending on variations in the plastic’s composition and the marine weathering it experiences. In
Humans and animals have a long and beautiful history together, but a noblewoman named Cui Shi from the Tang Dynasty presents a rare first. She loved her donkeys so much that she was buried with them – together in death, perhaps, as they were in life. The grave, dated to 878 CE, is the
The COVID-19 pandemic is getting more overwhelming by the day, with increasing lockdowns, a death toll of more than 7,000 people across the world, and a direct hit to the global economy. But if there’s a sliver of good news, it’s about how the spread of the new coronavirus has been decreasing air pollution, and possibly even
Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, isn’t exactly rowdy. It’s not classified as an active galactic nucleus – one of those galactic cores that glow exceedingly brightly as they feast on copious amounts of material from the surrounding space. However, the brightness of our galaxy’s centre does
Long before the comfort of modern amenities, ancient human communities were capable of living in some truly harsh and frigid environments. On the central Russian Plain, a mysterious ring of mammoth bones has been dated to the peak of the last European ice age, when winter temperatures regularly reached -20 degrees Celsius or lower.
Before her death at the age of 84 in 1996, Baba Vanga is said to have predicted the coronavirus pandemic, which began last November in China. According to DailyStar.co.uk, a woman who met Baba Vanga in the 1990s has come forward with news of the prophecy. Neshka Stefanova Robeva, 73, said she learned of the
nd the Londoner claims he “felt a sense of gloom” after first learning news of the deadly outbreak. Mr Aujula announced he started experiencing visions of the coronavirus pandemic in 2018. The psychic believes the deadly virus, which has claimed the lives 6,685 people and affected more than 174,000 people around the world, could be
In 1896, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius explored whether Earth’s temperatures were influenced by the presence of heat-absorbing gases in the atmosphere. He calculated that if carbon dioxide concentrations doubled, global temperatures would rise by 5°C – even more at the poles. Just over a century later, the world is on track to fulfilling Arrhenius’
A thorough investigation of one of the world’s most valuable collections of Dead Sea Scroll fragments has revealed a shocking truth: not one of the collection’s 16 fragments analysed is authentic. The Dead Sea Scrolls, a trove of religious manuscripts containing the oldest known foundations of the Old Testament, date as far back as the
Life during a global pandemic takes on a surreal quality. The ubiquitous presence of social media and a constant fire hose of coronavirus news can make it particularly hard if you’re already feeling anxious. So, we’ve put together a little round-up of recent science news that we find inspiring, encouraging, and worthy of note
The prospects of ancient life forming on Mars just got a little more likely. Scientists have determined that in the planet’s distant past, conditions could have been just right for the formation of RNA molecules. If that was the case, life could have formed on Mars consistent with the RNA World hypothesis – the
We’re in uncharted territory as the world faces the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While the medical community is on the front lines of dealing with this, as well as others who provide critical services in our communities, the best thing many of us can do is to stay home (and wash our hands). If you’re
Eagle-eyed conspiracy theorists were quick to spot a white object falling into the mouth of Popocatepetl, near Mexico City. The sighting was made on webcams which constantly monitor the 5,426 metre tall volcano, colloquially named El Popo. In the video, which was originally uploaded to YouTube by Esmeralda Martinez, a white object looks as if
And the man who has been dubbed the real-life Fox Mulder has said governments the world to join forces if the unthinkable does happen – and an extra-terrestrial species does launch an attack on the Earth. Mr Pope, writing prior to the premiere of a new adaptation of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds on
In the crystal-clear shallows of Cape Town, South Africa, a dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima) was recently filmed attempting to flee an aggressive seal by releasing a ‘smoke bomb’ of dark, ink-like fluid. As the whale rushes away from its oncoming predator and towards the shore, its wake suddenly becomes clouded with a reddish-brown
The person who just gives his name as James said that while undergoing surgery following a heart attack, he believes he caught a glimpse of the afterlife. James explained how his experience did not seem to have a beginning, but “I just seemed to become aware”. During his near death experience (NDE), James stated that
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The official investigation concluded that the plane was almost certainly hijacked, but they do not know who was responsible. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which would be unusual if this was
Nearly 60 years ago, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Nicolaas Bloembergen predicted an exciting new phenomenon called nuclear electric resonance. But no one has been able to demonstrate it in action – until now. Actual evidence of nuclear electric resonance has now been discovered by accident in a lab at the University of New South Wales
Across the globe, more than 136,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 leading to more than 5,000 deaths. The disease has boomed since it was first diagnosed in late December, with the World Health Organization (WHO) officially labelling it a pandemic. {%=o.title%} The outbreak caught the whole world by surprise, and some people believe the
More than 5,000 people have died from the deadly COVID-19 virus and almost 140,000 affected worldwide, in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared a pandemic. Yesterday saw the worst day in the stock market for 30 years, following a stand-off between Saudi Arabia and Russia over oil prices, in the wake of panic
The coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 135,000 people after it escaped from China last December. The disease (COVID-19) has since killed nearly 5,000 people and spread to more than 120 countries. {%=o.title%} The pace at which coronavirus spreads and crosses borders has forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to officially brand COVID-19 a pandemic.