Science

Like its movie namesake, the horrific marine heatwave nicknamed the Blob destroyed much in its path during its peak, causing mass deaths of fish, birds, and many other marine animals, threatening fishing industries. Since then, the Blob has at least briefly reared its head twice, hinting at an underlying persistence to its cause. Now, researchers

WASHINGTON — The Russian government dismissed Dmitry Rogozin as the head of the space agency Roscosmos July 15, the same day the agency and NASA signed a long-anticipated agreement to exchange seats on flights to the International Space Station. In a brief statement, the Kremlin announced the Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, had dismissed Rogozin

Forced to spend their days slamming their tiny skulls into the sides of trees in search of buried morsels, woodpeckers should have evolved a trick or two to avoid brain damage. So you’d think. A new study on woodpecker biomechanics has cast doubt on speculations that the small chisel-headed bird avoids turning its brain to

Before quantum computers and quantum networks can fulfil their huge potential, scientists have got several difficult problems to overcome – but a new study outlines a potential solution to one of these problems. As we’ve seen in recent research, the silicon material that our existing classical computing components are made out of has shown potential for storing

Remains recovered from a cave in the Chinese province of Yunnan more than 10 years ago have finally given up their secrets, with a DNA analysis revealing not just who left them, but ultimately where their ancestors would go. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences evaluated nuclear and mitochondrial sequences extracted from a 14,000-year-old

The ingredients for life are spread throughout the Universe. While Earth is the only known place in the Universe with life, detecting life beyond Earth is a major goal of modern astronomy and planetary science. We are two scientists who study exoplanets and astrobiology. Thanks in large part to next-generation telescopes like James Webb, researchers

A “wet wipe island” the size of two tennis courts has formed in the Thames, causing the river as it flows through London to change course, according to The Times of London. Ministers have asked people to stop using wet wipes, and the government is considering banning those that contain plastic. Fleur Anderson, a Labour MP,

Chirag Parikh: ‘What we’ve done is we’re putting our money where our mouth is’ WASHINGTON — Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the National Space Council, said he expects the Office of Space Commerce to start developing an architecture for space traffic management, an initiative that has been bogged down by studies and lack of funding.

It was thought that humans were unique amongst mammals when it came to farming – but depending on how strict we are with definitions, it turns out we might not be alone when comes to tending the land to grow food. Scientists have discovered that pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) also practice a form of agriculture.

Ten years after it discovered the Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider is about to start smashing protons together at unprecedented energy levels in its quest to reveal more secrets about how the universe works. The world’s largest and most powerful particle collider started back up in April after a three-year break for upgrades in

Our DNA is packed into our nucleus pretty damn tightly. Each chromosome is one looong DNA molecule wrapped around proteins called histones, like a very tiny thread on very tiny spools. But sperm puts even the packing skills of chromosomes to shame. “If DNA were to take up as much space as a watermelon under

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already expanded humanity’s vision further into time and space than ever before, giving a breathtaking sneak peek of the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the early Universe to date. Now, NASA has just unveiled five more stunning full-color images captured by the most ambitious telescopes humanity has

The vast expanse of Lake Taupō’s sky blue waters, crowned by hazy, mountainous horizons, invokes an extreme sense of tranquility.  And yet, deep in the ground below, geological unrest is brewing, according to a new paper in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. Lake Taupō is the largest freshwater lake in Australasia, located

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are already way ahead of us in certain areas – playing Go, for example, or crunching huge sets of data – but in other aspects AI is still a long way behind human beings, even just a few months after we’re born. For example, even young babies instinctively know know that

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published an updated space policy that emphasizes its roles in cybersecurity and resilience. The policy, less than three pages long, was signed by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas April 14. It was not published on the department’s website, though, for more than two months. “While

We have long seen insects as instinctive, mindless creatures with robotic-like reactions to the world and all its impulses. But the closer we look, the more we find surprisingly complex behaviors, from bees communicating through dance to incredible feats of ant cooperation and now we have mounting evidence that these little creatures that run our

For the first time, physicists have witnessed something incredibly exciting: electrons forming whirlpools just like a fluid. This behavior is one that scientists have long predicted, but never observed before. And it could be the key to developing more efficient and faster next-generation electronics. “Electron vortices are expected in theory, but there’s been no direct

Dogs are beyond great. These wonderful animals are so clever, and so connected with us. For people lucky enough to be dog owners, they’re truly our best friends. Now researchers have discovered another reason to love dogs, and it’s something that’s not so obvious. According to new research, a higher concentration of dog ownership in

For decades, we’ve dreamed of visiting other star systems. There’s just one problem – they’re so far away, with conventional spaceflight it would take tens of thousands of years to reach even the closest one. Physicists are not the kind of people who give up easily, though. Give them an impossible dream, and they’ll give

Our living planet is unique among all we’ve been able to explore in the Universe so far. From our axial tilt preventing too many temperature extremes, to our goldilocks zone position, life on Earth depends on many finely balanced, interwoven cycles that come together to produce the exact circumstances we need to thrive. One of

TAMPA, Fla. — Lynk Global said it is still waiting for Spaceflight to rebook a flight for the second commercial satellite in its cellphone-compatible broadband network, four months after the launch services provider’s space tug was kicked off a SpaceX mission. Lynk-07 was supposed to launch onboard Spaceflight’s Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) in April

Researchers have discovered a new species of giant dinosaur that has been called Meraxes gigas: just like the Tyrannosaurus rex, M. gigas has very short forelimbs, and it seems that both of these massive dino theropods evolved the trait separately. Not only are T. rex and M. gigas a long way apart on the evolutionary

When disordered magnetic materials are cooled to just the right temperature, something interesting happens. The spins of their atoms ‘freeze’ and lock into place in a static pattern, exhibiting cooperative behavior not usually displayed. Now for the first time, physicists have seen the opposite. When fractionally heated, the naturally occurring magnetic element neodymium freezes, turning

Locally sourced grapes and imported tar pitches may have been the norms for winemakers along the coast of Italy during the Roman period, according to jars recovered from the ocean near the harbor of San Felice Circeo. Three different wine jars, or amphorae, were recovered and analyzed, giving researchers a useful insight into the practices

Over the last few years, as we have been able to peer back deeper and deeper into the early Universe, astronomers have been discovering something extremely puzzling. Before the Universe was a billion years old, giant black holes up to over a billion times the mass of the Sun had already somehow formed. Given what

Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels requires reaching net zero emissions by the middle of this century. This means that, in less than three decades, we need to reverse more than a century of rising emissions and bring annual emissions down to near zero, while balancing out all remaining unavoidable emissions by

The process of freeze drying really is punching above its (very light) weight. It makes for a delicious chocolate-covered strawberry, gives astronauts expanded food options, and now, the technique could be used to store DNA and cell information for cloning purposes. With a success rate as low as 0.2 percent, freeze drying of cells still

WASHINGTON — Spacecraft controllers have restored communications with a lunar cubesat that went silent shortly after its deployment earlier this week. NASA and Advanced Space, the company operating the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat, said the spacecraft started transmitting again early July 6. The spacecraft stopped communicating about 11

The process of turning water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight into oxygen and energy helps plants to grow naturally – and it’s a process that scientists are looking to harness and adapt in order to produce food, fuel, and more besides. In a new study, scientists outline an experimental artificial photosynthesis technique, which deploys a two-step

Physicists say they’ve found evidence in data from Europe’s Large Hadron Collider for three never-before-seen combinations of quarks, just as the world’s largest particle-smasher is beginning a new round of high-energy experiments. The three exotic types of particles – which include two four-quark combinations, known as tetraquarks, plus a five-quark unit called a pentaquark – are totally