Getting around in a city can be a lot more dangerous than wide open spaces, and that, it seems, is true for migratory birds as well, especially if they’re in the habit of calling out to each other at night. A new study has analysed the deaths of 70,000 songbirds that died after colliding with
Month: April 2019
By implanting transparent skulls into mice, scientists think they may be able to glean new insights into how the brain works as a whole – research that could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other brain disorders. “This new device allows us to look at the brain activity at the smallest level zooming in on specific neurons while
We still don’t know what dark matter is, but we can strike a line through one option. It is not, as per a theory proposed by the brilliant Stephen Hawking, a bunch of teeny-tiny microscopic black holes. In the most rigorous test of the theory to date, an international team led by researchers from the Kavli
It could be a landscape on an alien world. Strange optical effects and dazzling mineral formations bloom on the edge of water so hot it would be steam if not for the pressure of all that deep ocean above it. Researchers on board the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor recently captured some amazing snapshots
WASHINGTON — A day after Boeing confirmed delays in test flights of its commercial crew vehicle, NASA said that the company’s crewed test flight will get an extended stay at the station when it does fly. In an April 3 statement, NASA said that the Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, expected no sooner
Sure, you might think your average acorn-chomping grey squirrel is sort of cute. But seriously, it’s never going to be giant rainbow squirrel from India level of cute. It’s not just our opinion either. When amateur photographer Kaushik Vijayan posted some pics of Malabar giant squirrels (Ratufa indica) on Instagram, they quickly wowed the internet. Vijayan took
The US government has ended its 30-year practice of breeding and then killing lab kittens used as vessels to harvest parasites. Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May
“I fully support the standup of a Space Force underneath the Air Force,” Raymond said in front of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee. WASHINGTON — In his first appearance on Capitol Hill since being nominated to run U.S. Space Command, Air Force Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command,
To receive FIRST UP Satcom, a weekly SpaceNews newsletter for satellite and telecom professionals, sign up here. TOP STORIES Antenna builder ThinKom and fleet operator Inmarsat recently announced the completion of a series of tests using ThinKom antennas and Inmarsat’s high-throughput Global Xpress satellites. The first involved a ThinAir Ka2517 phased-array antenna mounted on Scaled Composites’ Proteus
NASA has made it clear they want astronauts back on the Moon in 2024, and now, they are zeroing in on the Red Planet – the US space agency confirmed that it wants humans to reach Mars by 2033. Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, said Tuesday that in order to achieve that goal, other parts of
This version features a chocolate truffle base under a layer of marble cheesecake. The decoration on the top is known as a napoleon design. #HowItsMade Mondays 9/8c on Science http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/how-its-made/ Subscribe to Science Channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribeScience Check out SCI2 for infinitely awesome science videos. Every day. http://bit.ly/SCI2YT Download the TestTube app: http://testu.be/1ndmmMq
Watch in 360 degrees as an United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. Roughly the size of a small car, the spacecraft lifted off at 3:31 a.m. EDT on Aug. 12, 2018, starting its historic
A mathematician in the UK has found the penultimate solution to a fiendish number problem that’s puzzled the world for centuries, if not even longer. Researcher Andrew Booker, who studies pure mathematics at the University of Bristol, discovered a new solution to a famous Diophantine equation involving the sums of three cubes. The problem, which
Denali National Park in Alaska is home to North America’s highest peak, attracting long queues of humans who are keen to commune with nature. Unfortunately, nature’s call doesn’t always align with convenient amenities, and decades of toilet breaks have added up. Now hiking companies are making it their business to fix the peak’s poo problem.
Some want to keep a clean record for future employers while others are merely following their therapist’s orders. In any case, there are plenty of reasons to take a break from Facebook. Before you do something you might regret, though, remember there is a way to deactivate your account without deleting it for good. Instead
WASHINGTON — Boeing confirmed April 2 it will delay the uncrewed test flight of its commercial crew vehicle, citing a tight schedule and conflicts with another launch. In a statement to SpaceNews, Boeing said the first flight of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, called the Orbital Flight Test, is now scheduled for August on a United
Have you reached the right time in your relationship to move in with your significant other? Or even get married? A mesmerising new data visualisation can help you see how your relationship timeline matches up with both modern couples and those from the 1970s. Put together by statistician Nathan Yau based on 3,510 responses to
The head of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, is not happy with how other world leaders are treating space. Speaking at a recent Town Hall, the space agency’s highest ranking official admonished the Indian government for shooting down a satellite in low orbit, calling the test “unacceptable”. “That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event
Alaska just finished one of its most unusually warm Marches ever recorded. In its northern reaches, the March warmth was unprecedented. Part of a rapid and troubling warming across the Arctic, the month concluded feverishly in the northern part of the state, with widespread temperatures 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Many areas finished
WASHINGTON — Aircraft tracking company Aireon initiated service with its space-based sensor network April 2, starting global monitoring of aircraft location and velocity on a near real-time basis. “Today is when we start generating revenue,” Aireon CEO Don Thoma said at a news conference here. Air traffic regulators from Canada and the U.K. have started
Hundreds of years ago, the west coast of South America was ruled by the Incas – a mysterious empire considered to be the most elaborate society to exist in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. This is not their story. For long before the Incas held dominion over the sweeping lands stretching from Colombia
It’s difficult to remember a time when Google did not oversee, organize and mine every aspect of our existence, but in 2004, its new email service seemed so powerful that it couldn’t be real. Gmail’s announced features were mind-bending: a gigabyte’s worth of storage that blew away other services by 100 times. And it would
POTOMAC, Md. — Insisting that all options are under consideration, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said April 1 that he hopes to develop an initial plan within the next couple of weeks for getting astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024. In an interview after a speech at a workshop here on proposed future
The mystery of methane on Mars may finally be solved as scientists Monday confirmed the presence of the life-indicating gas on the Red Planet as well as where it might have come from. In the 15 years since a European probe reported traces of the gas in the Martian atmosphere, debate has raged over the
Street Science | Wednesdays at 10/9c on Science Full Episodes Streaming FREE on Science Channel GO: https://www.sciencechannelgo.com/street-science/ How can it possible to walk or ride a bike across the surface of a liquid? Kevin and his crew have created a goo that acts as both a liquid and solid. More Street Science! http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/street-science/ Subscribe to
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon missions, we prepare to take the next giant leap, with sustainable lunar missions that pave the way for eventual journeys beyond. This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2019_0205_Celebrating_Apollo_as_We_Push_Forward_to_the_Moon.html
Nobody likes a know-it-all, but new research shows that people who are able to admit that their own knowledge and views might not be correct, are actually more knowledgeable. The new study, led by first author and psychologist Elizabeth J. Krumrei-Mancuso from Pepperdine University, examines the concept of intellectual humility, which can be characterised as
NASA’s new planet-hunting space telescope TESS may be primarily searching for alien worlds, but it’s certainly not the only thing the shiny beast can do. She hasn’t even been up there a year yet – and now astronomers have detected the first exocomet in TESS’s data. What’s more, the detection was made in a star’s
A prolific cybersecurity research firm says it has managed to make Tesla’s self-driving feature veer off course by sticking three small stickers on the road pavement. Keen Lab, a two-time honoree of Tesla’s “bug bounty” hall of fame program, said in a research paper on Saturday that it found two ways to trick Autopilot’s lane
WASHINGTON — In the sharpest rebuke to date by a U.S. government official, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine criticized India’s recent anti-satellite test April 1, saying it created debris that posed a threat to the International Space Station. During a town hall meeting with NASA employees, Bridenstine was asked about the March 27 test, dubbed “Mission
The share of US adults reporting no sex in the past year reached an all-time high in 2018, underscoring a three-decade trend line marked by an aging population and higher numbers of unattached people. But among the 23 percent of adults – or nearly 1 in 4 – who spent the year in a celibate
We tend to think of stars as the objects that make most of the light in the Universe, while planets, moons, rocks, dust and gas reflect this starlight. But it turns out that stars reflect light, too. We haven’t really noticed this phenomenon before, because the amount of reflected light is minuscule compared to the
A team from NASA and MIT has created a new type of airplane wing — and it could make air travel far more efficient. In a paper published in the journal Smart Materials and Structures on Monday, the researchers describe how they built an airplane wing from hundreds of identical, lightweight cube-like structures, all bolted
While the launch industry has grown, DoD is not giving commercial companies enough opportunities to compete for contracts, says a new study by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. WASHINGTON — Privately funded space companies are pouring billions of dollars into the development of satellites, sensors and launch vehicles that the
When it comes to protecting yourself from mosquitoes at your next garden party, there might be one deterrent you’re not thinking of – blasting Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Spirits at full volume all night. You might annoy everyone present, but according to researchers in Malaysia and Thailand, it works as a bizarre form of
There was a big stir when reports emerged that the Curiosity rover had detected methane on Mars. But there was a problem: it could not be ruled out that its sensors were wiggy, or something was misinterpreted. Now it seems we can put that concern to rest – because an independent source has also detected
This op-ed originally appeared in the March 25, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine. Nuclear deterrence requires satellites for early warning of missile launches and satellites for communications in a nuclear-disrupted environment. Yet, these satellites will face a window of vulnerability in the 2020s. At this 11th hour, the United States can still close the window, provided
Rachel, Valerie, and Jesse take on a classic movie myth: the old Furniture Barricade trick. Is it really possible to block a door by using pieces of furniture to cut off the bad guys? Stream Full Episodes of MythBusters Jr.: https://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/mythbusters-jr/ Subscribe to Science Channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribeScience Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScienceChannel Follow us on Twitter:
Deep groundwater could still be active on Mars and be the origin of surface streams in some near-equatorial areas of the “Red Planet”, researchers suggest. The researchers at University of Southern California (USC) have determined that groundwater likely exists in a broader geographical area than just the poles of Mars and contended that there is
Their bones were discovered in a cave in Southeastern France in the 1990s. All up, six Neanderthals: two adults, two adolescents, and two children. Across Europe, there are over 200 sites that feature the ancient remains of Neanderthals such as these, but few of them tell the same grisly story this cave contains, according to
The European Southern Observatory has just revealed there will be a huge announcement next week. Yes, we know how that sounds – but as far as we can tell, it appears the world is about to finally see the first ever photo of a black hole‘s event horizon. Of course, we won’t know for sure
Since 1978, Garfield the lazy, lasagna-loving feline has been one of the world’s most recognised and iconic comic strip characters. But for almost as long as the comic has been in print, a bizarre environmental mystery featuring the cantankerous cat has been polluting the shorelines of western France, and finally we have an explanation for
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian rocket on Monday placed domestic and foreign satellites in three different orbits on a single flight, a first for the nation and a low-cost option that could burnish its reputation for pioneering affordable options in space. India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C45, carrying Electromagnetic Spectrum Measurement satellite ‘EMISAT’
SAN FRANCISCO – Lockheed Martin Corp. expanded its business line April 1 with the introduction of Vector, a fragrance designed to capture the aroma of space. The aerospace prime contractor worked with Tony Antonelli, the retired NASA astronaut who leads Orion spacecraft mission planning for Lockheed Martin, to bottle the scent Antonelli encountered the first
Miniaturised frogs form a fascinating but poorly understood group of amphibians. They have been exceptionally prone to taxonomic underestimation because when frogs evolve small body size they start to look remarkably similar – so it is easy to underestimate how diverse they really are. As part of my PhD I have been studying frogs and
In February, Arifa Sultana, 20, gave birth to a baby boy. Then, 26 days later, she gave birth again to a set of twins, The Guardian reported. According to the outlet, Sultana has a second uterus, a condition also known as uterus didelphys. According to Scientific American, about one in 2,000 people have a second
Remember that time astronomers discovered a galaxy with no dark matter? Well, they’re back. They’ve found a second one, and it actually bolsters the case for dark matter‘s existence. As the second galaxy astronomers have found without any dark matter, the new finding – named NGC 1052-DF4 (DF4 for short) – confirms that the first discovery,