NASA’s Next Great Leap

While it may seem like the whole world has come to a standstill, NASA is notably continuing to prep for one of the most important missions in recent memory, set to launch on the 27th of May, coinciding with the week of Memorial Day. Riding aboard a SpaceX-built Falcon 9 rocket, the two veteran astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will attempt to dock with the International Space Station in orbit.

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Oldest 'nearly complete' HIV genome found in forgotten tissue sample from 1966

The oldest known nearly complete gene sequence from the HIV strain that spread across the world has been found in a tissue sample from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a new study finds. The tissue sample was taken and preserved in 1966, making this HIV sequence 10 years older than the previous oldest genome, which came from a blood sample taken in 1976 in the DRC. Gene sequences like these – which come from before the virus that causes AIDS was discovered in 1983 – help pinpoint the timing of genetic mutations in the virus.

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Evidence that curtailing proactive policing can reduce major crime

Using the 2014 New York Police Department slowdown as a natural experiment, the authors show that civilian complaints of major crime decreased during and after reductions in proactive policing, which challenges existing research on the topic. (PDF)

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SpaceX’s Dragon launch ushers in a new era for Americans in space

On Wednesday afternoon, two NASA astronauts are set to take off from Kennedy Space Center aboard a capsule built by Elon Musk’s space company.

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NASA astronauts blast off into space on SpaceX rocket

A rocket ship designed and built by Elon Musk's SpaceX company has lifted off with two Americans on a history-making flight to the International Space Station.

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SpaceX's Starship Prototype Just Erupted in a Dramatic Fireball During Testing

To realize its ambitious plans for sending up to 100 passengers to the Moon and Mars inside a massive Starship spacecraft, SpaceX is racing through prototypes.

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The Mysterious Anomaly Weakening Earth's Magnetic Field Seems to Be Splitting

New satellite data from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveal that the mysterious anomaly weakening Earth's magnetic field continues to evolve, with the most recent observations showing we could soon be dealing with more than one of these strange phenomena.

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Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are becoming stronger, according to a new NOAA study

It is becoming increasingly evident that hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical cyclones worldwide are becoming stronger and potentially more deadly as the globe warms due to the climate crisis, according to a new study.

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Breakthrough: Scientists Discover New Antibodies That Can Fight Toxic Particles Causing Alzheimer's Disease

This discovery is a potential advance in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

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Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs struck Earth at 'deadliest possible angle'

'The worst-case scenario is exactly what happened,' researchers reveal

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Scientists working on an artificial eye that works like a real one

Scientists have been working for years to create an artificial eye that will be able to mimic the shape and behavior of the real eye. Of course it is an extremely difficult task, but it seems that they have finally found the right path to it. The result is an artificial eye whose functions and structure largely mimic the human eye. This eye is powered by a network of nano photo-sensors placed inside a spherical alumina membrane that “plays” the retina, while a network formed of an alloy of liquid metal replicates the nerves through which signals are sent from the sensor to the external processor.

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Amazon under threat: Fires, Loggers and now Virus

How the loss of the Amazon goes beyond deforestation - and what the nine countries that share this natural resource are doing to protect it.

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Half the universe’s ordinary matter was missing — and may have been found

At long last, all of the universe’s ordinary matter seems to be present and accounted for. Astronomers have taken a new census of matter in the universe by examining how bright flashes of radio waves from other galaxies, called fast radio bursts, are distorted by particles on their way to Earth. This analysis shows that about half of the universe’s ordinary matter, which has eluded detection for decades, is lurking in intergalactic space, researchers report online May 27 in Nature.

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What is SpaceX and why is it working with Nasa?

What is SpaceX? How does it make money? The company is set to make history as, alongside Nasa, it sends two astronauts to the International Space Station - the first time a private company has done this. The launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for 16:33 local time (20:33 GMT / 21:33 BST).

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Feeling the Pain of Rejection? Try Taking a Tylenol

Certain kinds of physical and emotional pain share a neural pathway that responds to acetaminophen

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'Billions of years of evolutionary history' under threat

Scientists say more than 50 billion years of cumulative evolutionary history could be lost as humans push wildlife to the brink. "Weird and wonderful" animals unlike anything else on Earth are sliding silently toward extinction, they say. And regions home to the greatest amounts of unique biodiversity are facing unprecedented human pressures. They include the Caribbean, Western Ghats of India and large parts of Southeast Asia.

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch first astronauts from US soil since 2011

Falcon 9 rocket to make history as billionaire seeks to commercialise space travel

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The oldest disk galaxy yet found formed more than 12 billion years ago

The oldest disk-shaped galaxy ever spotted formed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, a new study finds. That’s much earlier than astronomers thought that this type of galaxy could form. Previous observations show that disk-shaped galaxies — including sprawling, spiral systems like the Milky Way — didn’t show up in large numbers until between 3 billion and 4 billion years after the Big Bang, which occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.

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Why time feels so weird right now

March was 30 years long and April was 30 minutes long. What gives? We talked to a time philosopher to find out.

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The Remarkable Power of the Prickly Pear

A stalwart of the Mexican landscape is finding a second life powering up buildings in the desert, and it is proving to be an unusually sustainable biofuel.

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SpaceX to make history with crewed ISS mission. Here's how to watch.

The Demo-2 launch, carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, will lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 27.

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Freaky ‘Active’ Object in Jupiter’s Orbit Is First of Its Kind Seen by Astronomers

It’s neither an asteroid nor a comet but something in between. It’s also parked within Jupiter’s orbit, making this object the first of its kind to ever be detected. Say hello to 2019 LD2, the only active Jupiter Trojan known to science. Trojans are a large group of asteroids located in the same orbital path as Jupiter, and they’re all dead, inert asteroids – well, except apparently this one, which now boasts a very comet-like tail, according to a press release put out by the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy.

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Branson space rocket fails on debut flight

A California company owned by UK businessman Sir Richard Branson fails to launch a rocket to orbit.

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Herd Of Fuzzy Green 'Glacier Mice' Baffles Scientists

Moss balls seem to roll around glaciers in a coordinated way, and researchers can't explain why the whole group moves at about the same speed and in the same direction.

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Scientists grow mouse which is 4% human

Researchers have created an embryo containing both human and mouse cells in a major advancement of genetically modified organisms. The hybrid embryo, referred to as a human-animal chimera, was grown by a team at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Astronauts may be able to make cement using their own pee

Future astronauts could make lunar buildings out of moon dust and pee. That’s the suggestion of chemist Anna-Lena Kjøniksen and her colleagues, who made a cement from urea — a major component of urine — and faux lunar soil. When humans take up long-term residence on other planets or the moon, they will need to pack light, in part because shipping materials from Earth is expensive. NASA has estimated that every pound of material sent into orbit around the Earth costs around $10,000.

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NASA declares that SpaceX is ready to fly its first crewed mission

"You know what, you can never sell this NASA and SpaceX team short." On Thursday and Friday, senior managers from NASA, SpaceX, and the space agency's international partners held long meetings to review all of the aspects of an upcoming flight of the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft.

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Jupiter could have easily become a star, and Earth would have been doomed

The massive gas giant Jupiter could have potentially become a star in the earliest days of the solar system.

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No one thought SpaceX would beat Boeing. Elon Musk proved them wrong.

Wednesday's scheduled launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule with astronauts aboard would be not only the first crewed launch to orbit by a private corporation but also a major upset in a new kind of space race.

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This bionic eye is better than a real one, scientists say

"I think in about 10 years, we should see some very tangible practical applications of these bionic eyes."

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World record internet speed achieved that is 1 million times faster than current broadband

Researchers in Australia have achieved a world record internet speed of 44.2 terabits per second, allowing users to download 1,000 HD movies in a single second. A team from Monash, Swinburne and RMIT universities used a “micro-comb” optical chip containing hundreds of infrared lasers to transfer data across existing communications infrastructure in Melbourne.

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Trump to attend Musk's SpaceX launch in Florida next week

The president and vice president will travel to Florida to witness the first launch of NASA astronauts on a private spacecraft.

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Microplastic pollution in oceans vastly underestimated – study

Particles may outnumber zooplankton, which underpin marine life and regulate climate

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The story of cheaper batteries, from smartphones to Teslas

The economics of cheaper batteries—and why they're good news for the planet.

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Bumblebees' 'clever trick' fools plants into flower

Scientists discover a new behaviour among bumblebees that tricks plants into flowering early.

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Harry Potter first edition found in skip sells for £33,000

A hardback first edition Harry Potter book which was found in a skip has sold for £33,000 at auction. The rare copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was discovered by a teacher 12 years ago along with two paperback first editions. The anonymous seller found the books outside a school while tidying its library before an Ofsted inspection. After the paperbacks went for £3,400 and £3,000, the seller said: "To say I'm pleased is an understatement."

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A New Bionic Eye Could Give Robots and the Blind 20/20 Vision

Key to the breakthrough was an ingenious way of implanting photosensors into a dome-shaped artificial retina.

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To safely explore the solar system and beyond, spaceships need to go faster – nuclear-powered rockets may be the answer

An update of 50-year-old regulations has kickstarted research into the next generation of rockets. Powered by nuclear fission, these new systems could be the key to faster, safer exploration of space.

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Wandering stars pass through our solar system surprisingly often

Our sun has had close encounters with other stars in the past, and it’s due for a dangerously close one in the not-so-distant future.

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Tagish Lake meteorite that fell in northern B.C. contains clues as to how life may have arisen on Earth

On Jan. 18, 2000, a fireball lit up the morning sky over Yukon and northern British Columbia. Loud bangs shook the area, and dust clouds wafted in the upper atmosphere. The culprit: a five-metre rock that entered Earth's atmosphere. While most of the roughly 105-tonne meteor broke up on entry, some fragments showered down to the frozen landscape, much of it on Tagish Lake, B.C.

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The Mount St. Helens Eruption Was the Volcanic Warning We Needed [Paywall]

It’s been 40 years since the sideways explosion that changed volcanology forever.

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Ketogenic Diets Alter Gut Microbiome in Humans, Mice

Ketogenic diets have a dramatic impact on the microbes residing in the human gut, collectively referred to as the microbiome, according to a new UCSF study.

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DNA-repairing enzyme reverses age-related cognitive decline

DNA damage is common to our cells, but when we’re young our bodies can fix it pretty easily. Unfortunately we lose that ability over time, leading to many of the symptoms of aging that we know all too well. A new study from MIT has found that reactivating a certain enzyme improves repair of DNA…

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AI Just Discovered a New Antibiotic to Kill the World’s Nastiest Bacteria

Penicillin, one of the greatest discoveries in the history of medicine, was a product of chance. After returning from summer vacation in September 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming found a col…

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Images reveal the first glimpse of a baby planet being born

Planets form from a disk of gas and dust that encircle a young star — the dusk particles only 1/50th the diameter of a single human hair. Gravitational forces pull the gas and dust together and, sometime between 1 to 10 million years later, all of that collision results in a planetary body.

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How coronavirus is accelerating a future with autonomous vehicles

Countries around the world have responded to the covid-19 coronavirus with lockdowns, restrictions, and technology solutions that use artificial intelligence to combat the virus. As the world begins to emerge from the pandemic, China is first to emerge from covid-19 imposed lockdowns thanks to cutting-edge technology, with autonomous vehicles and smart cities seeing an acceleration during this…

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Remote sensing reveals Antarctic green snow algae as important terrestrial carbon sink

Snow algae bloom along the coast of Antarctica and are likely to be biogeochemically important. Here, the authors produced the first map of such blooms, show that they are driven by warmer temperatures and proximity to birds and mammals, and are likely to increase given projected climate changes.

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When Cadaver Dogs Pick Up a Scent, Archaeologists Find Where to Dig

Recent research highlights the power of the canine nose to uncover buried remains from ancient human history.

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One in five Europeans exposed to harmful noise pollution – study

One in five Europeans are exposed to harmful levels of noise pollution, and this number is set to rise in the next decade, with road traffic the biggest culprit, a new study has shown. Excessive noise can cause physical and mental illness, and is associated with higher levels of heart disease, stress and sleeplessness.

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NASA’s human spaceflight chief just resigned, and the timing couldn’t be worse

Effective immediately, Ken Bowersox will serve as Acting Associate Administrator.

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