Science

The human brain, it turns out, can be surprisingly resistant to the ravages of time. A new study has cataloged human brains that have been found on the archaeological record around the world and discovered that this remarkable organ resists decomposition far more than we thought – even when the rest of the body’s soft

A nearby exploding star is due to offer a spectacular show that could outshine our North Star this year. The star, which is 3,000 light-years from Earth, is expected to burst in a gigantic explosion – known as a nova – in the coming months. NASA said in a statement that the once-a-lifetime event could

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency’s network of sensor satellites in low Earth orbit — known as Tracking Layer Tranche 1 — will not include seven satellites made by Raytheon Technologies as originally planned.  “SDA is reevaluating and considering re-scoping Raytheon’s Tranche 1 Tracking Layer work,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement in response

Some 900,000 years ago, humans nearly went extinct. According to the results of a genomics study published last year, modern humanity’s ancestors were reduced to a breeding population of barely 1,300 individuals in a devastating bottleneck that brought us to the very brink of annihilation. Now, a new study has found that a mass migration

Sound waves fossilized in the maps of galaxies across the Universe could be interpreted as signs of a Big Bang that took place 13 billion years earlier than current models suggest. Last year, theoretical physicist Rajendra Gupta from the University of Ottawa in Canada published a rather extraordinary proposal that the Universe’s currently accepted age

A new study has revealed that threatening anti-piracy messages can actually lead to people pirating more digital content in some cases – although men and women tend to respond very differently to the messaging used. Men were found to typically increase piracy behaviors after seeing messages that threatened legal action and other negative consequences over

WASHINGTON — Turion Space’s debut satellite should be ready to start imaging objects in space by May after nearly a year of commissioning in low Earth orbit (LEO), according to CEO and cofounder Ryan Westerdahl. The three-year-old Californian space situational awareness (SSA) startup first opened the door to the imaging sensor on its 32-kilogram Droid.001

The most populous country in the world, India, has long been left out of genetic studies, leaving a massive gap in our understanding of human origins and appreciation of the genetic diversity of our species. A new study diving 50,000 years into the past by analyzing thousands of genomes has sought to change that, revealing

Eventually, we’re going to want to expand the World Wide Web across the galaxy, and NASA recently demonstrated a key piece of tech that could help, beaming messages via laser across a distance of almost 16 million kilometers (10 million miles). That’s about 40 times farther than the Moon is from Earth, and the accomplishment,

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Despite not making it to the moon, NASA and others flying payloads on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander say they still got useful data from the mission. Peregrine launched Jan. 8 on the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur. The spacecraft, though, suffered a propellant leak hours after launch that

Getting into ‘the zone’ when being creative can be tricky, even if you’ve been there before. People strive for this famous mental state in a wide range of endeavors, many hoping for even just a few moments of fun, effortless productivity. Also known as ‘flow,’ the state of mind is a real psychological phenomenon, albeit

Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket, flew further and faster than ever before during its third test launch Thursday, although it was eventually lost as it re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, SpaceX said. Lift-off from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas came at 8:25 am local time (1325 GMT) and was carried

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Efforts by scientists to use a Mars rover to collect samples are continuing even as NASA wraps up a new assessment of when and how those samples will be brought back to Earth. The Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in February 2021, has filled 26 of its 43 sample tubes,

As a clinical psychologist, I often have clients say they are having trouble with thoughts “on a loop” in their head, which they find difficult to manage. While rumination and overthinking are often considered the same thing, they are slightly different (though linked). Rumination is having thoughts on repeat in our minds. This can lead

In a scarred and scored terrain on the face of Mars, a giant secret lurks. There, beneath the region known as Noctis Labyrinthus (Labyrinth of the Night), scientists have found evidence of an enormous, ancient volcano – and, possibly, a buried sheet of glacier ice. The discovery makes the equatorial site an attractive option in

TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. regulators have approved ground rules for allowing SpaceX and other satellite operators to use radio waves from terrestrial mobile partners to keep smartphone users connected outside cell tower coverage. The Federal Communications Commission voted March 14 unanimously in favor of its Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) regulatory framework. SCS providers would

A man who died around 5,300 years ago was tattooed using methods fascinatingly similar to modern ones. Ötzi the Iceman, whose exceptionally mummified remains were found decades ago in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps, was covered in tattoos. Scientists carefully studying his remains have counted 61 carbon pigment markings on his lower back, abdomen,

Our Solar System does not exist in isolation. It formed within a stellar nursery along with hundreds of sibling stars, and even today has the occasional interaction with interstellar objects such as Oumuamua and Borisov. So it’s reasonable to presume that some interstellar material has reached Earth. Recently Avi Loeb and his team earned quite

This winter was the warmest ever recorded in the mainland United States, data showed Friday – the latest sign the world is moving towards an unprecedented era as a result of the climate crisis. The average temperature in the so-called lower 48 US states from December 2023 to February 2024 was 37.6 degrees Fahrenheit (3.1

In recent weeks, fighters from Yemen’s Houthi movement have reportedly knocked out four of the Red Sea’s underwater communication cables between Saudi Arabia and Djibouti. The cables, which are thought to belong to the AAE-1, Seacom, EIG and TGN systems, are among those that connect Europe and Asia. Though there has been no official confirmation

Archeologists have discovered a collection of stud-shaped objects that wouldn’t look all that out of place decorating the lips of people today. Found in the graves of a Neolithic settlement in south-east Türkiye, they could represent the earliest convincing examples of body piercing. The site, Boncuklu Tarla, is renowned for its exceptional collection of diverse

A new, precise measurement of the expansion rate of the Universe is in, and it’s serving up a huge cosmic pickle. Using Hubble data and new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team led by physicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University has confirmed that previous measurements are correct after all, despite

Our world may seem fragile, but Earth has been around for a very long time. If we ventured far back into the past, would we reach a time when it looked fundamentally different? The answer lies in some of the earliest extensive relics of Earth’s surface, found in a remote corner of southern Africa’s highveld

Imagine your laptop running twice as fast without any hardware upgrades; only the application of smarter software algorithms. That’s the promise of new research that could change how today’s devices function. The team behind the research, from the University of California, Riverside (UCR), says that the work has huge potential, not just for boosting hardware

Standalone terminals that can switch between satellites in geostationary and low Earth orbit (LEO) are about to get into customer hands for the first time, delivering a real-world test of multi-orbit broadband capabilities operators are increasingly pinning their businesses on. Legacy geostationary operators have been busy drawing up acquisitions, partnerships, and new constellations to offer

Archaeologists digging in the German city of Nuremberg ahead of the construction of a new retirement home have uncovered what may be the largest mass burial of plague victims ever uncovered in Europe. Excavations are ongoing, but the centuries-old remains of more than 500 individuals have been unearthed so far, and the team believes there

When a galaxy runs out of gas and dust, the process of star birth stops. That takes billions of years. But, there’s a galaxy out there that was already dead when the Universe was only 700 million years old. What happened to it? That’s what an international team of astronomers wants to know. “The first

A new review of literature on global climate change written by an international team of more than 200 researchers leaves no room for doubt: humanity is heading for disaster, unless significant steps are taken to change that course. How disastrous? The research team mentions trillions of US dollars in climate-related damage, billions of people pushed

WASHINGTON — Stratolaunch conducted the first powered flight of its Talon vehicle March 9, reaching “high supersonic” speeds in the uncrewed test. The Talon-A vehicle, designated TA-1, took off attached to the company’s Roc aircraft from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 10:17 a.m. Eastern according to flight tracking data. The plane

Stone tools found buried deep in the sediment of the Korolevo quarry in Ukraine are rewriting the history of human migration. The seemingly unassuming chunks of rock are tools once used by Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of ours, and new dating reveals they represent the earliest evidence of hominid habitation on the European continent.