Astronomy student discovers 17 new planets, including Earth-sized world

University of British Columbia astronomy student Michelle Kunimoto has discovered 17 new planets, including a potentially habitable, Earth-sized world, by combing through data gathered by NASA's Kepler mission.

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Tesla "big battery" in Australia is becoming a bigger nightmare for fossil fuel power generators

Tesla’s “big battery” utility-scale Powerpack system at the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia has yielded more than doubled the savings to consumers in 2019 than the year prior as it dominates fossil fuel generators on quicker demand response for the grid. Hornsdale Power Reserve saved consumers AUD116 million ($75.78 million) in 2019, a big jump from AUD40 million ($26.14 million) savings in 2018.

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The Church of Scientology released hundreds of balloons at the opening of a California church. Local officials want to make sure it never happens again

Officials in California say the Church of Scientology is apologizing after releasing hundreds of balloons during a grand opening of a new church. Saturday's release of the helium balloons angered Ventura city officials, who fear they will damage the environment in and around their community some 68 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

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How a seasonal snarl-up in the mid-1500s gave us our strange rules for leap years

Leap years were devised in Julius Caesar's time, to fix the pesky problem that Earth's year isn't exactly 365 days. But 15 centuries later, our calendars were still slightly askew.

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Scientists discover protein in a meteorite

For the first time, scientists found a complete protein molecule in a meteorite — and they’re pretty sure it didn’t come from Earth. After analyzing samples from the meteorite Acfer 086, a team of researchers from Harvard University and the biotech companies PLEX Corporation and Bruker Scientific found that the protein’s building blocks differed chemically from terrestrial protein. As they write in their research, which they shared on ArXiv on Saturday, “this is the first report of a protein from any extra-terrestrial source.”

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Coke and Pepsi sued for creating a plastic pollution ‘nuisance’

Coke, Pepsi, Nestle and other large companies are being sued by a California environmental group for creating a plastic pollution “nuisance” and misleading consumers about the recyclability of plastic. The suit, filed in San Mateo county superior court on Wednesday, argues that companies that sell plastic bottles and bags that end up polluting the ocean should be held accountable for damaging the environment.

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Printer toner linked to genetic changes, health risks in new study

According a new study by West Virginia University researcher Nancy Lan Guo, the microscopic toner nanoparticles that waft from laser printers may change our genetic and metabolic profiles in ways that make disease more likely.

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Scientists discover 1st animal that doesn't breathe oxygen

Scientists have discovered something they didn't think existed: an animal that can't breathe oxygen, and obviously doesn't need to. That animal is a parasite called Henneguya salminocola, distantly related to jellyfish. It lives in the muscles of salmon and trout, causing unsightly little white nodules known as "tapioca disease."

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People who get lost in the wild follow strangely predictable paths

Lose your bearings in an unfamiliar landscape and fear shreds your navigational brain. But studies are now revealing the common mistakes lost people make, helping rescue teams to find them before it’s too late

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Georgia Tech physicists unlock the secret to perfect wok-tossed fried rice

The trick is a timely combination of side-to-side and see-sawing motions.

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A large rocky planet found 124 light years away having WATER and 'could hold alien life' new research says

A large rocky exoplanet twice the size of the Earth has been discovered. it has habitable zone and could sustain alien life.

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A chemotherapy missile made of DNA target-locks on to cancer cells

DNA is the repository for genetic information. We’ve been tinkering with it since the 1970s, trying to alter the characteristics of organisms in a single generation, like boosting crop resistance to insect pests or even making pigs glow. Only recently have researchers popularized DNA as something else: a construction material. Earlier this year, researchers assembled an intelligent and autonomous nanostructure entirely out of DNA that delivered and released a cancer drug.

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Scientists Discover New Clue Behind Age-Related Diseases

Scientists at Berkeley Lab have made a surprising discovery that links food decomposition and our risk for developing diseases like dementia, cancer.

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Earth has acquired a brand new moon that's about the size of a car

Astronomers have spotted an asteroid that has been captured by Earth's gravity, making it a temporary mini-moon. It will probably fly away again in April

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Unhealthy aging could be thwarted in the future by new molecular discovery

Everybody wants to live as long as possible. We try our best to take care of ourselves — we watch our diet, we stay active, and we throw away the cigarettes. Owing to our gallant efforts, and thanks to advances in science and medicine, human life expectancy across the world doubled in the 20th century. The average human can now expect to live past 70 years old.

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Study suggests that cannabis helps to induce sleep but does not help prevent nightly awakenings

Cannabis appears to help induce sleep but it does not seem to promote sleep continuity, according to new preliminary research

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Pentagon adopts new ethical principles for using AI in war

The Pentagon is adopting new ethical principles as it prepares to accelerate its use of artificial intelligence technology on the battlefield

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Natural gas is a much ‘dirtier’ energy source than we thought

Coal, oil, and gas are responsible for much more atmospheric methane, the super-potent warming gas, than previously known.

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Study dates Victorian volcano that buried a human-made axe 34,000 years ago

Fresh evidence shows two prominent south-west Victorian volcanoes, Budj Bim and Tower Hill, erupted at least 34,000 years ago and that people were in the area before those eruptions.

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The makers of Jif peanut butter team up with Giphy to try to settle the GIF/Jif debate once and for all

Even though the creator of the GIF has settled it already.

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NASA has a new idea to get the InSight lander's 'mole' on Mars digging again

The "mole" aboard NASA's Mars InSight lander is about to get yet another push. The mole — a self-hammering tool designed to get InSight's burrowing heat probe at least 10 feet (3 meters) underground — hasn't made much downward progress since its deployment on the Red Planet's surface in February 2019.

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If the moon were only one pixel

A tediously accurate map of the solar system.

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With a litter of tactics, scientists work to tame cat allergies

Time magazine’s list of Best Inventions of 2006 included an unusual creation. It wasn’t a gadget; it was a cat. “Love cats but your nose doesn’t?” the magazine asked. “A San Diego company is breeding felines that are naturally hypoallergenic.” There was a 15-month waiting list for the “sniffle­-proof kitties,” which sold for $3,950 or more.

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Why Climbing Mt. Everest Gives People Weird Boners

We spoke to a mountaineer about the effect high altitude has on blood pressure... and dicks.

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Farming gave us salmonella, ancient DNA suggests

But pigs didn’t give humans typhoid

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Physicists grab individual atoms in groundbreaking experiment

In a first for quantum physics, University of Otago researchers have "held" individual atoms in place and observed previously unseen complex atomic interactions.

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We need to figure out sex in space, and tech can help

The 2018 movie A.I. Rising explores how machines could fulfill desires and support humans during space travel. Lo and behold, it might contain the solution to problems related to space exploration. Astronauts, despite their rigorous training, remain humans with needs. For space exploration and colonization to succeed, we need to overcome taboos, consider human needs and desires and provide concrete, realistic solutions based on science rather than conventional morality.

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Bacteria Engineered to Protect Bees from Pests and Pathogens

AUSTIN, Texas — Scientists from The University of Texas at Austin report in the journal Science that they have developed a new strategy to protect honey bees from a deadly trend known as colony collapse: genetically engineered strains of bacteria.

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Antidepressants could lead to lifelong dependence, doctors warn, since going off them can trigger agitation, headaches, and flu-like symptoms

More people than ever before are taking antidepressant medication to manage their depression symptoms, but a new study warns about an overlooked side effect of long-term antidepressant use: something similar to withdrawal symptoms. Reviewing six decades of data, three Chicago researchers found persistent evidence that, when a person abruptly stops taking their antidepressant medication, they can experience symptoms like headaches, insomnia, agitation, diarrhea, anxiety, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms.

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There's a huge fight over reclining your airline seat. Is capitalism to blame?

Recline or don’t recline – it’s your call. But remember: the greed of airlines in shrinking space to reap profits makes them the true villains

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Fusion startup claims breakthrough will provide "unlimited" energy

"I don't want to be a laughing stock by promising we can deliver something in 10 years, and then not getting there."

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Wood waste makes recycled concrete stronger than ever

Production of the cement used in concrete is a huge source of CO2 emissions, so the more that we can recycle existing concrete, the better. That's where a new study comes in, which indicates that discarded concrete becomes even stronger than it was before, when wood waste is added to it.

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Past Time to Tell the Public: “It Will Probably Go Pandemic, and We Should All Prepare Now”

by Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman NOTE FROM IAN: The expert risk communication team of Lanard and Sandman has given me permission to post their very well-considered reply to my question of them just

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Researchers develop high-capacity EV battery materials that double driving range

Dr. Hun-Gi Jung and his research team at the Center for Energy Storage Research of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Lee Byung Gwon) have announced the development of silicon anode materials that can increase battery capacity four-fold in comparison to graphite anode materials and enable rapid charging to more than 80% capacity in only five minutes. When applied to batteries for electric vehicles, the new materials are expected to more than double their driving range.

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The World's Tiniest Nuclear Plant Is Coming to Idaho

The demonstration represents a new-generation of micro-reactors.

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NASA's Juno corrects a 25-year-old misconception about Jupiter

The gas giant's atmosphere contains way more water than scientists previously thought.

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Silicon Valley’s psychedelic wonder drug is almost here

A new startup called MindMed could have the key to providing the upsides of psychedelic drugs for both focus and addiction treatment—while cutting out the downsides of tripping.

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Speaking “Parentese” With Young Children Can Boost Their Language Development

Language learning can be a matter of much concern for new parents, who often worry about what their baby is saying, how they’re saying it, and when. With previous research suggesting that frequent verbal engagement with babies can boost vocabulary and reading comprehension, this preoccupation is not without merit.

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Why are we getting smarter? Further reading on the “Flynn effect”

In the 1980s, psychologist James Flynn discovered that, over the past century, our average IQ has increased dramatically.

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Scientists eye the Martian underground in search for alien life

The search for present-day life on Mars is heating up. And for good reason: An improved knowledge of Mars' geologic diversity and history, a better appreciation of life in extreme environments here on Earth, and a sharp focus on sensitive life-detection measurement methods are all bolstering the Mars-life hunt, giving scientists more reason to think that they just might find something.

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Mysterious repeating deep space signals 'may have been produced by aliens'

Earlier this month astronomers found strange repeating signals emanating from deep space. Now a top astronomer has said there’s a possibility they were produced by an alien civilisation. The transmissions are called fast radio bursts and are similar to other signals which have been spotted before. But the recent burst is believed to be the first with a discernible pattern.

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Just a little mindfulness can ease pain and negativity

The effect of mindfulness was so pronounced, they found, that even when participants experienced high heat on their forearm, their brain responded as if it were a normal temperature. “It’s as if the brain was responding to warm temperature, not very high heat,” says corresponding author Hedy Kober, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology and corresponding author of the sutdy in Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience.

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Powerful antibiotic discovered using machine learning for first time

Team at MIT says halicin kills some of the world’s most dangerous strains

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MRIs reveal smartphone addiction physically changes brains

Your iPhone addiction might be creating physical changes in your brain, according to a new study. Researchers looked into smartphone addiction and how it correlates to structural and functional changes in the brain. They conducted MRI scans on 48 people, 22 of whom had smartphone addiction (SPA). The study found that SPA alters the brain in a way similar to what doctors see in drug addicts. The findings only get worse from there.

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Neuroscience Study Finds Evidence That Meditation Increases The Entropy Of Brainwaves

New research suggests that the brain exhibits a pattern of activity as it does throughout the experience. The findings, published in the journal Neuroscience, indicate that meditation is associated with greater brain entropy.

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Oil and gas firms 'have had far worse climate impact than thought'

The oil and gas industry has had a far worse impact on the climate than previously believed, according to a study indicating that human emissions of fossil methane have been underestimated by up to 40%. Although the research will add to pressure on fossil fuel companies, scientists said there was cause for hope because it showed a big extra benefit could come from tighter regulation of the industry and a faster shift towards renewable energy.

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Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program

The government can't keep its story straight about its involvement with UFOs. After a yearlong investigation, we reveal the staggering truth.

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Neuroscientists discover 'engine of consciousness' hiding in monkeys' brains

You probably need this engine running to stay awake.

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Meet the unknown female mathematician whose calculations helped discover Pluto

Astronomers are rediscovering how calculations made by the 'human computer' Elizabeth Williams contributed to the first observations of Pluto 90 years ago.

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Renewable energy could power the world by 2050

Virtually all the world’s demand for electricity to run transport and to heat and cool homes and offices, as well as to provide the power demanded by industry, could be met by renewable energy by mid-century.

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