Science

WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Force officials will sit down with industry executives in Los Angeles this week to discuss the fine points of the upcoming national security space launch procurement.  Companies expect to hear details about the Space Force’s plan to attract new launch providers to compete for as many as 70 missions projected for

The short answer is wind happens because the Sun heats some parts of the planet more than others, and this uneven heating starts a wind going. That means wind energy is really a kind of solar energy! All winds are made the same way Wind systems on Earth vary from the global-scale trade winds and

Ghost imaging is a sophisticated and incredibly useful set of techniques that scientists deploy to photograph light-sensitive objects in surprisingly high resolution. By making use of a mix of quantum and classical phenomena to pull visual information from just one of a pair of entangled photons, the method can capture images where energetic rays of

A cave in southern France has revealed evidence of the first use of bows and arrows in Europe by modern humans some 54,000 years ago, far earlier than previously known. The research, published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, pushes back the age of archery in Europe by more than 40,000 years. The use

For the first time, astronomers have spotted evidence of a pair of dwarf galaxies featuring giant black holes on a collision course with each other. In fact, they haven’t just found just one pair – they’ve found two. The first pair of merging dwarf galaxies is in the cluster Abell 133, about 760 million light-years

Animals are contaminated with hazardous forever chemicals on every continent except Antarctica, according to a new report. Creatures ranging from tigers and polar bears, to red pandas and voles, to plankton in the sea, are likely accumulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by eating fish, drinking water, or simply breathing air, and it could put

The US military is intensifying its commitment to the development and use of autonomous weapons, as confirmed by an update to a Department of Defense directive. The update, released 25 January 2023, is the first in a decade to focus on artificial intelligence autonomous weapons. It follows a related implementation plan released by NATO on

ORLANDO — Relativity Space announced Feb. 22 it will attempt the first launch of its Terran 1 rocket as soon as March 8 after securing a launch license and skipping a planned final test. The company announced it received a Federal Aviation Administration launch license for its first Terran 1 mission. With the license in

The tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) has some surprising properties, scientists have discovered: properties that could enable it to provide a natural, biodegradable alternative to certain plastics and other materials in the future. As its name suggests, the wood-eating fungus has historically been used to catch a spark for fires, though it has also been incorporated

Scientists have produced a sensor that converts light into an electrical signal at an astonishing 200 percent efficiency – a seemingly impossible figure that was achieved through the weirdness of quantum physics. Such is the sensitivity of the device known as a photodiode, the team responsible for its innovation says it could potentially be used

An in-depth analysis has finally revealed the make-up of a bizarre ‘mummified mer-monkey’ housed at the Enju-in Temple in Asakuchi City, Japan. The peculiar artifact has been an object of curiosity for decades, though according to an accompanying note it’s oceanic origins are purported to date back centuries. At a total of 30 centimeters (1

Mars rovers tasked with hunting for traces of biology could roll over microscopic life forms without smelling a thing, simply because their instruments aren’t up to the task. A new study carried out in Earth’s oldest desert shows how current technology can’t always spot the signatures of life on our own planet’s surface. Let alone

New footage has revealed Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is shrinking from below in a way scientists hadn’t expected – with melting happening rapidly along the cracks and crevasses in its base. Though the ice loss is slower than predicted in other sections, the 130 kilometer (80 mile) wide, Florida-sized glacier could still contribute more than 65

Microsoft’s fledgling Bing chatbot can go off the rails at times, denying obvious facts and chiding users, according to exchanges being shared online by developers testing the AI creation. A forum at Reddit devoted to the artificial intelligence-enhanced version of the Bing search engine was rife on Wednesday with tales of being scolded, lied to,

When a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched a national security mission to geostationary Earth orbit Jan. 15, the Space Force revealed that three of the payloads onboard were developed by one of its most secretive agencies, the Space Rapid Capabilities Office. The announcement was unusual as the Space RCO, based at Kirtland Air Force Base, New

By listening to the echo of earthquakes bouncing about inside our planet, we can make a good guess at what’s inside Earth without slicing it up. Unfortunately seismic waves often have inconsistencies that scientists are yet to fully understand. One source of variability occurs in low-density pockets of material some 3,000 kilometers (just under 1,900

Something strange and rather wonderful happens when two people are working together on the same task, a new study shows: key regions of their brains sync up, suggesting we can match each other’s neural activity when we’re in groups. In the study, 39 pairs of volunteers were asked to design the interior of a virtual

Our Solar System is a pretty busy place. There are millions of objects moving around – everything from planets, to moons, to comets, and asteroids. And each year we’re discovering more and more objects (usually small asteroids or speedy comets) that call the Solar System home. Astronomers had found all eight of the main planets

Over the past century, the Earth’s average temperature has swiftly increased by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). The evidence is hard to dispute. It comes from thermometers and other sensors around the world. But what about the thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution, before thermometers, and before humans warmed the climate by

In a hypothetical future where autonomous cars trundle up and down our busy roads, traffic lights might have a fourth color installed, one added for the benefit of those self-driving vehicles. Researchers at North Carolina State University are proposing an additional white traffic light that would signal to drivers autonomous vehicles (AVs) are managing the

WASHINGTON — Russia is moving ahead with the uncrewed launch of a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station after the post-undocking inspection of a Progress cargo spacecraft failed to show damage from a coolant leak. Roscosmos announced Feb. 18 that the council of designers at RSC Energia has recommended the Soyuz-2.1a launch of the

Dare to get close enough to a snake of some kind, you’ll quickly notice there’s no sign of an ear for you to whisper into. Not a flap, flop, or furrow to be seen. So you might be mistaken to thinking they’re a little hard of hearing. “Snakes are very vulnerable, timid creatures that hide

In 15th century England, a woman by the name of Lady Isabel German tucked herself away in a room of the All Saints Church near York. For 28 years, she lived in religious solitude as an ‘anchoress‘, praying and contemplating God from the confines of a sealed cell. Five hundred years later, remains thought to

A comma-shaped molecular cloud near the center of the Milky Way seems to be orbiting one of the most sought-after objects in astronomy. At the center of the “Tadpole’s” orbit, a team of astronomers saw precisely … nothing. And a nothing which attracts something simply screams ‘ black hole‘. Modeling suggests that this wouldn’t just

The Antarctic Ocean area covered by ice has shrunk to a record low, exposing the thicker ice shelves buttressing Antarctica’s ground ice sheet to waves and warmer temperatures, scientists reported Thursday. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in the United States said Antarctica’s sea ice fell to 1.91 million square kilometers (737,000 square miles)

Elon Musk wants to put a computer chip in your brain. Well, maybe not in your brain, but in the brain of some human somewhere. Musk’s neurotech startup, Neuralink, has been working toward implanting its skull-embedded brain chip in a human since it was founded in 2016. After years of testing on animal subjects, Musk

WASHINGTON — The carrier aircraft for Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceplane made its first flight in more than a year Feb. 15 as the company moves one step closer to beginning commercial service. The airplane, VMS Eve, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, flying for more than

Without the buzzing, fluttering, scuttling or creeping crawlies our world would be in strife. Yet we don’t even know some of the most basic things about these arthropods like butterflies, spiders and centipedes, such as how many of these important components of our world’s biosphere are even out there. So researchers crunched some numbers to

Isaac Newton is credited with first formulating a theory of gravity in the latter half of the 17th century – apparently inspired by an apple falling from a tree – but fundamental aspects of gravity’s pull were also recognized by Leonardo da Vinci more than a hundred years earlier, a new study explains. The study

Under the shadow of the Cold War, many in the world feared the impending prospect of a nuclear winter. According to a new report, our focus has since drifted from its horrors, leaving us with a general lack of awareness that could be dangerous for the future of humankind. It goes without saying that the