Science

TAMPA, Fla. — SES has expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), enabling satellite customers to connect directly to its cloud-based applications. According to SES, it is the first satellite operator to pass technical and business reviews for directly connecting with AWS cloud services, without going through a virtual private network (VPN). The company

Even predators can’t stay awake all the time. But sharks, those sleek hunters of the deep, don’t exactly advertise when they’re taking a power nap. A strange behavior has given them up, though. Marine biologists have discovered that sharks ‘surf’ ocean currents in a conveyor belt configuration, allowing them to take turns resting. The revelation

Very rarely is anything completely still. All normal matter in the Universe is made of humming particles, minding their own business and vibrating at their own frequencies. If we can get them to slow down as much as possible, the material enters what is known as the motional ground state. In this state, physicists can

Despite us having mapped and categorized so much of mammal biology already, there are still new surprises lying in wait. Now, scientists have found two new types of glia – a type of support cell – in mouse brains. Glial cells are usually thought of as the support act in the brain and the spinal cord, adding

In the far reaches of the Universe, a supermassive black hole is throwing a tantrum. It’s blowing a tremendous wind into intergalactic space, and we’re seeing the storm light from 13.1 billion years ago, when the Universe was less than 10 percent of its current age. It’s the most distant such tempest we’ve ever identified,

It’s not just seeds that are being stashed away at the poles – scientists are also preserving stacks of ancient ice for future research, and the oldest ice in the Alps region has now been successfully extracted, ready for storage in Antarctica. What makes saving and storing this ice so important is the climate history

TAMPA, Fla. — British maritime surveillance venture Horizon Technologies has ordered two more cubesats from AAC Clyde Space, which will operate them after securing their launches next year. The satellites will listen for signals from ships operating clandestinely, helping customers that include the U.K.’s National Maritime Information Centre (NMIC) tackle piracy and other illegal activities. They will

The tipping point for irreversible global warming may have already been triggered, the scientist who led the biggest-ever expedition to the Arctic warned on Tuesday. “The disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic is one of the first landmines in this minefield, one of the tipping points that we set off first when we

We’re all familiar with songs getting stuck in our head while we’re awake, but it turns out this can happen during sleep as well. A new study investigating the phenomenon indicates that earworms invading our brains at night could cause problems in getting to sleep and staying asleep. “Our brains continue to process music even

We now have a three-dimensional map of one of the boundaries of the Solar System. For the first time, astronomers have been able to determine the shape of the heliosphere, the boundary that marks the end of the influence of our star’s solar wind. This discovery could help us better understand the environment of the

If we’re going to tackle our microplastic pollution problem, then we need a better understanding of where these fragments and particles are – and a new study suggests that adapting satellite measurements could be one way of doing just that. At the moment, estimates of microplastics in the ocean rely on trawling specific areas with

SpaceNews recently highlighted the growing recognition that companies can use space-based data and services to demonstrate their implementation of the environmental component of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) principles.  It is fantastic to see the space industry supporting ESG objectives by providing data and monitoring for Earth-based environmental sustainability efforts.  Yet we also need to recognize

Humans are driving the extinction of our closest relatives on planet Earth, and if we don’t change our behavior, we may be the last great ape standing. In the worst-case scenario, where human emissions and land use continue as usual, researchers predict a 94 percent loss of great ape habitat in Africa by 2050. Even

As human languages are driven to extinction around the world, a verbal encyclopedia of medical knowledge is on the brink of being forgotten. Among 12,495 medicinal uses for plants in indigenous communities, new research has found over 75 percent of those plants are each tied to just one local language. If these unique words trickle out

It’s hard to tell what’s lurking out there, in the dark voids between the stars. Evidence, however, suggests the existence of a vast population of rogue exoplanets, set adrift and tethered to no star. Far from the live-giving warmth a star provides, these lonely exoplanets are unlikely to be habitable. Their moons might be another

For most life forms on Earth, oxygen is a necessity, not an optional extra – and because of our warming planet, oxygen is quickly disappearing from our freshwater lakes, putting aquatic life and ecosystems under threat. Researchers looked at samples and measurements taken from 393 lakes in temperate areas of the globe across a period

TAMPA, Fla. — The United States and five other countries are banding together with the United Kingdom to develop a satellite-based quantum technology encryption network. The Federated Quantum System (FQS) will be based on the one British startup Arqit is developing for commercial customers, using quantum technology breakthroughs to guard against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. But

Imagine you’re walking into a forest, and you roll over a fallen log with your foot. Fanning out on the underside, there is something moist and yellow – a bit like something you may have sneezed out, if that something was banana-yellow and spread itself out into elegant fractal branches. What you’re looking at is

As if Australia’s wonderful menagerie of strange beasties wasn’t already unique enough – with biofluorescing mammals that lay eggs and sweat milk - the delightful weirdness extends even to their nether regions. Take an echidna’s junk, for instance. I mean, just look at that magnificent four-tipped monstrosity! “They have to be quite well endowed to get around

At the age of 16, when Tony Kofi was an apprentice builder living in Nottingham, he fell from the third story of a building. Time seemed to slow down massively, and he saw a complex series of images flash before his eyes. As he described it, “In my mind’s eye I saw many, many things:

Astronomy enthusiasts rose in the early-morning hours to capture a rare glimpse at a solar eclipse. Those in the northern US as well as Canada and Greenland got the best shots of the “ring of fire” eclipse that took place Thursday morning, though the eclipse was only partial for most of the Northern Hemisphere. A sliver

Despite slim hopes that global shutdowns during the pandemic might bring respite from the climate crisis, yet more evidence confirms that no such silver lining exists. Newly released measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in fact show that concentrations of the heat-trapping chemical have surged to record levels not seen by scientists in the

You’ve probably seen images of scientists peering down a microscope, looking at objects invisible to the naked eye. Indeed, microscopes are indispensable to our understanding of life. They are just as indispensable to biotechnology and medicine, for instance in our response to diseases such as COVID-19. However, the best light microscopes have hit a fundamental

TAMPA, Fla. — Canadian startup Kelper plans to build a U.S. presence after raising $60 million for its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite data constellation. The company said the office expansion will bring it closer to U.S. customers and potential partners as it nearly doubles its team to 150 people by the end of 2021.

The largest shark ever to swim Earth’s oceans is like a ghost in the paleontological record. Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) is known primarily in the fossil record by its giant teeth, surviving millions of years, long after its cartilage skeleton decays to nothing. It’s from these giant teeth, as big as your hand, that scientists estimate

For the first time, scientists have been able to accurately measure the mass of the human chromosome. Using a powerful X-ray source at the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, the Diamond Light Source, physicists were able to determine the individual masses of all 46 chromosomes in human cells. The masses were found to be significantly

Emotional intelligence, the ability to regulate and perceive emotions, is the subject of much debate amongst scientists and the public alike. Whilst most people agree that being able to read other people and control your own feelings are positive characteristics that vary in strength between individuals, objectively defining and measuring these abilities is not easy.

Squinting through their telescopes at the twinkling heavens, few 19th century astronomers would have imagined the cosmic wonders awaiting discovery in the century to come.  Stars so dense, a teaspoon of their matter would weigh as much as a mountain. Objects so compact, literally nothing could escape its gravity. Even galaxies had yet to be

The biggest natural disasters are by no means just a local issue, as new research shows: smoke from the devastating California wildfires of 2020 eventually reached as far as Europe, and was still dense enough after its travels to block out the Sun. Scientists tracked wildfire smoke originating from the US west coast in September

The conclusion of a classified US intelligence report on the existence of alien UFOs is… inconclusive, US media reported Friday. US military and intelligence found no evidence that seemingly highly advanced unidentified flying objects sighted by military pilots were alien spacecraft, the report concludes, according to The New York Times and other media briefed on