Science

The speed of the human brain’s ability to process information has been investigated in a new study, and according to scientists, we’re not as mentally quick as we might like to think. In fact, research suggests our brains process information at a speed of just 10 bits per second. But how is this possible, in

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is about to make history, once again. On Christmas Eve, the spacecraft is going to get closer to the Sun than any human-made object ever has, traveling at speeds faster than any human-made object has traveled. In its 22nd close flyby, the probe will skim just 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million

Sadly, we know that microplastics are getting everywhere, including our drinking water – but researchers have developed a new way to tackle the problem: a filter made of a rather unusual combination of material, which is able to remove up to 99.9 percent of tiny plastic fragments from water. The researchers, led by a team

WASHINGTON — Liechtenstein became the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords Dec. 20, bringing the total number of signatories to more than half of a key United Nations body. Rainer Schnepfleitner, director of Liechtenstein’s Office for Communications, the government agency responsible for space issues, signed the Artemis Accords in an event at NASA Headquarters

Ancient sheep buried in an elite grave in Egypt show the oldest evidence of humans deliberately deforming the horns of livestock. Exactly why it was done remains a mystery. In the 5,700-year-old dig site of Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt, archaeologists uncovered the remains of five male sheep that showed clear evidence of having their horns artificially

Two US astronauts stranded for months on the International Space Station will remain there at least until late March, NASA said Tuesday as it announced another delay in the mission to bring them home. Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, and were due to

A living time capsule frozen in the depths of Lake Enigma in Antarctica contains a unique ecosystem that has been isolated from the rest of the world since its surface permanently froze. Now, scientists have retrieved samples of the unique microbes, which have survived in a massive chamber of liquid fresh water below more than

I’m a computer scientist and a bad Christmas shopper. Over the weekend, I wondered whether AI systems might be able to help me out. Could I just prompt ChatGPT to pick a personalised gift for my cousin Johnny and have it shipped in time to reach him? Alas, the cheerful chatbot couldn’t help, telling me

WASHINGTON — A defunct military weather satellite has broken up in orbit and created more than 50 pieces of debris, the latest in a series of similar incidents involving that line of spacecraft. The U.S. Space Force reported Dec. 19 that it had identified a “low-velocity fragmentation event” involving the DMSP-5D2 F14 spacecraft. The event

In a surprise conclusion to a project dubbed The Final Experiment, several well-known believers in a non-spherical Earth have had a change of heart. “All right, guys, sometimes, you are wrong in life,” announced Jeran Campanella, a prominent flat-Earth theorist who joined an all-expenses-paid expedition to Antarctica to see the Sun circle the sky for

At the centre of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. It is roughly 27,000 light years from Earth and 23.5 million kilometres in diameter. In a world first, a team of astronomers led by Florian Peißker from the University of Cologne, Germany, have discovered a binary star system orbiting this

The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory – and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent and puzzling it has tested

HELSINKI — Chinese launch startup Galactic Energy conducted its fourth sea launch early Thursday as China continued its recent high launch cadence. The Ceres-1 solid rocket lifted off at 5:18 a.m. Eastern (1018 UTC) Dec. 19 from a converted mobile sea platform off the coast of Shandong province, near Rizhao city. The launch was streamed

Twins have been rare in human history and for that reason can seem special. Many cultures associate twins with health and vitality, while others see them as a philosophical reminder of the duality of life and death, good and evil. Some famous twins are credited with the birth of nations, others are described as deities.

The formation of the Moon may have come harder on the heels of Earth’s birth than we thought. According to a new analysis by researchers from the US, France, and Germany, Earth’s constant companion may have formed as early as 4.53 billion years ago – hundreds of millions of years earlier than previous estimates. It’s

This is a customer submitted press release. Submit your press release. Ontario, N.Y. / Livermore, Calif. — Starris: Optimax Space Systems and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announce a commercialization partnership for LLNL’s patented monolithic telescope technology — which accelerates rapid deployment of modular optical designs for high-resolution or high sensitivity space imagery. Starris has

Researchers have linked spending more time playing video games with a boost in intelligence in children, which goes some way to contradicting the narrative that gaming is bad for young minds. While the difference in cognitive abilities was a small one and isn’t enough to show a causal relationship, it is enough to be notable

When you wish upon a star, Jiminy Cricket told us, your dreams come true. But according to an idea doing the rounds on social media, that may not be the case: According to astronomy, when you wish upon a star you’re a million years too late. The star is dead, just like your dreams. @robbnwa

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has ordered 100 broadband satellites from Airbus Defence and Space to start replenishing its OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation in a few years. The first batches of satellites are due to be completed before the end of 2026, the French operator said Dec. 17. Most of the 654 satellites in OneWeb’s

A few years ago, late in the fall of 2021, locals fishing Georgia’s Bashplemi Lake in the municipality of Dmanisi came across a long-forgotten piece of history – a small stone tablet inscribed with dozens of mysterious symbols. Now a team of archaeologists from across Georgia has confirmed the impressions represent samples of a script

Jupiter‘s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in our Solar System, with around 400 volcanoes and extensive lava flows spread across its surface – but contrary to what scientists thought, a new study suggests this geological chaos is not powered by a global, moonwide ocean of magma below the surface. Using images snapped

At the bottom of the oceans and seas lie more than 8,500 shipwrecks fromtwo world wars. These wrecks have been estimated to contain as much as 6 billion gallons of oil, as well as munitions, toxic heavy metals and even chemical weapons. For decades, these wrecks have largely lain out of site and out of

ORLANDO, Fla. — In a move to differentiate itself from rival SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is proposing a new military application for its Vulcan Centaur rocket: a “space interceptor” capable of thwarting potential threats to U.S. assets in orbit. ULA CEO Tory Bruno discussed this vision at the Spacepower Conference, positioning the Vulcan Centaur

A study of early Bronze Age bones in Britain has revealed a shockingly violent and barbaric end for dozens of unfortunate individuals. The remains, excavated from the Charterhouse Warren site in southwest England, show evidence of close quarters blunt force trauma, dismemberment, and cannibalism, all of which took place before the bodies were thrown down

A few years ago, a radio telescope operating out of the desert of Western Australia observed something very weird. Just 4,000 light-years from Earth, something was emitting a bright radio signal like nothing we’d ever seen before: flashing like a pulsar, but with a super long period between pulses, and a super long pulse itself.

The first dead elephants were discovered in May 2020. By July of that year, over 350 of the endangered animals had been found strewn lifeless across a remote region of Botswana. Global concern rose rapidly as veterinarians at the scenes eliminated the usual suspects. There were no signs of starvation, infections, or naturally occurring anthrax,

WASHINGTON — A joint Earth science mission between NASA and its Indian counterpart is now scheduled to launch as soon as next March after being delayed to repair its main radar antenna. In a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union here Dec. 11, Gerald Bawden, program scientist for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic

The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they don’t read regularly (up from 42% in 2015)and almost one in four young people aged 16-24 say they’ve never been readers, according to research by The Reading Agency. But what are the implications? Will people’s

Our Sun is not a peaceful place. It roils with convection; its magnetic field snaps, finds a connection, snaps again. It unleashes eruptions of energy in the form of violent flares, and plasma in the form of coronal mass ejections. Most of this activity lacks sufficient punch to harm us… but every now and then,