Tag Archives: Science

A Russian cargo capsule with 2.5 tons of supplies docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday after the fastest such trip yet from the earth, the national space agency Roscosmos said. The Progress capsule was launched atop a giant Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, reaching …

A group of researchers in Turkey is claiming to have come across the first credible records yet discovered of ‘death by a meteorite,’ dating from August 22, 1888. They cite multiple official documents recovered from the General Directorate of State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, which …

Scientists have found evidence of a “ghost population” that lived in Africa around 500,000 years ago and are genetically linked to modern-day humans. The existence of the mysterious ancestor was uncovered by researchers who were studying the genes of four West African populations. Up to 19 percent of human’s genetic …

With so many pieces of high-tech hardware at its disposal, it’s easy to forget that some of NASA’s most impressive machines are rapidly aging. The Spitzer Space Telescope is one of those machines, and after over 16 long years in space, the trusty spacecraft is now finally being retired. NASA …

The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope on Hawaii has released pictures that show features as small as 30km across. This is remarkable when set against the scale of our star, which has a diameter of about 1.4 million km and is 149 million km from Earth. The cell-like structures are …

Despite its magnitude, lack of access to antibiotics is a largely overlooked public health issue. 5.7 million people, including 1 million children, are dying annually from antibiotic-treatable conditions because they cannot access the necessary antibiotics in time. When I worked as a front-line doctor in South Sudan, I saw firsthand …

NASA’s planet-hunting mission TESS has found its first potentially habitable exoplanet the size of Earth orbiting a star about 100 light-years from Earth, according to the agency. The findings were announced during the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Monday in Honolulu. The planet is part of a …

An Earth observation satellite jointly developed by China and Brazil was launched into space on Friday under a bilateral program seen as a template for broader cooperation among BRICS nations. The China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite-4A was launched on a Long March-4B rocket in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi, the …

Essentially the entirety of physics centers on four forces that control our known, visible universe, governing everything from the production of heat in the sun to the way your laptop works. They are gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong force. New research may be leading us closer …

Meteorites that crashed into Earth billions of years contain sugars, researchers say, lending support to the idea that asteroids may hold some of the ingredients to live. An international team of scientists found “bio-essential” sugars in meteorites, which also contain other biologically important compounds, according to a press release from …

Looking on the bright side of life could help you live longer, a new study suggests. According to scientists from the Boston University School of Medicine in the US, people with greater optimism are more likely to live to the age of 85 or older. The new study, published in …

Modified pig hearts could be used for human transplants within just three years, according to the pioneering surgeon who performed the first transplantation in the UK 40 years ago. Speaking on the anniversary of the breakthrough operation, Sir Terence English said his protege from that successful 1979 transplant will try …

The thigh bone of a giant dinosaur was found this week by French paleontologists at an excavation site in southwestern France where remains of some of the largest animals that ever lived on land have been dug up since 2010. The two-meter long femur at the Angeac-Charente site is thought …

A group of scientists has, for the first time, eliminated HIV DNA from the genomes of living animals, in what is being described as a critical step towards developing a cure for the AIDS virus. The groundbreaking study, published in the journal Nature Communications, revealed that treatment to suppress HIV …

More than 50 lakes have been discovered beneath the Greenland ice sheet, which scientists say could be home to examples of “extreme life”. The 56 subglacial lakes range in length from 200 meters up to 5.9km and bring the total known number of lakes under the ice sheet to 60. …

There is a limit to human endurance and it is determined by the gut, not the mind or muscles, according to scientists. US and Scottish researchers studying humans involved in the most demanding physical feats, from running six marathons a week to pregnancy, have shown that the number of calories …

Hungary’s government is moving to tighten its grip on the research institutions of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, despite protests by scientists against political control of the academy. Since taking power in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has tightened government control of public life, including the courts, the media, and …

A fully albino giant panda has been caught on camera at a Chinese nature reserve in what is believed to be a world first. Researchers released an image of the all-white bear walking through a forest in Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province. It was photographed in mid-April by …

Scientists have observed wild chimpanzees tucking into an unusual snack: tortoises, whose hard shells they crack against tree trunks before scooping out the meat. In a paper published Thursday by the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Germany say the behavior they spotted dozens of times in a group of chimpanzees …

Scientists in Cambridge plan to set up a research center to develop new ways to repair the Earth’s climate. It will investigate radical approaches such as refreezing the Earth’s poles and removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The center is being created because of fears that current approaches will not on …