A Very Scary Light Show: Exploding H-Bombs In Space

Back in 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb, creating what might be the greatest fireworks spectacular ever. People in Hawaii gathered on rooftops, sipping drinks, as they watched a radioactive rainbow display in the night sky.

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Three years to safeguard our climate

Christiana Figueres and colleagues set out a six-point plan for turning the tide of the world’s carbon dioxide by 2020.

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How do drugs affect the brain?

Most people will take a pill, receive an injection, or otherwise take some kind of medicine during their lives. But most of us don’t know anything about how these substances actually work. How can various compounds impact the way we physically feel, think, and even behave? Sara Garofalo explains how different drugs alter the communication between cells in the brain.

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Plastiglomerate

Whichever (if any) start date is chosen, plastiglomerate—a substance that is neither industrially manufactured nor geologically created—seems a fraught but nonetheless incontrovertible marker of the anthropogenic impact on the world; it is evidence of human presence written directly into the rock. By Kirsty Robertson. (Dec. 2016)

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Most modern horses came from just two ancient lineages

Horse breeding records are some of the most impressive efforts to chronicle animal lineages in human history, with some stretching back thousands of years. Yet decoding the genetic origins of today’s horses has proved remarkably difficult. Now, a new study finds that nearly all modern horse breeds can be traced to two distinct, ancient Middle Eastern lines that were brought to Europe about 700 years ago.

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Japan wants to put a man on the moon

Japan plans to put a man on the moon around 2030, according to a new proposal by the government's Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It is the first time JAXA has revealed an intention to send Japanese astronauts beyond the International Space Station, and it will mostly likely be part of an international mission, the agency said.

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Off-Grid Devices Draw Drinking Water from Dry Air

Sunlight-powered moisture-absorbing technologies are becoming economical. By Donna J. Nelson.

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It’s Possible to Keep Schrodinger’s Cat Alive Without Ever Opening The Box

Just keep shaking it. Researchers have used an artificial atom to show it’s possible to keep Schrödinger’s cat alive indefinitely, but also accelerate its demise, all without needing to look inside its box. By Mike McRae. (June 19, 2017)

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Type 1 Diabetes Finally Explained

Let me say this with no exaggeration. My whole life, all day, all night, every day and each night is about keeping my blood sugar between the red and yel...

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Pesticides damage survival of bee colonies, landmark study shows

The world’s largest ever field trial demonstrates widely used insecticides harm both honeybees and wild bees, increasing calls for a ban. By Damian Carrington.

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AI Just “Landed” a Boeing 737 for the First Time By Itself

It’s going to take us a healthy dollop of faith in technology to accept autonomous vehicles at some point on our roadways. But what about in our skies? The thought of robot-driven planes ferrying hundreds of people overhead to their destinations conjures images of metal, fire, and passengers raining down from the skies. Still, proponents of such systems believe autonomous transport of all kinds, including commercial flight, will be less prone to error when humans are removed from the equation. Once the bugs have been worked out, of course.

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They Built the First Phone You Loved. Where in the World Is Nokia Now?

The Finnish giant missed the smartphone revolution. Now it wants to power a new world of driverless cars and telemedicine.

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How Will We Stop Hackers From Invading Our Brains Once We’re Cyborgs?

Rapid developments in brain-machine interfacing and neuroprosthetics are revolutionizing the way we treat paralyzed people, but the same technologies could eventually be put to more generalized use—a development that’ll turn many of us into veritable cyborgs.

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To Train an Athlete, Add 12 Minutes of Meditation to the Daily Mix

Division I football players who learned mindfulness meditation or relaxation techniques showed improvements in mood and attention.

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How Exercise May Protect the Brain From Alzheimer’s Disease

It even works in people who are genetically at risk, a new study suggests

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Robots are preparing to fill 200,000 vacant construction jobs

Automation has long been considered the harbinger of future unemployment, and experts have predicted that the widespread adoption of artificially intelligent (AI) software and smart machines could lead to thousands or even millions of people losing their jobs. However, that may not be the case in the construction industry. In fact, with a growing shortage in labor, it’s one sector that’s particularly well-suited for an automation takeover.

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NASA Invites Public to Celebrate 100 Years of Aerospace Breakthroughs

NASA invites the public to three days of discussion and storytelling with notable aerospace experts to mark the 100th anniversary of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Portions of the event will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

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Frighteningly accurate ‘mind reading’ AI reads brain scans to guess what you’re thinking

Researchers have developed a deep learning neural network that's able to read complex thoughts based on brain scans.

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"Life on Mars"

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Trump moves to withdraw US water protection

US President Donald Trump has taken action to reverse an Obama-era rule that protects water from pollution nationwide. The rule has been a thorn in the side of industry - now, it could be scrapped.

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Boaty McBoatface obtains 'unprecedented data' from its first voyage

A yellow submarine dubbed Boaty McBoatface has obtained "unprecedented data" from its first voyage exploring one of the deepest and coldest ocean regions on Earth, say scientists. The robotic submersible was given the name originally chosen last year for a new polar research ship by irreverent contestants in a public competition.

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Stunning Footage Captured From Inside A Fusion Reactor

This immensely high-speed footage was released captured inside the Compass Tokamak at Institute of Plasma Physics IPP. It's a pretty beautiful sight, and it shows what happens inside these huge devices.

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Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows

A comprehensive survey of cat genes suggests that even after felines wandered into our lives, they remained largely unchanged for thousands of years.

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More than 30 nuclear experts inhale uranium after radiation alarms at a weapons site are switched off

Most were not told about it until months later, and other mishaps at the Nevada nuclear test site followed. By Patrick Malone, Peter Cary, R. Jeffrey Smith. Part Four of a series.

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Painless flu jab patch for people scared of injections -

The special sticking plaster delivers a pain-free "do-it-yourself" dose of the vaccine into the skin.

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Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.)

A new initiative to beam messages into space may be our best shot yet at learning whether we’re alone in the universe. There’s just one problem: What if we’re not?

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‘8th World Wonder’ May Lie Below Volcanic Lakeshore

Using a 19th century cartographer’s field diary, researchers think they’ve found the location of a revered landmark thought to be destroyed. By Sarah Gibbens.

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Boaty McBoatface submarine records successful maiden voyage

A yellow submarine dubbed Boaty McBoatface has obtained “unprecedented data” from its first voyage exploring one of the deepest and coldest ocean regions on Earth, scientists have said. The robotic submersible was given the name originally chosen for a new polar research ship by irreverent contestants in a public competition. Embarrassed officials decided to ignore the popular vote and instead...

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The Truth About “Lactose Intolerance”

I’ve wanted to address this one for a while. I consider lactose intolerance to be one of the most universally mischaracterized and misunderstood concepts in all of nutrition and health.

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'World's largest sleep study' seeks online volunteers

Brain scientists at a Canadian university are aiming to get a better handle on how sleep affects memory, problem solving and other cognitive functions in what they are billing as the largest such study ever to be done.

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The Solution To A Century-Old Physics Problem Might Lead To Better Telecommunications And Cloaking Devices

For over 100 years, electronic devices have been regulated by a concept called the Q factor. If the devices are storing a lot of energy for a long time, th

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Ten Amazing Things Scientists Just Did with CRISPR

A new tool called CRISPR is letting scientists cut and snip DNA in better ways, and has led to a slew of new research that touches on many human diseases. By Tracy Staedter.

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What Does the Appendix Do, Anyway?

The appendix protects against recurrent infection by Clostridium difficile (C difficile) and possibly other pathogenic bacteria, according to a study published in the December issue of Clinical Gastroenterology.

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Tick saliva 'gold mine' blocks killer heart condition

Oxford scientists are excited by the prospect of making a drug from a bug.

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The $100 billion per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

A new book investigates the ways people in pain are being swindled, and explains what actually works.

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MIT’s gas-powered drone is able to stay in the air for five days at a time

Last month, a team of MIT engineers launched Jungle Hawk Owl from the back of a compact car.

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Science: regular consumption of marijuana keeps you thin, fit, and active

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Here’s a new health-related adage to consider: Regular consumption of marijuana keeps you thin and active. According to researchers at Oregon Health and Science University, people who use marijuana more than five times per month have a lower body mass index (BMI) than people who do not use marijuana.

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Read the Lost Dream Journal of the Man Who Discovered Neurons

An exclusive look at the dreams Santiago Ramon y Cajal recorded to prove Freud was wrong.

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Beyond bananas: 'Mind reading' technology decodes complex thoughts

New research builds on the pioneering use of machine learning algorithms with brain imaging technology to "mind read."

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The Science of Being Left-Handed

It goes beyond a hand preference.

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Universal Basic Income Is the Path to an Entirely New Economic System

Sooner rather than later, a robot is going to be able to do part or all of what you do for a living. In response to this and other pressures, the Canadian province of Ontario is gearing up to launch a basic income trial this summer. For a limited period of time, and in three regions across the province, the government will be giving people a living wage, for free and with no strings attached, and seeing how the hell it goes, eh?

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The rover that will store rock samples on Mars

Nasa’s new rover is intended to store rock samples it plucks from the Martian surface. But what happens after that? Richard Hollingham finds out.

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New study confirms the oceans are warming rapidly

John Abraham: Although there’s some uncertainty in the distribution among Earth’s ocean basins, there’s no question that the ocean is heating rapidly. As humans put ever more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, the Earth heats up. These are the basics of global warming. But where does the heat go? How much extra heat is there? And how accurate are our measurements? These are questions that climate scientists ask.

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Living near noisy roads could make it harder to get pregnant

Living near a noisy road seems to affect couples who are trying get pregnant, increasing the likelihood that it will take them between six to 12 months. That’s according to an analysis of 65,000 women living in Denmark. Jeppe Schultz Christensen of the Danish Cancer Society Research Center in Copenhagen and his team made this discovery by analysing data from the Danish National Birth Cohort, a project that ran from 1996 to 2002.

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Birds use cigarette butts for chemical warfare against ticks

Urban house finches incorporate more fibres from cigarette butts into their nests if they have live ticks in them, suggesting the toxic chemicals in the butts may deter the parasites

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Scientists overlooked a major problem with going to Mars — and they fear it could be a suicide mission

Humans probably shouldn't go to Mars until we figure this out.

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Developers Who Use Spaces Make More Money Than Those Who Use Tabs

Do you use tabs or spaces for code indentation?

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Ken Campbell: the palaeontologist whose name lives on in many fossils

One of Australia's most distinguished palaeontologists will be farewelled at a funeral in Canberra today.

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Noisy cities disrupt heartbeat and could trigger disease, study suggests

The cacophony of noise town centres could trigger heart problems, a new study suggests, after scientists found that fluctuating sounds on busy high streets disturb normal cardiac rhythms. Researchers from Nottingham Trent University found that constant changes in noise – even at low levels – had an immediate and disruptive effect on the patterns of participants’ normal heart rates.

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Texas Is Too Windy and Sunny for Old Energy Companies to Make Money

In a windsurfers’ paradise, turbines capture gusts that pick up at exactly the right time - or the wrong time, if you're trying to sell natural gas.

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