Science

A couple feet of sea level rise may not sound like a lot. But if sea levels rose by two feet (0.6 meters) worldwide, the effects on coastal communities would be catastrophic. Cities like New York, Miami, and New Orleans would experience devastating flooding. Across the globe, 97 million people would be in the path

Water and electronics don’t usually mix, but as it turns out, batteries could benefit from some H2O. By replacing the hazardous chemical electrolytes used in commercial batteries with water, scientists have developed a recyclable ‘water battery’ – and solved key issues with the emerging technology, which could be a safer and greener alternative. ‘Water batteries’

TYSONS, Va. — Despite Russia’s troubles on the battlefield in Ukraine and its relative decline as a space power, the head of United States Space Command warned against underestimating Moscow’s capabilities and intentions to challenge America’s dominance in the space domain. “Russia’s struggles following their invasion of Ukraine should not create a false sense of

A small, tube-shaped stone container discovered in Iran seems to have once encased a bright red pigment similar to lipstick. Analysis of traces left inside the container show ingredients that are remarkably close to the ingredients in lip pigments used today. It is, scientists say, probably the earliest known example of the use of lip

A galaxy some 750 million light-years away has been discovered hosting the heftiest pair of supermassive black holes we’ve ever seen. The pair have a combined mass of a whopping 28 billion times the mass of the Sun. While there are certainly individual black holes that exceed that mass, the pair – lurking in a

All that glitters is not gold. Actual glitter, for instance, can be a surprisingly harmful environmental pollutant, as a new study demonstrates. Despite its association with fun and frivolity, glitter has a dark side. Flecks of glitter reduce the amount of sunlight that penetrates into bodies of water, the new study shows, potentially impairing the

Updated 1 a.m. Eastern March 4 with comments from post-launch briefing. WASHINGTON — A Crew Dragon spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station with four Americans and Russians on board after a launch March 3. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at 10:53 p.m. Eastern on NASA’s Crew-8 mission.

Empathy is the sensing of another’s emotions and ability to imagine how they are feeling, a quality that seems in pretty short supply in large parts of today’s world. The good news is, we might be able to spread empathy and compassion through social interaction. That’s the conclusion of a new study from an international

We finally know what brought light to the dark and formless void of the early Universe. According to data from the Hubbles and James Webb Space Telescopes, the origins of the free-flying photons in the early cosmic dawn were small dwarf galaxies that flared to life, clearing the fog of murky hydrogen that filled intergalactic

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX has announced it will dispose of 100 Starlink satellites over the next six months, after it discovered a design flaw that may cause them to fail. Rather than risk posing a threat to other spacecraft, SpaceX will “de-orbit” these satellites to burn up in the atmosphere. But atmospheric scientists are increasingly concerned

WASHINGTON — A NASA safety panel says the agency is studying issues with the design of the side hatch of the Orion spacecraft that could affect its ability to be opened in an off-nominal situation. During a Feb. 28 public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), members said NASA has been looking at

Known today largely for a theorem on right-angled triangles, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras famously attempted to use mathematics to understand the beauty of music. Accordingly, harmonious combinations of notes known as musical consonance relied on simple ‘integer ratios’ in the sounds’ frequencies, or tones, to sound appealing. What’s more, the philosopher maintained that this held

Just over five years ago, on 22 February 2019, an unmanned space probe was placed in orbit around the Moon. Named Beresheet and built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, it was intended to be the first private spacecraft to perform a soft landing. Among the probe’s payload were tardigrades, renowed for their ability to

The art of speaking to AI chatbots is continuing to frustrate and baffle people. A study attempting to fine-tune prompts fed into a chatbot model found that, in one instance, asking it to speak as if it were on Star Trek dramatically improved its ability to solve grade-school-level math problems. “It’s both surprising and irritating

Date: March 14th, 2024Time: 1 PM ET Join us on Thursday, March 14, 2024 as SpaceNews host Matt Adelhorn discusses Dassault Systèmes Blueprint for SMB Innovation with Jason Roberson and Lauren Cooper. Dassault Systèmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, is a catalyst for human progress. We provide business and people with collaborative virtual environments to imagine sustainable

Scientists have identified a unique form of cell messaging occurring in the human brain, revealing just how much we still have to learn about its mysterious inner workings. Excitingly, the discovery hints that our brains might be even more powerful units of computation than we realized. Back in 2020, researchers from institutes in Germany and

An exciting discovery could shed some light on how Earth got its water. New observations of a disk of dust and gas circling a baby star have revealed a large amount of water vapor, at the exact location where baby planets might be starting to form. It’s the first time that astronomers have been able

Rivers of intense moisture wend their way through our atmosphere just as their liquid counterparts do across the land. Unfortunately the sky streams are much harder for us to see. Often a product of cyclones, atmospheric rivers can dictate where intense rain will fall, making their lack of visibility a problem. Understanding them grows increasingly

HELSINKI — India plans to conduct a first uncrewed orbital test flight for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program in July this year. India will conduct three uncrewed test flights before a full crewed mission next year, S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told Asianet News Feb. 28. The G1 mission, slated

Put the word ‘evolution’ into Google images and the results are largely variations on one theme: Ralph Zallinger’s illustration, March of Progress. Running left to right, we see a chimp-like knuckle walker gradually becoming taller and standing erect. Implicit in such images – and the title of the picture – are biases in common views

The dastardly deeds of a dead star have been discovered by an intrepid team of cosmic detectives. A white dwarf star that devoured at least a chunk of one of its planets has been betrayed by a scar of vaporized metal marring it surface – the tell-tale remnants of the planet that once orbited the

Substantial ice loss has been observed in the Antarctic region since the 1970s, but a new study suggests for at least some significant regions it actually started as far back as the 1940s, and perhaps even earlier. A research team led by the University of Houston collected sedimentary rock cores from seven locations near the

Legends about the ingenuity of the Greek inventor and mathematician Archimedes were so powerful that for centuries, many scholars have believed he was able to use mirrors to set Roman ships alight more than 2,000 years ago. A Canadian middle schooler, Brenden Sener, designed a science-fair project to see whether such a feat was possible

TAMPA, Fla. — Astranis is moving its debut satellite to a geostationary position over Asia after a malfunction last year derailed plans to beam broadband to Alaska, the Californian manufacturer said Feb. 27. Arcturus set off Feb. 1 and should arrive by the middle of March, Astranis CEO John Gedmark told SpaceNews, where it will

Violently bludgeoned to death and left in a Danish bog, the Stone Age individual known as ‘Vittrup man’ was discovered in 1915 by peat cutters in the midst of harvest. His murder – thought to have been part of a ritualized sacrifice – occurred sometime between 3300 and 3100 BCE, during the height of the

Japan’s Moon lander has produced another surprise by waking up after the two-week lunar night, the country’s space agency said Monday. The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down last month at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. As the Sun’s angle shifted, it came back to

When the Moon passes in front of the Sun in a solar eclipse, the jaw-dropping spectacle seems to change our world momentarily. However, the effects on our planet are far more profound than a few moments of darkness during the daylight hours. And one effect that might surprise you? Clouds dissipate, and quickly – from

WASHINGTON — In a departure from recent guidance, the Space Force will use cost-plus contracts for its high-priority strategic communications satellite program.  Space Force acquisition executive Frank Calvelli said Feb. 23 that the service has decided to not use fixed-price contracts for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications System (ESS), a critical component of the U.S.

The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene. The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost