Invention Using Terahertz Radiation Could Make Particle Accelerators 10 Times Smaller

SLAC invention uses terahertz radiation to power a miniscule copper accelerator structure. Particle accelerators generate high-energy beams of electrons, protons and ions for a wide range of applications, including particle colliders that shed light on nature’s subatomic components, X-ray lasers that film atoms and molecules during chemical reactions and medical devices for treating cancer.

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Time Travel Without Mind-Bending Paradoxes Is Possible, Mathematical Modeling Suggests

“Agents could have free choice to make any action they wanted and no paradox would arise because the events just adjust themselves to remain consistent," said study author Germain Tobar.

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Salty lake, ponds may be gurgling beneath South Pole on Mars

A network of salty ponds may be gurgling beneath Mars’ South Pole alongside a large underground lake, raising the prospect of tiny, swimming Martian life. Italian scientists reported their findings Monday, two years after identifying what they believed to be a large buried lake. They widened their coverage area by a couple hundred miles, using even more data from a radar sounder on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter.

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Rolls-Royce concludes testing of plane technology set to break electric speed record

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited has announced on its blog that the company has completed testing of the technology it plans to use in its line of electrically powered planes—one of which they expect will break speed records for electric airplanes. The new plane will be one of the core products of the company's ACCEL initiative, whose main objective will be to produce zero-emission planes and engines for other plane makers, and to be net-zero by 2050. Rolls-Royce has also created a video showing parts of the ground testing, which has been posted on YouTube.

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United Arab Emirates to launch spacecraft to moon in 2024

The United Arab Emirates plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024, a top Emirati official said Tuesday

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‘There is a fear that this will eradicate dwarfism’: the controversy over a new growth drug

A new treatment could help children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, grow taller and avoid health problems in later life. But there are concerns about whether this is ethical

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Multiple 'water bodies' found under surface of Mars

The latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.

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US faces tight timeline for 2024 moon landing, NASA chief tells Senate

NASA needs to have a new lunar lander and giant rocket ready by next year in order to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, the space agency's chief Jim Bridenstine told Congress Wednesday (Sept. 23). In a Senate appropriations committee hearing, Bridenstine said NASA aims to send an uncrewed mission, called Artemis 1, around the moon in November 2021 to prepare for the first orbital mission with astronauts two years later, Artemis 2. The Artemis 3 mission would follow, sending astronauts to the south pole of the moon in 2024.

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Just saying hello to the bus driver can increase your happiness

A new study finds that simply greeting or expressing thanks to strangers leads to enhanced feelings of happiness and well-being.

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Left-handed? Researchers analysed genetic data from 1.7 million people to figure out why

About 10 per cent of Australians are left-handed and genetic analysis of more than 1.7 million people has brought scientists a step closer to understanding why.

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Selfish And Combative People Don’t Actually Get Ahead At Work

In popular culture, there’s an idea that lots of successful people are… well, not that nice. From Glengarry Glen Ross to The Apprentice, there’s a litany of bad bosses and aggressive success stories in film and television. The message seems to be that to get ahead you need to ditch the niceties and think about number one.

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Crows possess higher intelligence long thought primarily human - STAT

A second study looked in unprecedented detail at the brains of pigeons and barn owls, finding hints to the basis of their intelligence.

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Air pollution: 30 million in China died from polluted air in 17 years - study

TENS of millions of people in China died as a consequence of air pollution in a matter of years, a new study has revealed.

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Pets linked to maintaining better mental health and reducing loneliness during lockdown, new research shows

Sharing a home with a pet appeared to act as a buffer against psychological stress during lockdown, a new survey shows. Most people who took part in the research perceived their pets to be a source of considerable support during the lockdown period (23 March -- 1 June, 2020).

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A New Mass Extinction Event Has Been Discovered, And It Triggered The Rise of Dinosaurs

Huge volcanic eruptions 233 million years ago pumped carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour into the atmosphere. This series of violent explosions, on what we now know as the west coast of Canada, led to massive global warming.

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China's Chang'e 3 lunar lander still going strong after 7 years on the moon

China has lunar spacecraft operating on both the near and far sides of the moon, according to an update from the China National Space Administration.

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As fossil fuel jobs falter, renewables come to the rescue

In 2011, Don Williams made the long trip from Michigan to North Dakota hoping to capitalize on the Bakken oil boom — to, as he says, "chase oil and make quick cash." It paid off; for years Williams worked in operations on the oil fields, watching over production and maintaining pump jacks. To say that Williams worked hard would be an understatement. Putting in 12-hour days, 7 days a week — 84-hour work-weeks were typical. And the work was lucrative. The money flowed as fast as the oil did — until it didn't. In May, Williams was laid off, along with most of the Bakken workforce, when boom went bust.

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AI system detects loneliness in natural speech patterns

A new proof of concept study, led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, has demonstrated how speech-analyzing artificial intelligence tools can effectively predict the level of loneliness in older adults.

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Moon safe for long-term human exploration, first surface radiation measurements show

China’s lunar lander finds radiation dose is 200 times that at Earth’s surface

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SpaceX fires up in-space version of Starship's Raptor engine for 1st time (video)

An important piece of SpaceX's new Starship megarocket just got its first workout. The first vacuum Raptor — the in-space version of Starship's Raptor engine — blazed up in a debut test at SpaceX's development facility in McGregor, Texas, company representatives announced via Twitter last night (Sept. 24).

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New study uncovers people's neuropsychological response to reading Donald Trump's negative tweets

A new study suggests that engaging with negative content on social media can lead to reduced activation of the prefrontal cortex and impairments in executive functioning. The findings were published in Social and Affective Neuroscience. While it has been established that emotional stimuli can affect cognition, little is known about the neural consequences of consuming emotionally-arousing content on social media. Researchers Sarah M. Tashjian and Adriana Galván set out to explore this topic, by examining the cognitive consequences of reading negative, discriminatory tweets published by President Trump.

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SpaceX Can Now Launch National-Security Satellites With Used Rockets

U.S. Space Force has announced that it will launch two GPS satellites on a used Falcon-9 rocket next year. It is the first such decision from the Space Force.Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, just signed a contract modification with the U.S. Space Force. This grants permission to use Falcon 9 Boosters with preflown first stages for the upcoming GPS satellite launches.

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Blueberry Compound May Provide New Inflammatory Bowel Disease Therapy

Scientists from the Tokyo University of Science say they have identified a polyphenolic compound found in blueberries called pterostilbene (PSB) with strong immunosuppressive properties. They believe it can provide a potential therapeutic option for chronic inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

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Can solar power save rural America?

The sun is shining in Pennsylvania and Ohio. At least, solar developers hope so. They’re flocking to the two states, seeking out land leases and pitching projects that would put more renewable energy onto the grid. Solar development is touted as a win all around. It’s not extractive. It’s renewable. It allows farmers and landowners new opportunities to make money from their properties.

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‘It works.’ Groundbreaking data proves success of Santa Clara County homeless housing program

New research by UCSF shows Santa Clara County’s approach to housing its sickest and most desperate homeless residents is working.

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Are You Ready To See Mars In Ultra HD 8K? Japan’s Plans To Take ‘Super Hi-Vision’ Cameras To Space

Japan's space agency will recreate its Martian Moons eXploration mission in Ultra HD 4K and 8K video.

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This $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

LoCHAid can be assembled in 30 minutes with cheap parts

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China’s cities will soon be crawling with self-driving robotaxis

As the taxi drove itself through Shenzhen’s bustling streets, Bill Russo marveled from the passenger seat. Be it a scooter making a u-turn in front of the robotaxi, or a nearby driver who decided to go straight instead of following the legal left or right turns marked on the road, there was no shortage of obstacles for the self-driving car.

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This Company Wants to Help Your Boss Monitor Your Brainwaves at Work

Critics doubt that Emotiv's earphone-style sensors can reliably track things like stress and attention—and some worry the technology will become yet another form of workplace surveillance.

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Study finds Russian prescription drugs hiding in "brain-boosting" supplements

Analysis of eight "brain boosting" supplements and two work-out supplements identified drugs that are illegal in the US, but are prescribed in other countries.

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Children Who Play Video Games Are Better at Working Memory Tasks, Says Study

A new study reveals how video games can influence cognitive changes even after years of not playing them.

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FDA must do more to ban thousands of chemicals added to your food, petitioners say

The US Food and Drug Administration hasn't regulated the 10,000 chemicals added to your food, according to a petition filed Wednesday by groups representing pediatricians, the environment, public health, as well as food and consumer safety advocates.

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The ISS just avoided a ‘piece of unknown space debris’

The astronauts on board were never in danger

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Tom Cruise is heading to space for his new film

Project is scheduled to shoot in space in October 2021

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California moves to end sales of new gas-powered cars

California will halt sales of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks by 2035, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday, a move he says will cut greenhouse gas

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The internet treatment of insomnia

The reasons are different. They include, for example, stress through circulatory, respiratory, trauma, eating problems, and simply incorrect sleep hygiene, by which we mean a general set of factors that are not conducive to successful sleep, such as too much blue light being emitted by electronic devices before the planned sleep. Sometimes sleep disorders are short-term and occasional and the body makes up for the lack of sleep quite quickly.

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EU's farm animals 'produce more emissions than cars and vans combined'

Greenpeace says bloc must get a grip on reducing greenhouse gases from livestock or risk missing Paris agreement targets

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Over 330 elephants suddenly collapsed and died. Scientists now have an explanation.

The mystery surrounding hundreds of sudden elephant deaths in Botswana seems to have been solved and the findings bring an end to months of speculation.

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We are failing to save the planet’s species, finds UN report

As the planet plunges headlong into its sixth mass extinction, caused by humans, biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate. Global targets to slow this alarming trend have not been reached, according to a U. N. report.

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NASA Found Another Way Into Nuclear Fusion

NASA has unlocked nuclear fusion on a tiny scale, with a phenomenon called lattice confinement fusion that takes place in the narrow channels between atoms.

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Saturn's ocean moon Enceladus has fresh ice in unexpected place

Enceladus may be even more interesting than we thought.

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NASA still targeting moon's south pole for 2024 crew landing

NASA is definitely targeting the moon's south pole for a crewed landing in 2024 — but that timeline will be difficult to achieve if Congress doesn't open its purse strings, and fast, agency chief Jim Bridenstine said. During a presentation with NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group last Monday (Sept. 14), Bridenstine seemed to suggest that the agency is open to a more equatorial site for the 2024 touchdown, a key milestone in NASA's Artemis program of crewed lunar exploration.

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Europe’s ancient forests ‘in perilous state’, scientists warn

Rare woodlands are vital stores of biodiversity but are under threat of being lost entirely

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German space agency shows off outrageous modular vehicle prototype

Where we're going, we don't need drivers seats.

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New Jersey governor signs law aimed at protecting poor from pollution

A landmark environmental justice bill stalled for over a decade became law in New Jersey on Friday.

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As Pandemic Progressed, People's Perceived Risks Went Up

In the first week of the coronavirus pandemic, people living in the United States underestimated their chances of catching the virus, or of getting seriously ill from the virus, according to a recently published Caltech-led study. But as the days progressed, those same people became more worried about their personal risk, and, as a result, began to increase protective behaviors such as washing hands and social distancing.

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World's richest 1% cause double CO2 emissions of poorest 50%, says Oxfam

The wealthiest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new research. Carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60% over the 25-year period, but the increase in emissions from the richest 1% was three times greater than the increase in emissions from the poorest half.

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Airbus reveals zero-emission plane plan

Aerospace giant Airbus has announced plans to build zero-emission aircraft using hydrogen power technology. On Monday (21 September), the firm revealed three concept designs that are on the table and is targeting a 2035 entry-into-service.

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Coffee Rust Is Going to Ruin Your Morning

Coffee plants were supposed to be safe on this side of the Atlantic. But the fungus found them.

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Starlink starts to deliver on its satellite internet promise

The first performance numbers from SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service are coming in and they're looking great. End-user terminal production numbers, though, are another matter.

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