Science

Say hello to ionocaloric cooling: a new way to lower the mercury that has the potential to replace existing methods with something that is safer and friendlier to the planet. Typical refrigeration systems transport heat away from a space via a gas that cools as it expands some distance away. As effective as this process

Col. Eric Felt: ‘What’s so exciting to the Space Force about all of this commercial innovation is that we can use it to deter conflict’ WASHINGTON — Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall last year rolled out a list of high-priority technologies, including space systems, where the Pentagon intends to pump more funding in

What do a little penguin, a baby rabbit, a black rat, and a Krefft’s glider have in common? They’ve all been presented to me (when dead) by my animal companions. Chances are, if you live with a cat or dog, you’ve also been brought something similar. So, is it a gift, are they showing off,

Smallpox has left an unmistakable mark on human history, killing at least 300 million people in the 20th century alone. In spite of its notoriety, the virus‘s origins still remain elusive. Now, a team of scientists in Italy has pushed our best estimates for the emergence of smallpox back by another 2,000 years, verifying historical

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released an hour-long time-lapse video that shows 133 days of the Sun’s life. The video shows the Sun’s chaotic surface, where great loops of plasma arch above the star along magnetic field lines. Sometimes the looping plasma reconnects to the star, and other times it’s ejected into space, creating

Commercial beekeepers in the United States will soon have access to a vaccine that could save their hives from the most devastating disease honeybees face today. The medicine was designed by the biotech company Dalan Animal Health to ward off American foulbrood (AFB), a contagious condition caused by a spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. Incorporated into

All life is made up of cells several magnitudes smaller than a grain of salt. Their seemingly simple-looking structures mask the intricate and complex molecular activity that enables them to carry out the functions that sustain life. Researchers are beginning to be able to visualize this activity to a level of detail they haven’t been

Daniel Porras will be Rogue’s director of space sustainability policy WASHINGTON — Daniel Porras, a former executive at the Secure World Foundation, has joined Rogue Space, a startup developing small satellites for in-orbit services. Porras will be Rogue’s director of space sustainability policy and advocate for standards and best practices from the standpoint of small

Researchers believe that ancient stone tools discovered in Brazil are the work of capuchin monkeys, not early humans, the art and design website Artnet reported, citing an academic article. “We are confident that the early archeological sites from Brazil may not be human-derived but may belong to capuchin monkeys,” wrote archaeologist Agustín M. Agnolín and

The ancient Romans were masters of building and engineering, perhaps most famously represented by the aqueducts. And those still functional marvels rely on a unique construction material: pozzolanic concrete, a spectacularly durable concrete that gave Roman structures their incredible strength. Even today, one of their structures – the Pantheon, still intact and nearly 2,000 years

New year, new resolutions. It is that time once again. A recent survey shows that almost 58 percent of the UK population intended to make a new year’s resolution in 2023, which is approximately 30 million adults. More than a quarter of these resolutions will be about making more money, personal improvement, and losing weight.

A newly discovered comet could be visible to the naked eye as it shoots past Earth and the Sun in the coming weeks for the first time in 50,000 years, astronomers have said. The comet is called C/2022 E3 (ZTF) after the Zwicky Transient Facility, which first spotted it passing Jupiter in March last year.

Half of the Earth’s glaciers, notably smaller ones, are destined to disappear by the end of the century because of climate change, but limiting global warming could save others, according to a new study. The findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, provide the most comprehensive look so far at the future of the

WASHINGTON — Five senators are asking the White House to add at least $300 million in the next budget proposal for NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support priorities from the astrophysics decadal survey. The Dec. 21 letter, released Jan. 5 by one of the signatories, Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), asked the

A nearly 28,000-year-old cave lion cub, discovered frozen in the Siberian permafrost, is so well preserved, you can still make out each and every one of her whiskers. Researchers in Sweden suggest that the cub, nicknamed Sparta, is among the best preserved Ice Age animals ever uncovered. Her teeth, skin, and soft tissue have all

Ordinarily, to measure an object we must interact with it in some way. Whether it’s by a prod or a poke, an echo of sound waves, or a shower of light, it’s near impossible to look without touching. In the world of quantum physics, there are some exceptions to this rule. Researchers from Aalto University

Many believe our particularly large brain is what makes us human – but is there more to it? The brain’s shape, as well as the shapes of its component parts (lobes) may also be important. Results of a study we published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution show that the way the different parts of

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is one of the Solar System’s prime extraterrestrial locations for life to thrive. It harbors a global salty ocean that internal heating theoretically keeps at temperatures hospitable to an alien marine ecosystem. Detecting that life, however, is not such an easy matter. The moon is enclosed by a shell of ice that’s

Beavers are taking over the Alaskan tundra, completely transforming its waterways, and accelerating climate change in the Arctic. The changes are so sudden and drastic that they’re clearly visible from space. As the Arctic tundra warms, woody plants are growing along its rivers and streams, creating perfect habitats for beavers. As the furry rodents move

SAN FRANCISCO – A bootcamp aimed at helping startups navigate the space sector’s complex regulatory landscape is coming to New Mexico. The Space Regulatory Bootcamp, backed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX, is scheduled for Feb. 21-23 at Q Station, a collaboration center for New Mexico’s space industry in Albuquerque. “Many companies

Tails come in many shapes, strengths, and sizes. The long, thick tail of a kangaroo acts as a third leg. The rabbit’s fluff-butt is used to communicate with other rabbits. The rope-like tail of the hippopotamus flicks their poop far and wide. Many carnivores use their tail to make them more agile on the hunt.

Italians are notoriously – and understandably – protective of their cuisine, as regular arguments about the correct toppings for pizza or the appropriate pasta to use with a Bolognese ragu will attest. So it was hardly surprising that, when a Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist weighed in with advice about how to cook pasta perfectly which

Ancient bones retrieved from an archaeological site in Germany suggest that archaic humans were peeling bears for their skins at least 320,000 years ago. The markings found on phalanx and metatarsal paw bones of a cave bear (Ursus spelaeus or U. deningeri) represent some of the earliest known evidence of this type, and demonstrate one

Look up on a clear sunny day and you will see a blue sky. But is this the true color of the sky? Or is it the only color of the sky? The answers are a little complicated, but they involve the nature of light, atoms and molecules and some quirky parts of Earth’s atmosphere.

WASHINGTON — SpaceX capped off the busiest year in its two-decade history Dec. 30 with a Falcon 9 launch of a commercial Israeli imaging satellite. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 2:38 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket’s first stage, flying its 11th mission,

Guessing the color of the coat of a gray wolf seems like a no-brainer. But the canines, whose habitats are spread across North America and Eurasia, aren’t always actually gray. On the North American continent, specifically, the farther south you go, the more wolves there are with dark, black-hued coats. The phenomenon was unexplained for

Nothing can go faster than light. It’s a rule of physics woven into the very fabric of Einstein’s special theory of relativity. The faster something goes, the closer it gets to its perspective of time freezing to a standstill. Go faster still, and you run into issues of time reversing, messing with notions of causality.

Mini brains grown in a lab from stem cells spontaneously developed rudimentary eye structures, scientists reported in a fascinating 2021 paper. On tiny, human-derived brain organoids grown in dishes, two bilaterally symmetrical optic cups were seen to grow, mirroring the development of eye structures in human embryos. This incredible result could help us to better

A new analysis of dust retrieved from the Moon suggests that water bound up in the lunar surface could originate with the Sun. More specifically, it could be the result of bombardment of hydrogen ions from the solar wind, slamming into the lunar surface, interacting with mineral oxides, and bonding with the dislodged oxygen. The

The United States is building its future on an eroding foundation. In the Midwest, one of the world’s most productive farming regions, researchers have calculated that current soil erosion is up to a thousand times greater than before modern agriculture’s rise. That’s much, much more soil loss than what should be allowed following what the