Science

Scientists have discovered a sea sponge more than a mile under the surface of the Atlantic that bears a remarkable resemblance to children’s cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants, NPR reports. Next to the yellow sponge sat a pink starfish that could be mistaken for Spongebob’s friend Patrick, commenters on social media …

A group of 14,000 scientists from 34 countries has issued yet another warning about the state of planet Earth after data showed an increase in climate-related disasters in the past two years. “We are nearing or have already crossed tipping points associated with critical parts of the Earth system, including …

The United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe mission captured a striking image of Mars, taken from an altitude of around 1,325 kilometers above the red planet’s surface. The image, which was obtained on March 15 this year, was shared on the Hope Mars Mission’s official Twitter account on Sunday and has …

The head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said on Saturday that pressure in a Russian service module on the International Space Station had dropped as a result of an air leak.

Researchers find North Africa’s oldest Stone Age hand-axe manufacturing site, dating back 1.3 million years. Archaeologists in Morocco have announced the discovery of North Africa’s oldest Stone Age hand-axe manufacturing site, dating back 1.3 million years, an international team reported on Wednesday. The find pushes back by hundreds of thousands …

United Nations negotiations for a global agreement to protect the planet’s biodiversity are being delayed a third time due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now set to take place in the spring of 2022, according to sources familiar with the matter. Diplomats, scientists, and conservationists from over 200 countries …

Researchers say ‘overexploitation of the Earth’ has seen many of its ‘vital signs’ deteriorate to record levels. Thousands of scientists have repeated calls for urgent action to tackle the climate emergency, warning that several tipping points are now imminent. The researchers, part of a group of more than 14,000 scientists …

NASA in April awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX with a sole $2.89 billion contract to build the next crewed lunar lander under its Human Landing Systems program. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos on Monday offered to cover billions of dollars of NASA costs in exchange for a contract to build a …

A Russian Progress cargo ship undocked from the International Space Station early Monday, taking with it the two-decades-old Pirs airlock and docking compartment to clear the way for Thursday’s arrival of Russia’s new Nauka multipurpose lab module. With the Progress MS-16/77P supply ship firmly locked to Pirs, hooks and latches …

The center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is framed by the tell-tale arcs that result from strong gravitational lensing, a striking astronomical phenomenon which can warp, magnify, or even duplicate the appearance of distant galaxies.  Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant galaxy is subtly …

According to the scientists, while techniques such as gating and tracking are already in use, quality assurance tools have not yet been developed. To achieve maximum effectiveness and accuracy with radiation therapy, additional respiratory motion phantoms will be needed. In a first, a team of Indian scientists has developed a …

Climate change has dramatically altered the Swiss Alp landscape — at a quicker pace than expected — as melting glaciers have created more than 1,000 new lakes across the mountains, a study published Monday showed. The inventory of Swiss Glacial lakes showed that almost 1,200 new lakes have formed in …

An entirely new class of fire known as spherical cool diffusion flames—or simply “cool flames”—has been documented aboard the International Space Station in a project led by a University of Maryland researcher. These dim, quiet flames could ignite development of the engines of the future, said fire protection engineering Professor Peter …

A Chinese spacecraft capable of flying to the edge of the atmosphere took off and returned to Earth on the same day in what China said was a big step towards developing reusable space transportation technology. The spacecraft lifted off from a launch center in northwest China on Friday and …

Thousands of flamingos are found dead on the dry bed of Turkey’s Lake Tuz, alarming environmentalists and prompting authorities to investigate what caused the mass deaths. Drone footage from the area filmed on Wednesday showed hundreds of flaminglets partly buried in dried parts of Lake Tuz, in Turkey’s central province …

The spooky-looking amphibian is less scary than it appears to be. But it might already be endangered, as deforestation rates continue to go up. Everything is dark. There’s no one around. The raindrops fall heavily. Suddenly, the call ― it’s time to dig. The man digs with his bare hands …

Australian researchers hope low-cost saliva tests will replace the current needle-based tests for diabetes sufferers. Australian scientists say they have developed pain-free blood sugar testing for diabetics, a non-invasive strip that checks glucose levels via saliva. For diabetics, managing their blood sugar levels typically means pricking their fingers multiple times …

Research combines data from fossils with climate models, revealing the effect of climate on body and brain size A well-known pattern in human evolution is an increase in body and brain size. Our species, Homo sapiens, is part of the Homo genus and emerged about 300,000 years ago. We are …

The first astronauts to arrive at China’s new space station carried out their debut spacewalk, marking only the second time the country’s astronauts have ventured out of their craft while in orbit. Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming docked with the Tiangong space station in June, beginning a three-month …

Over the past two decades, coronaviruses have been responsible for three major outbreaks – SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, according to the new research findings.