Science

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and, even after all this time, the famous burial site is still revealing its secrets and stirring up controversy. A renowned British Egyptologist and former British Museum curator claims to have found evidence that the tomb’s royal murals and hieroglyphics might have been

On Thursday morning, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew within 219 miles of the surface of Europa, a large icy moon that orbits Jupiter. It’s humanity’s closest look at the frozen world in more than 20 years. The Juno mission launched in 2011 to study Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. After it successfully completed

Based on its market share, the world’s most notorious cryptocurrency Bitcoin results in more climate damage than the production of beef and nearly as much damage as crude oil, researchers in the United States have calculated. The findings of the new three-pronged analysis suggest Bitcoin is potentially unsustainable and could have disastrous social and environmental

Scientists have created a robot that can transform from a black glob into a swarm of tiny beads and back again. The inventors say that the robot’s ability to split itself into many pieces and then snap back together makes it potentially useful for drug delivery. The human body is full of winding, narrow passages

WAILEA, Hawaii — Ahead of a Federal Communications Commission vote on a proposal to set a five-year deadline for deorbiting low Earth orbit satellites, leaders of the House Science Committee are questioning the FCC’s authority to do so. FCC commissioners will take up at their Sept. 29 open meeting a proposal released earlier in the

As Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday afternoon and residents braced for what could be days of threatening weather, the shallow estuary of Tampa Bay on the state’s west coast was eerily transformed into a vast mud flat. The levels were so low in parts that the floor of the usually-bustling harbour was

Electrons whizzing through a grid-like lattice don’t behave at all like pretty silver spheres in a pinball machine. They blur and bend in collective dances, following whims of a wave-like reality that are hard enough to imagine, let alone compute. And yet scientists have succeeded in doing just that, capturing the motion of electrons moving

Toxic levels of a pollutant commonly associated with the wastes of modern industry have been uncovered amid the most unlikely of archaeological sites. Long before conquistadors from far-off lands introduced the decay of war and disease, Maya cultures were dusting the soils of their urban centers with the heavy metal mercury. The element’s levels are

Yesterday, humanity achieved a new and amazing first, 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from home. After years of planning, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) finally slammed into a moonlet, Dimorphos, orbiting an asteroid, Didymos, in our first ever attempt to redirect the path of a significantly sized cosmic object. The images of the

Lakes appearing in Alaska because of melting permafrost are “belching” methane into the atmosphere, a scientist working with NASA said. These lakes, called thermokarsts, are so full of the climate-damaging gas that it can be seen bubbling to the surface. More and more of these lakes are appearing as Alaska’s permafrost thaws with rising temperatures

In one of the more unusual experiments we’ve seen recently, researchers attached a large pair of cartoonish googly eyes to the front of a small, self-driving vehicle – and it turns out that this kind of anthropomorphic tweak could actually improve pedestrian safety. A roving pair of peepers on the front of driverless vehicles could,

LAUREL, Md. — A NASA spacecraft collided with a moon orbiting a near Earth asteroid Sept. 26 in a demonstration of a technology that could one day be used to protect the Earth from a hazardous object. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft hit Dimorphos, an asteroid about 160 meters across orbiting the larger

Deep below the surface of our world, far beyond our feeble reach, enigmatic processes grind and roil. Every now and then, the Earth disgorges clues to their nature: tiny chthonic diamonds encasing skerricks of rare mineral. From these tiny fragments we can glean tidbits of information about our planet’s interior. A diamond recently unearthed in

Babies in the womb are big fans of carrots but not so much leafy green vegetables – and show it in their faces, scientists said in a new study published Thursday. Researchers at Durham University in northeast England said the findings were the first direct evidence that babies react differently to various smells and tastes

The twisty eruption of a dying star has finally been revealed in all its 3D glory. A team of scientists led by a high school graduate has reconstructed the complicated and mysterious nebulae that make up one of the most famous stellar ghosts in the sky – the Cat’s Eye Nebula. Their model revealed the

More than eight months after the underwater volcano near Tonga erupted on Jan. 14, scientists are still analyzing the impacts of the violent blast, and they’re discovering that it could warm the planet. Recently, researchers calculated that the eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apa spewed a staggering 50 million tons (45 million metric tons) of water

WASHINGTON — NASA has called off plans to attempt to launch the Artemis 1 mission on Sept. 27 as a tropical storm, with the potential to become a major hurricane, heads for Florida. NASA announced Sept. 24 it would not proceed with the next launch opportunity for the mission, which was Sept. 27 at 11:37

A bizarre deep-sea shark with bulging eyes and an unnerving, human-like smile was recently dragged up from the depths off the coast of Australia. Shark experts are uncertain exactly which species the creepy-looking creature might belong to, adding to the mystery surrounding the unusual specimen. A deep-sea angler, who goes by the online name Trapman

A woman in labor is having a terrible time and suddenly shouts out: “Shouldn’t! Wouldn’t! Couldn’t! Didn’t! Can’t!” “Don’t worry,” says the doctor. “These are just contractions.” Until now, several theories have sought to explain what makes something funny enough to make us laugh. These include transgression (something forbidden), puncturing a sense of arrogance or

In the wacky gravitational environment in the heart of our galaxy, astronomers have found a gas blob orbiting our supermassive black hole at superspeed. Its characteristics are helping astronomers probe the space immediately surrounding Sagittarius A* in the search for answers about why the galactic center flickers and flares across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Their

Burning the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves would unleash 3.5 trillion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – 7 times the remaining carbon budget to cap global heating at 1.5 degrees Celsius – according to the first public inventory of hydrocarbons released Monday. ​Human activity since the Industrial Revolution, largely powered by coal, oil, and gas,

We all know the routine by heart: “Please ensure your seats are in the upright position, tray tables stowed, window shades are up, laptops are stored in the overhead bins, and electronic devices are set to flight mode”. Now, the first four are reasonable, right? Window shades need to be up so we can see

PARIS — NASA said it completed all the objectives of a Space Launch System tanking test Sept. 21 despite the reoccurrence of liquid hydrogen leaks. The day-long test at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B involved filling the SLS core stage and upper stage with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, carrying out the “kickstart

While the Pando colony looks like a tightly packed swathe of aspen trees, it’s largely considered to be one gigantic plant. One of the heaviest, oldest, and largest organisms in the world, in fact, emerging from a single, complex root system covering some 100 acres (more than 430,000 square meters). Known as The Trembling Giant,

The most powerful laser in the US right now is getting turned on to send its first pulses this week – enabling researchers to get a new level of insight into plasma physics and particle accelerators. Known as the Zetawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS), it produces an ultra-short, extremely powerful pulse of just 25

Say you are looking for a new job. You head to LinkedIn to spruce up your profile and look around your social network. But who should you reach out to for an introduction to a potential new employer? A new study of more than 20 million people, published in Science, shows that your close friends

In 1916, Karl Schwarzchild theorized the existence of black holes as a resolution to Einstein’s field equations for his Theory of General Relativity. By the mid-20th century, astronomers began detecting black holes for the first time using indirect methods, which consisted of observing their effects on surrounding objects and space. Since the 1980s, scientists have

Since the global pandemic began in 2020, the world has become ever more aware that the health of our species is closely intertwined with other animals. Today, the conversation is mostly focused on birds and mammals, with amphibians rarely considered – but that may be a dangerous oversight. A newly published study on frogs and

Maj. Gen. Schiess: ‘We are preparing and posturing for the fight’ NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The U.S. Space Operations Command is assigning cybersecurity and intelligence specialists to work side-by-side with satellite operators so they’re better prepared to protect U.S. systems from electronic and physical threats, said Maj. Gen. Douglas Schiess. “We are preparing and posturing

Even if the content of your dreams isn’t hot or steamy, slipping into rapid eye movement (REM) sleep might still warm you up from the inside, according to a new review. In nature, warm-blooded creatures with lower body temperatures tend to have longer periods of REM sleep; while those with higher body temperatures, like birds,