Science

Repetition has a strange relationship with the mind. Take the experience of déjà vu, when we wrongly believe we have experienced a novel situation in the past – leaving us with an spooky sense of pastness. But we have discovered that déjà vu is actually a window into the workings of our memory system. Our

When the latest cargo ‘shipment’ docked at the International Space Station (ISS) this weekend, it delivered more than astronauts had bargained for. Along with food, water, clothing, medical and hygiene supplies, and scientific equipment, the uncrewed Russian spacecraft burped up quite an unusual stench. Wafting through the open hatch, astronauts caught an unexpected and strange

The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could arrive as soon as this decade, warns a new study. Climatologists from Colorado University (CU) Boulder and the University of Gothenburg have used computer models to investigate when the Arctic might experience its first ice-free day. In this context, ‘ice-free’ means a sea ice area of

WASHINGTON — Portuguese space traffic management startup Neuraspace has installed a second optical telescope to help track low Earth orbit (LEO) objects across both hemispheres. Neuraspace said Dec. 6 it had activated a telescope in Chile to scan the southern hemisphere for objects as small as 10 centimeters, three months after setting up a similar

People whose ring finger is longer than their index digit tend to drink more alcohol, new research shows. But why is this so? The answer lies in our understanding of sex differences. Some sex differences are influenced by social factors, but others have their roots in our biology. There are marked differences between how much

When Oumuamua traversed our Solar System in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ISOs to visit our Solar System. Many more ISOs must have visited in our Solar System’s long history, and many more

New research highlights the stark choice we face when it comes to climate change: solve the crisis now, or spend a lot more money and resources solving the crisis in the future, after environmental tipping points have been passed. A team from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) crunched

WASHINGTON — Muon Space, a startup specializing in small satellites for Earth climate monitoring, has been awarded a $2.9 million contract by the U.S. Space Force to evaluate its satellite technology for military applications.  The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 agreement, announced Dec. 5, aims to assess whether Muon’s instruments can provide high-resolution

Tiny spoon-shaped implements carried by Roman era Germanic warriors may be evidence they used stimulants on the field of war. According to a new analysis of the mysterious artifacts and their context, archaeologists and biologists believe that the suspiciously round-ended fittings could have been used to dispense drugs that gave the warriors an edge when

Using the largest gravitational wave detector ever made, we have confirmed earlier reports that the fabric of the Universe is constantly vibrating. This background rumble is likely caused by collisions between the enormous black holes that reside in the hearts of galaxies. The results from our detector – an array of rapidly spinning neutron stars

Our satellites are dispassionate observers of Earth’s climate change. From their vantage point they watch as pack ice slowly loses its hold on polar oceans, ice shelfs break apart, and previously frozen parts of the planet turn green with vegetation. Now, scientists have compiled 35 years of satellite data showing that Antarctica is slowly, yet

TAMPA, Fla. — The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending Sateliot 30 million euros ($32 million) to help the Spanish remote connectivity startup add 16 more nanosatellites to its low Earth orbit network before the end of 2025. Robert de Groot, vice president for the European Union’s investment arm, said Dec. 4 the loan underlines EIB’s

Excavations by the Kuwaiti-Polish Archaeological Mission at a site in Northern Kuwait’s Al-Subiyah desert have uncovered a bizarre-looking clay head representative of the culture of a prehistoric people who flourished in the region between 5500 and 4900 BCE. With an elongated skull, flat nose, absent mouth, and narrow, squinting eyes, the small sculpture looks well

There’s a new contender for your holiday fireplace video. This one comes from NASA, and features rocket engines and boosters to light up your days with Space Launch System holiday cheer. Say goodbye to the crackling logs in fireplace videos of Christmas past. We’ll miss the anticipation of the fire burning down to embers and

WASHINGTON — Varda Space Industries secured a $48 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to test military payloads on the company’s reentry capsules.  A California-based startup focused on in-space manufacturing, Varda Space developed a factory-in-orbit spacecraft — a compact, 120-kilogram satellite engineered to produce high-value materials such as pharmaceuticals in zero-gravity conditions.

A “provocative” new piece in Nature has proposed a whole new group of ancient humans – cousins of the Denisovans and Neanderthals – that once lived alongside Homo sapiens in eastern Asia more than 100,000 years ago. The brains of these extinct humans, who probably hunted horses in small groups, were much bigger than any

Venus‘s reputation as a cautionary tale of an Earth Gone Bad may have been somewhat exaggerated. We’ve thought that, before it became the toxic hellscape we know today, Venus could have once been habitable, with oceans of liquid water shimmering on its surface. New research reveals that Earth’s so-called sister planet may never have had

WASHINGTON — The new European Union commissioner responsible for space says he will focus on improving European competitiveness and security in space, including passage of a long-delayed space law. Andrius Kubilius formally started his tenure as the European Commissioner for Defence and Space on Dec. 1 after members of the European Parliament confirmed him among

When humans go to war, things can get a little sneaky. Clandestine bolt-holes and covert bases of operations are the new normal – and they’re not always able to be repurposed when war ends. Scientists flying in a NASA Gulfstream III jet to measure Arctic ice with a radar therefore got something of a surprise

We’ve known for a while that complex chemistry occurs in space. Organic molecules have been detected in cold molecular clouds, and we have even found sugars and amino acids, the so-called ‘building blocks of life,’ within several asteroids. The raw ingredients of terrestrial life are common in the Universe, and meteorites and comets may have

It’s no secret: when we savour a delicious piece of fish or a platter of seafood, we’re not just consuming valuable omega-3s and vitamin D. Alongside these benefits come less appetising elements – countless micro- and nano-plastics. These plastic particles, measuring less than 5 millimetres, enter our oceans through human waste and penetrate the food

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 30 launched the NROL-126 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:10 a.m. Eastern, the NRO said in a statement. Although the launch was scheduled and announced, there was no live broadcast of the liftoff

A bird’s-eye-view of South America’s Yucatán Peninsula has revealed a massive 4,000-year-old fishery in Belize’s largest inland wetland. The long, zigzagging network of human-made canals and ponds re-engineers the watery landscape into what some researchers describe as a massive fish trap, covering 42 square kilometers (16 square miles) in total. Excavations on the ground have

Popular media love talking about asteroid mining using big numbers. Many articles talk about a mission to Psyche, the largest metallic asteroid in the asteroid belt, as visiting a body worth US$10,000,000,000,000,000,000, assumedly because their authors like hitting the ‘0’ key on their keyboards a lot. But how realistic is that valuation? And what does

Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated 6 million tonnes of tire fragments. These tiny flakes of plastic, generated by the wear and tear of normal driving, eventually accumulate in the soil, in rivers and lakes, and even in our food. Researchers in South China recently found tire-derived chemicals in most human urine

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded Raytheon a $196.7 million contract extension for the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX), a critical upgrade to the GPS infrastructure that is years behind schedule. The contract, announced Nov. 27 by Space Systems Command, targets the next software upgrade to be delivered by November

Do you prefer Black Friday or Cyber Monday? The January sales or Amazon’s Prime Day? Or perhaps you like to hold out for a good old-fashioned everything-must-go shop clearance. For whatever your shopping habits, there’s a good chance that you like the idea of bagging a bargain. The days and weeks before Black Friday reflect

In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia. Armed with a metal detector, he discovered something out of the ordinary – a very heavy, reddish rock resting in some yellow clay. He took it home and tried everything to open it, sure that there was a gold nugget inside the

Microplastics and persistant materials known as ‘forever chemicals‘ are two of our most concerning modern pollution problems. Now new research has shown how their impact on the environment drastically increases when combined. A team from the University of Birmingham in the UK looked at the effects of microplastics and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) on

HELSINKI — China has announced a strategic roadmap for advancing its Beidou positioning and navigation system by 2035, in a move which could have global implications. The country plans to complete key technology research for the next-generation Beidou system by 2025 and launch three test satellites around 2027, according to the “Beidou Satellite Navigation System