Science

Life might have wiped itself out on early Mars. That’s not as absurd as it sounds; that’s sort of what happened on Earth. But life on Earth evolved and persisted, while on Mars, it didn’t. Evidence shows Mars was once warm and wet and had an atmosphere. In the ancient Noachian Period, between 3.7 billion

Billions of hooks, millions of traps, and hundreds of thousands of kilometers of fishing line and nets fall into the ocean each year from commercial fishing ventures. Once lost to the wild, this drifting gear continues to snag helpless sea life in a phenomenon called ghost fishing. These items pile onto the mountains of ocean

Vendors will compete for task orders under a five-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract WASHINGTON — The Space Force is changing its approach to buying satellites for the Space Test Program, which for decades has launched experiments for the U.S. government and allies. Instead of awarding separate contracts for STP missions, the Space Force will

When lightning flashes above, plants on the ground may respond in kind. Scientists have long been aware that plants and trees can emit small, visible electric discharges from the tips of their leaves when the plants are trapped beneath the electrical fields generated by thunderstorms high overhead. These discharges, known as coronas, are sometimes visible

Remains of headless falcons found at an ancient Egyptian port on the coast of the Red Sea have revealed new details about a mysterious group known as the Blemmyes, and their worship of the Moon god Khonsu. According to an inscription found at a dig site at the Ptolemaic-Roman port of Berenike, certain aspects of

Black holes are among the most awesome and mysterious objects in the known Universe. These gravitational behemoths form when massive stars undergo gravitational collapse at the end of their lifespans and shed their outer layers in a massive explosion (a supernova). Meanwhile, the stellar remnant becomes so dense that the curvature of spacetime becomes infinite

Finally, after what was arguably the worst summer on record for glaciers, snow has begun to fall in the European Alps. It is much needed. Over the 19 years that I have visited and studied the glaciers in Switzerland, I have not seen a summer like 2022. The scale of change is staggering. Glaciologists like

Laser-vision star tracker, docking system, and desert landing proven as practical space applications of the future Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner docks with the International Space Station on May 20, 2022, completing an important objective of the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2. Credit: NASA One day after launching May 19 from Florida’s Space Coast on a United Launch

The smartphones in our pockets have changed our lives in a multitude of ways – not least because we always have a camera to hand to capture special occasions, strange events, and perhaps the occasional rare wildlife sighting. On 29 August 2020, near the town of Whitehorse in Yukon, Canada, Thomas Jung – a wildlife

Decades of reinforcing neural connections can make the adult brain stubbornly resistant to rapid changes. Should our brain’s structure trap us in cycles of dark moods and thoughts, disorders like chronic depression can be extremely hard to shake. According to new research, some patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) can have their brains ‘rewired’ within

The lost star catalog of Hipparchus – regarded as the earliest known attempt to map the entire night sky – may have just been discovered on parchment preserved at St Catherine’s Monastery on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. In 2012, the student of leading biblical scholar Peter Williams noticed something curious behind the lettering of the Christian

The ocean covers most of our planet’s surface, accounts for the majority of our oxygen production, and provides a significant amount of resources by way of food, minerals, and energy. Yet our oceans are shockingly underrepresented when it comes to environmental conventions on an international scale. The deep blue yonder is often reduced to footnotes

You might suppose Hollywood is good at predicting the future. Indeed, Robert Wallace, head of the CIA’s Office of Technical Service and the US equivalent of MI6’s fictional Q, has recounted how Russian spies would watch the latest Bond movie to see what technologies might be coming their way. Hollywood’s continuing obsession with killer robots

Three upcoming launches and a crew handover will complete T-shaped orbital outpost HELSINKI — China is preparing to launch the final missions to complete its three-module Tiangong space station which it plans to keep constantly occupied for at least a decade. A Long March 5B is being assembled and tested at Wenchang Satellite Launch Center

Like all planets, Earth is the product of gravity. Bit by bit, the growing mass of dust and rock drew in sufficient material to become a swollen sphere of mineral we now call home. Still today gravity continues to mould our planet from within, in far more delicate ways than we might imagine. A new

Quantum entanglement is the binding together of two particles or objects, even though they may be far apart – their respective properties are linked in a way that’s not possible under the rules of classical physics. It’s a weird phenomenon that Einstein described as “spooky action at a distance“, but its weirdness is what makes

Paleolithic cuisine was anything but lean and green, according to a study on the diets of our Pleistocene ancestors. For a good 2 million years, Homo sapiens and their ancestors ditched the salad and dined heavily on meat, putting them at the top of the food chain. It’s not quite the balanced diet of berries,

Here is an idea that likely never crossed the mind of most space enthusiasts – a gas emitted from broccoli (and other plants) is one of the most indicative signs of the existence of life on a planet. At least according to a new study from researchers at the University of California Riverside. That gas,

Deputy press secretary Singh: ‘We are continuing to talk to SpaceX and other companies about satcom capabilities’ WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Friday said it is looking at options to provide satellite communications services for Ukraine’s military forces following Elon Musk’s warning that SpaceX will suspend Starlink internet services in Ukraine unless the U.S. government

How you ‘parent’ your pooch has an impact on the kind of dog it grows up to be, a new study shows. An owner who’s highly responsive to a dog’s behavior and needs tends to lead to a more social, secure, and smart canine. Parenting styles and choices are known to influence the way that

The fun of splashing at the beach or exploring a creek is an iconic part of childhood for countless kids around the world. It may also be a valuable investment in lifelong mental health, according to a new study. Spending time in nature can significantly reduce stress, improve mood, and offer other mental health benefits,

Originally predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, black holes are the most extreme object in the known Universe. These objects form when stars reach the end of their life cycle, blow off their outer layers, and are so gravitationally powerful that nothing (not even light) can escape their surfaces. They are also of interest

On 26 September 2022, leaks were discovered in the underwater Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, located near Denmark and Sweden. Both pipelines are owned by Russia and were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Officials have said the leaks were caused by deliberate action, not accidents,

How many brain cells does it take to play a video game? No, really. That’s not a joke, and there isn’t a punchline. Instead, there’s a real actual answer, thanks to a neural network system called DishBrain. If that game is Pong, the number of brain cells is around 800,000. While their slow-moving, one-sided strategy

Two years ago, I left my engineering position at Iceye to join a pre-seed space startup consisting of two people, one of which was me. As a newly minted CTO at a startup lacking capital, I was thrust into the fundraising game — with no deeper understanding of finance or business strategy than you’d expect

The least studied penguins in the world lay two eggs each breeding season, only to abandon the first one. Most of the time, the initial egg laid by erect-crested penguins (Eudyptes sclateri) simply rolls away. But sometimes, the female will purposefully ditch their first born, going so far as to push it out of the

The latest in nanoscale 3D scanning techniques have been used to reveal some of the finest secrets of a medieval material known as Zwischgold (part-gold): an ultra-thin metal foil consisting of a gold top layer and a silver base, used to gild sculptures. Up until now, only 2D cross-sections of the materials had been studied,

Observatories around the world have just detected a colossal flare of extremely energetic radiation described as “record-breaking“. The event, first detected on October 9, was so bright that it was initially confused for an event closer to home. Initially dubbed Swift J1913.1+1946, it was thought to be a brief flash of X-rays from a not-too-distant

William Shatner has made headlines this week with the announcement that his trip into space wasn’t the celebration or high note he thought it would be – instead, it felt like a “funeral for planet Earth”. In an excerpt of his new book Boldly Go published exclusively by Variety, the former Star Trek star reveals