Science

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris said Aug. 12 that the National Space Council will work to revise commercial space regulations that have become “simply outdated” as the industry evolves. Harris, in a brief speech at a science center in Oakland, California, said a “new rules framework” for commercial space activities will be discussed at

For the first time, we have shown that a soft heel pad was crucial to how sauropod dinosaurs supported their immense weight, according to a new digital reconstruction of their feet. Sauropods, which weighed up to 50 tons and dominated the world’s ecosystems for around 100 million years, appear to have developed soft heel pads

If an astronaut were to suddenly become adrift in the void of interstellar space, they would be compelled to propel their body to safety, kicking and waving their limbs toward a sanctuary in the vacuum. Sadly for them, physics isn’t so forgiving, leaving them to float without hope for eternity. If only the Universe was

A child’s manner of walking can tell a doctor a lot about their health and development. But the transition from tottering toddler to strutting teen is not as universal as you might think. Depending on where in the world a child grows up, their gait may mature in a slightly different way. By age 7,

One day, our Sun will die. Since we happen to be inhabitants of the Sun’s planetary system, the question of when, and how, this will happen, is of intense interest to us. Sure, we’re unlikely to be around to see it… but, you know, it’s our home. We want to know what will eventually become

The world’s biggest ice sheet could cause “several meters” of sea-level rise over centuries if the global temperature rises more than 2 °C, according to a British study published Wednesday. Researchers at Durham University concluded that if global greenhouse emissions remain high, the melting East Antarctica Ice Sheet (EAIS) could cause nearly half a meter

Earlier today, reports began emerging Google was down.  While it has since returned, it once again highlights our dependence on technology service providers and shows how reliant many people are on a single operator for daily functions. There are few things we completely rely upon in our modern lives, but for many people, Google is

LOGAN, Utah. — Astro Digital started out in 2015 with plans for an Earth observation constellation but pivoted three years later to instead provide its small satellite technology as a service for other operators. While this service model was unusual at the time, California-based Astro Digital has grown as more companies seek space projects without

Sea sponges, among the oldest creatures in existence, let out what looks like a deep sea “sneeze” to filter out waste, researchers found in a new study. Using time-lapse video, researchers captured the behavior, which could help them better understand how sponges evolved.  “Our data suggest that sneezing is an adaptation that sponges evolved to keep

Two atoms inflated to an almost comical size and cooled to a fraction above absolute zero have been used to generate a robust, insanely fast two-qubit quantum gate that could help overcome some of quantum computing‘s persistent challenges. Since a two-qubit gate is the fundamental building block of efficient quantum computers, this breakthrough has huge

Humans take a lot of pride in their brains. We like to think we are an intelligent species, and even though size isn’t everything, our noggins are some of the largest nature has to offer. The idea that our brains are shrinking is not one we like to consider. For more than four decades, experts

Once a year, from mid-July to late August, Earth passes through a cosmic junk heap that pelts our planet with thousands of tiny space rocks no wider than a grain of sand. We call this annual event the Perseid meteor shower – or simply the Perseids. This year, the Perseids peak in the dark hours between 11

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was not a short-lived catastrophe. Over 10 years after one of the largest environmental disasters in human history, a sticky oil residue still coats some marshland in the Gulf of Mexico, a new report reveals. Its impacts are still not fully understood. In the months following BP’s 2010 Deepwater calamity, desperate attempts

In the near future, NASA and other space agencies will send astronauts beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for the first time in over fifty years. But unlike the Apollo Era, these missions will consist of astronauts spending extended periods on the Moon and traveling to and from Mars (with a few months of surface operations

LOGAN, Utah — Canadian launch startup SpaceRyde said Aug. 8 it has added a second member to its advisory board with the appointment of Mina Mitry, the CEO of small satellite operator Kepler Communications. Mitry joins Jeff Thornburg, SpaceRyde’s inaugural advisory board member and a former vice president of propulsion engineering at SpaceX. Kepler, also

In spite of their reputation as living dinosaurs, birds have come a long way since the days of T. rex and friends.  Gone is the toothy rostrum, replaced by the more familiar beak. Their skeletons have adapted for flight, as have their forelimbs. Even their pelvis is twisted into a shape that their more ancient

Is there a “fourth phase of water”? From time to time you might see people talking up the health benefits of so-called hexagonal water, or structured water, or exclusion-zone (EZ) water. A few weeks ago Kourtney Kardashian’s Poosh website was spruiking a US$2,500 “structured water filter”. Last weekend even Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald got in

A sweeping analysis of more than 72 million Facebook users has found a big bonus to having rich friends. When poor children grow up around wealthier kids and parents, they are much more likely to earn a higher salary later in life, researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and New York Universities have found. The findings suggest

Mysterious large pieces of wreckage were discovered across Southeast Asia over the weekend, and evidence is growing that they came from a Chinese rocket booster that fell to Earth uncontrolled. The booster of China’s 25-ton Long March 5B rocket pushed a new segment of the country’s space station into orbit in late July. Then, instead of pushing itself

Humans are filling the world with trash, but not all of our waste is visible to the human eye. While plastic litter on the beach is easy to spot, microplastics and ‘forever chemicals’ have leached far and wide without our barely noticing. Both forms of pollution are now so ubiquitous in the environment, they are

HOUSTON — As NASA prepares to select the crew of the second Artemis mission, the agency’s chief astronaut says the entire astronaut corps, and not a previously announced subset, is eligible for that flight and future missions to the moon. At an Aug. 5 briefing at the Johnson Space Center about the upcoming uncrewed Artemis

A bizarre seafloor creature covered with luminous orange, spaghetti-like tentacles recently made its internet debut in newly released video footage. The unusual pom-pom-shaped creature is actually a type of segmented marine worm known as a polychaete, and it belongs to an appropriately named group: spaghetti worms.  Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

Since being plunged into a global pandemic, we’re probably far more aware of being surrounded by microdroplets of water. In humid air or expelled by a cough, sneeze or talking, these droplets can carry tiny particles with them, from pollution to viruses like the flu. Back in 2019, the basic chemistry of these motes of environmental

In the middle of the night, the world can sometimes feel like a dark place. Under the cover of darkness, negative thoughts have a way of drifting through your mind, and as you lie awake, staring at the ceiling, you might start craving guilty pleasures, like a cigarette or a carb-heavy meal. Plenty of evidence

It’s a record that has been broken multiple times over the past two years alone, and one that we expect to see broken again soon. Astronomers using the newly operational James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have announced the discovery of what appears to be the most distant galaxy yet. If this sounds familiar, it’s already

Warmer waters are flowing towards the East Antarctic ice sheet, according to our alarming new research which reveals a potential new driver of global sea-level rise. The research, published today in Nature Climate Change, shows changing water circulation in the Southern Ocean may be compromising the stability of the East Antarctic ice sheet. The ice

NROL-199 was the second of two missions the NRO developed in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched a National Reconnaissance Office mission Aug. 4 at 1:00 a.m. Eastern. The NROL-199 mission lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex-1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand. Rocket Lab said

Cave explorers have traversed what’s now the deepest known cave in Australia. On Saturday, a group of explorers discovered a 401-meter-deep cave, which they named Delta Variant, in Tasmania’s Niggly-Growling Swallet cave system within the Junee-Florentine karst area. Its depth just beat out its predecessor, the Niggly Cave, by about 4 meters. With a descent

Peer long enough into the heavens, and the Universe starts to resemble a city at night. Galaxies take on characteristics of streetlamps cluttering up neighborhoods of dark matter, linked by highways of gas that run along the shores of intergalactic nothingness. This map of the Universe was preordained, laid out in the tiniest of shivers

Archaeologists recently stumbled upon a set of mysterious ‘ghost footprints’ in the salt flats of a Utah desert. These unusual ancient tracks get their eerie name not because they are from an ethereal realm, but due to their earthly composition: They become visible only after it rains and the footprints fill with moisture and become