A deep dive into the Apollo Guidance Computer, and the hack that saved Apollo 14

How on Earth do you patch the software on a computer orbiting the Moon? Very carefully.

Continue reading...

Why We Should Ban Facial Recognition Technology

It’s much harder to move fast and break things when you’re not allowed to move at all.

Continue reading...

Telescope captures most detailed pictures yet of the sun

First observations from Inouye telescope bring previously hazy star into sharp focus

Continue reading...

Congress Is Getting Serious About Sending Humans to Mars in 2033

A newly proposed House authorization bill would push back NASA’s deadline to land humans on the Moon to 2028 instead of 2024, while also calling for a crewed landing on Mars in 2033. Reactions to this proposal have been mixed, with NASA’s chief Jim Bridenstine unhappy about the way the agency is supposed to roll out this recommended plan.

Continue reading...

Cigarette butts are polluting the ocean more than plastic straws — so why not ban these?

Cigarette butts, which easily find their way into the ocean, contain plastic in the filters that are not biodegradable.

Continue reading...

Sanders Takes Aim at Corporate Polluters With Bill to Clean Up Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' in Drinking Water

"Congress must pass this legislation to put an end to corporate stonewalling and criminal behavior and tackle this public health crisis."

Continue reading...

Amateur stargazers capture new form of northern lights

Aurora enthusiasts in Facebook group discover new phenomenon in Finland

Continue reading...

Study of YouTube comments finds evidence of radicalization effect

Research presented at the ACM FAT 2020 conference in Barcelona today supports the notion that YouTube’s platform is playing a role in radicalizing users via exposure to far-right ideologies.

Continue reading...

These DARPA-funded bricks can self-repair—and replicate

Concrete may be one of mankind’s worst inventions. While it’s helped us build tall, sturdy buildings, it is causing more damage to our planet than any other material on Earth, largely due to its water use and the carbon footprint of its production. Specifically, grinding stone into clinker, the lumpy gray stuff you see in concrete, accounts for 50% of concrete’s carbon impact. There must be a better way.

Continue reading...

Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

Italians are some of the fastest speakers on the planet, chattering at up to nine syllables per second. Many Germans, on the other hand, are slow enunciators, delivering five to six syllables in the same amount of time. Yet in any given minute, Italians and Germans convey roughly the same amount of information, according to a new study.

Continue reading...

Cows CHAT to each other about food and the weather, study finds

The study, by a team from the University of Sydney, discovered that dairy cows respond to positive and negative emotional situations and have their own individual moo.

Continue reading...

Pacific Ocean’s rising acidity causes Dungeness crabs’ shells to dissolve

Acidity is making shells of crab larvae more vulnerable to predators and limiting effectiveness in supporting muscle growth

Continue reading...

Rural kids carrying handguns is ‘not uncommon’ and starts as early as sixth grade

Roughly one-third of young males and 1 in 10 females in rural communities have carried a handgun, reports a new University of Washington study.

Continue reading...

CRISPR gene-editing corrects muscular dystrophy in pigs

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one of the most common and most devastating muscular diseases, greatly reducing patients’ quality of life and life expectancy. Now, researchers in Germany have managed to use the CRISPR gene-editing tool to correct the condition in pigs, bringing the treatment ever closer to human trials.

Continue reading...

'Ghost' population of humans discovered in ancient Africa

This is the first time researchers have done an in-depth analysis of ancient DNA from western Central Africa.

Continue reading...

Nano-thin flexible touchscreens could be printed like newspaper

Taking a thin film common in cell phone touchscreens, researchers have used liquid metal chemistry to shrink it from 3D to 2D. The ultra-thin and ultra-flexible electronic material could be printed and rolled out like newspaper, for the touchscreens of the future.

Continue reading...

Black holes shouldn't echo, but this one might. Score 1 for Stephen Hawking?

This isn't how black holes are supposed to behave.

Continue reading...

New study claims some cancers 'better left undiscovered'

A controversial new study claims about one in every five cancers diagnosed in Australia would have been better left undiscovered.

Continue reading...

Kirigami designs hold thousands of times their own weight

A team of researchers found that using the origami-inspired art of paper cutting and folding, it is possible to create super strong models from lightweight soft materials without the need for adhesives or fasteners.

Continue reading...

This Rat Had 'No Brain' and It Somehow Lived a Normal Life

One day, a scientist in Craig Ferris’s lab was scanning the brains of very old rats when he found that one could see, hear, smell, and feel just like the other rats, but it was walking around with basically no brain—and likely had been since birth.

Continue reading...

U.S. Army develops AI-enabled system that could radically transform future

The U.S. Army’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force (AITF) developing a new AI-enabled combat system to embrace future warfare, according to a recent service news release.

Continue reading...

Peter Diamandis: ‘In the next 10 years, we’ll reinvent every industry’

Peter Diamandis is best known as the founder of the XPrize Foundation, which offers big cash prizes as an incentive for tech solutions to big problems. The entrepreneur and investor is also co-founder of the Singularity University, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit offering education in futurology. His new book, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, argues that the already rapid pace of technological innovation is about to get a whole lot quicker.

Continue reading...

UBC study links living near highways to risk of neurological disorders

Researchers at the University of B.C. have found a link between living near highways and an increased risk of several major neurological disorders

Continue reading...

SpaceX is launching 'dark satellites' to stop its Starlink project from wreaking havoc with astronomical research

SpaceX, Elon Musk's powerhouse of a space exploration company, could be on course to seriously compromise humanity's study of outer space. Among its many rocket launches and plans to colonize Mars, SpaceX has a more Earthling-focused project. Its Starlink project aims to put up to 42,000 satellites into orbit around the Earth, where they would beam down data providing internet to remote parts of the globe.

Continue reading...

This Marvelous Machine Splits Moon Dust Into Oxygen and Metal

Like the settlers of old, space explorers will live off the land. But if self-sufficiency on Earth is difficult, it’s orders of magnitude more challenging in space, where there are no trees to build shelter, no plants and animals to eat, no water to drink, and no breathable air.

Continue reading...

Not Bot, Not Beast: Scientists Create First Ever Living, Programmable Organism

Xenobots are less than 1 millimeter long and are made of 500-1,000 living cells. Using their own cellular energy, they can live up to 10 days.

Continue reading...

Richard Dawkins: Can we live in a world without religion?

Richard Dawkins is considered one of the top British intellectuals of the 21st Century. He’s known for his opinions on atheism and his books on evolution. In his most recent book, Outgrowing God, he talks about his own experience with religion, and how science offers us a far more convincing and concrete view of the world we live in.

Continue reading...

'Ghost' population of humans discovered in ancient Africa

During the Stone Age in what is now western Cameroon, four children who perished before their prime were buried in a natural rock shelter. Now, thousands of years later, an analysis of the ancient DNA found in their bones has revealed secrets about the people who lived there many millennia ago, according to a new

Continue reading...

New study debunks notion that salt consumption contributes to weight loss

A well-controlled study out of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of more than 400 participants supports reducing salt intake as an important public health strategy to decrease incidence of hypertension.

Continue reading...

British Scientists May Have Found Cure For Cancer. By Accident.

British scientists may have discovered a cure for cancer — by accident. As The Telegraph reports, “Researchers at Cardiff University were analyzing blood from a bank in Wales, looking for immune cells that could fight bacteria, when they found an entirely new type of T-cell. That new immune cell carries a never-before-seen receptor which acts like a grappling hook, latching on to most human cancers, while ignoring healthy cells.”

Continue reading...

First space-baked cookies took 2 hours in experimental oven

The results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space.

Continue reading...

Legalising gay marriage is dramatically lowering suicides rates, study shows

Homophobic stigma remains a factor, warn experts

Continue reading...

Planet Just Had Costliest Decade for Global Natural Disasters: Insurance Industry Report

The Mississippi Basin floods were among the disasters with a massive price tag.

Continue reading...

Thousands Of Stores Will Soon Use Facial Recognition, And They Won't Need Your Consent

Facial recognition cameras are scanning faces at hundreds of retail stores to catch shoplifters before they steal. But everyday shoppers are often unaware that their faces are being scanned.

Continue reading...

Mount Vesuvius eruption 'turned victim's brain to glass'

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79, the damage wreaked in nearby towns was catastrophic. Now it appears the heat was so immense it turned one victim’s brain to glass – thought to be the first time this has been seen.

Continue reading...

NASA's Curiosity rover suffers glitch on Mars, freezes up

Can a Mars rover have an existential crisis? NASA's Curiosity rover is wondering just exactly what its place is on Mars after experiencing a technical glitch. "Partway through its last set of activities, Curiosity lost its orientation," wrote Curiosity team member Dawn Sumner, a planetary geologist at University of California, Davis, in a mission update this week.

Continue reading...

Urine fertilizer: 'Aging' effectively protects against transfer of antibiotic resistance

Recycled and aged human urine can be used as a fertilizer with low risks of transferring antibiotic resistant DNA to the environment, according to new research from the University of Michigan. It's a key finding in efforts to identify more sustainable alternatives to widely used fertilizers that contribute to water pollution. Their high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus can spur the growth of algae, which can threaten our sources of drinking water.

Continue reading...

Stress speeds up hair greying process, science confirms

Fight-or-flight response nerves pump out hormone that wipes out pigmentation cells

Continue reading...

Could Psychopaths Have a Cerebral Advantage ?

There are a few things we take for granted in social interactions with people. We presume that we see the world in roughly the same way, that we all know certain basic facts, that words mean the same things to you as they do to me. And we assume that we have pretty similar ideas of right and wrong.

Continue reading...

Worried About Swearing Too Much? Science Says You Shouldn't Be

People who swear like a sailor are more honest and more intelligent, studies show.

Continue reading...

Scientists Say They're Close to Making A Spicy Tomato

Scientists Say They're Close to Making A Spicy Tomato

Continue reading...

ESA researchers built a plant that can extract oxygen from the moon

European Space Agency (ESA) researchers have begun extracting oxygen from simulated moon dust. A reclamation plant has been built at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands

Continue reading...

'I thought I was losing my mind after miscarriage'

One in six women suffer post-traumatic stress for months after losing a baby, research suggests.

Continue reading...

Astronomers use 'cosmic echolocation' to map black hole surroundings

Material falling into a black hole casts X-rays out into space—and now astronomers have used the echoes of this radiation to map the dynamic behavior and surroundings of a black hole itself. Most black holes are too small on the sky for us to determine their immediate environment, but we can still explore these mysterious objects by watching how matter behaves as it nears, and falls into, them.

Continue reading...

Starliner’s thruster performance receiving close scrutiny from NASA

Nearly one month ago, Boeing completed the first orbital test flight of its Starliner spacecraft with a near-perfect landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. The mission had to be cut short due to a well-publicized timing error that delayed the spacecraft's service module from performing an orbital insertion burn. This caused the thrusters on board the service module, which provides power to Starliner during most of its mission, to fire longer than expected.

Continue reading...

DAVID BRIN: Skeptics versus Deniers: Creating a Climate of 'No!'

A fair number of people say there is a crucial distinction between climate-change 'Skeptics' and 'Deniers,' yet 'skeptics' still defend the core notion underlying the anti-Human-Generated Climate Change argument - that virtually 100% of the scientists studying climate change can be suborned, corrupted, or intimidated.

Continue reading...

Near-Infinite-Lasting Power Sources Could Derive from Nuclear Waste

When you hear about radioactive material you tend to think that it would be best not to go near it. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol in England don't quite think that way, though. The team, in fact, hope to recycle radioactive material from disused nuclear power plants in the South West of England to create diamond battery power — ultra-long-lasting power sources.

Continue reading...

You should stop worrying about robots taking your job

The widespread fears of a robot uprising are not only wrong – they are blocking us from better working conditions

Continue reading...

People no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life, survey shows

A growing sense of inequality is undermining trust in both society's institutions and capitalism, according to a long-running global survey. The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer - now in its 20th year - has found many people no longer believe working hard will give them a better life. Despite strong economic performance, a majority of respondents in every developed market do not believe they will be better off in five years' time.

Continue reading...

Not bot, not beast: scientists create first ever living, programmable organism

Xenobots have been called the world's first "living robots". They are made entirely of living tissue, and can be programmed to move towards a certain object.

Continue reading...