The size of the first population of people needed to arrive, survive, and thrive in what is now Australia is revealed in two studies published today. It took more than 1,000 people to form a viable population. But this was no accidental migration, as our work shows the first arrivals must have been planned. Our
Month: June 2019
To say there are some myths circulating about Martian dust storms would be an understatement. Mars is known for its globe-encircling dust storms, the likes of which are seen nowhere else. Science fiction writers and Hollywood movies often make the dust storms out to be more dangerous than they really are. In The Martian, a
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Overcrowding. Violence. Infectious diseases. Environmental degradation. It may sound like the worst of modern mega-cities. A researcher excavates the ruins of Catalhoyuk, a prehistoric settlement located in south-central Turkey that was inhabited from about 9,100 to 7,950 years ago, in this photograph released from Istanbul, Turkey, June 17, 2019. Scott Haddow/Handout via
WASHINGTON — The full House is unlikely to make major changes in NASA funding when it takes up an appropriations bill this week, but members will seek changes for two other agencies involved in space issues. The House is scheduled to start debate no earlier than June 19 on a “minibus” combining five separate appropriations
Gummy vitamins were invented in the late the 20th century by a couple looking for a way to entice their daughter to take her vitamins. Stream Full Episodes of How It’s Made: https://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/how-its-made/ Subscribe to Science Channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribeScience Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScienceChannel Follow us on Twitter: Tweets by ScienceChannel Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ScienceChannel/
Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha second stage undergoes integrated testing on the 100-foot Firefly vertical test stand. Firefly Aerospace In a bid to attract more customers and employees into Firefly’s aerospace activities, the startup plans to offer valuable payload space to these two groups on its first Alpha rocket flight in December. The mission, called Dedicated Research
A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a predictive Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can learn to see by touching and to feel by seeing. While our sense of touch gives us capabilities to feel the physical world, our eyes help us understand the full picture of these
In its final year, Cassini plunged where no spacecraft had plunged before, down in the space between Saturn and its rings. Again and again it dove, for a total of 22 orbits. In the data collecting during those breakneck dives, astronomers have just found new information about the way tiny moons sculpt and carve those
SAN FRANCISCO — Kinéis, a subsidiary formed last year by French maritime company CLS, has taken over operation of the Argos hosted payload system, and finalized manufacturing agreements for a constellation of 25 small satellites for Internet of Things connectivity. Alexandre Tisserant, Kinéis CEO, said assuming operational responsibility from CLS for the seven Argos payloads
What are the most interesting scientific findings about human behavior? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Praveen Tipirneni, MD, CEO of Morphic Therapeutic Inc., on Quora: As a biotech executive, when I see a study regarding the
Nothing lasts forever. Humans, planets, stars, galaxies, maybe even the Universe itself, everything has an expiration date. But things in the quantum realm don’t always follow the rules. Now, scientists have found that quasiparticles in quantum systems could be effectively immortal. That doesn’t mean they don’t decay, which is reassuring. But once these quasiparticles have
In the distant past of the northern British Isles, ancient humans didn’t always dwell on dry land. Across Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the foundations of thousands of mysterious artificial islands survive to this day: called crannogs, these strange structures were built long ago by prehistoric hands, in the chilly waters of rivers, lakes, and sea inlets.
If you want to know what a talent for scientific visualizations looks like, check out Eleanor Lutz. She’s a PhD student in biology at the University of Washington, and at her website Tabletop Whale, you can see her amazing work on full display. Her latest piece is a map showing all the orbits of over
Peraton CEO and chairman Stu Shea said the acquisition of Solers will strengthen the company’s national security space portfolio. WASHINGTON — Defense and intelligence contractor Peraton, based in Herndon, Virginia, announced on Monday it will acquire Solers, a software developer, cloud services and satellite ground systems provider located in Arlington, Virginia. Peraton CEO and chairman
Mihika, creator of Smart Stick. BT Telecoms giant BT has announced the finalists of its young pioneer award, which celebrates youngsters using tech to make the world a better place. Run as part of the wider Tech4Good Awards, the BT Young Pioneer Award highlights ways that young people are tackling societal and environmental problems through
The word uncertainty is used a lot in quantum mechanics. One school of thought is that this means there’s something out there in the world that we are uncertain about. But most physicists believe nature itself is uncertain. Intrinsic uncertainty was central to the way German physicist Werner Heisenberg, one of the originators of modern
Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to us, at 4.37 light-years (about 25 trillion miles) away. In 2016, astronomers discovered an exoplanet orbiting one of the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system. Spurred on by that discovery, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has developed a new instrument to find any other planets that
LONDON – The persistence of Congo’s Ebola outbreak and its deadly spread to Uganda in recent days show how societal issues are as crucial as scientific advances in controlling disease outbreaks, specialists in global public health say. FILE PHOTO: Mwamini Kahindo, an Ebola survivor working as a caregiver to babies who are confirmed Ebola cases,
Increasing time and cost pressure requires a re-thinking of products, processes, but also of supplier-customer collaboration. Peter Guggenbach, CEO RUAG Space RUAG Space offers high-performance, reliable products for launch vehicles and satellites, offering engineering, design and production. “We are at the forefront of the industrialization of the space industry that is happening, driving process optimization
In cooperation with NASA, Finland-based Rovio Entertainment, creator of the Angry Birds franchise, has announced its newest game, “Angry Birds Space.” Game developers have incorporated concepts of human space exploration into the new game. From the weightlessness of space to the gravity wells of nearby planets, players use physics as they explore the various levels
Aldrin on the lunar module footpad. Credit: NASA As the 50th anniversary of the first Moon walk looms ever closer, there has been a cornucopia of new books on almost every angle of NASA’s Apollo program. But veteran journalist Charles Fishman’s “One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us To The Moon,” manages to
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope will be switched off permanently on January 30, 2020, after nearly 16 years of exploring the cosmos in infrared light, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a statement. By then, the spacecraft will have operated for more than 11 years beyond its prime mission, Xinhua news agency quoted the JPL
Many comparisons have been made between humans and dolphins, those sleek mammals of the sea. Now scientists have found another point of similarity between us and our cetacean cousins: Like us, dolphins make friends based on mutual interests. In the case of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) specifically, individuals tend to hang out with
The world is changing as temperatures rise, and just as some parts of the planet are predicted to become uninhabitable, others are heading in the opposite direction – including the freezing cold wastelands of Siberia, new research shows. Siberia and the wider Asian Russia region accounts for 77 percent of Russia’s land area but just 27
“On National Security” appears in every issue of SpaceNews magazine. This column ran in the June 10, 2019 issue. The buzzword in military space these days is “proliferated LEO,” which is Pentagon-speak for large numbers of small satellites in low Earth orbit. LeoLabs of Menlo Park, California, uses this phased array radar near Fairbanks, Alaska, and
Something wrong with a science article? There’s a reason. Free for commercial use (via Pixabay) Who’s ultimately to blame for shoddy science journalism? Is it the journalists themselves, trying to rush through another article to meet a deadline, not really worrying about accuracy or completeness? Is it the editor, who picks a clickbait headline to
Nearly 200 million years ago, Earth’s skies were home to a creature unlike anything seen today. Neither bird nor dinosaur, this long-extinct reptile was, quite literally, born to fly. A fresh look at the fossilised embryos of pterodactyls has revealed just how independent these so-called flaplings truly were. Discovered in China for the first time
“They’re just not my type.” Whether during private conversation with a trusted friend, or while watching a favourite romantic comedy, we’ve all heard these words spoken about a potential suitor. But for all its prevalence in conversations about modern day relationships, hardly anyone has investigated whether “my type” actually exists. Recent work has suggested that
Ice is melting in unprecedented ways as summer approaches in the Arctic. In recent days, observations have revealed a record-challenging melt event over the Greenland ice sheet, while the extent of ice over the Arctic Ocean has never been this low in mid-June during the age of weather satellites. Greenland saw temperatures soar up to
Smith so far has not been happy with the Air Force’s response to his concerns about the launch program. WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee last week passed legislation that Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) believes will help commercial rocket companies compete on a more level playing field against established military contractors. The language does
Bubble tea has become a popular drink around the world. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) It takes balls to drink bubble tea. That’s why you want to be a bit careful about drinking this popular drink. As reported by Shaoxing News, a news outlet in China, on May 28, a 14-year-old girl visited the Zhuji People’s Hospital
Why zebras evolved to have their distinctive stripes has long puzzled scientists, with one of the leading hypotheses the idea that the stripes are a temperature control mechanism. A study last year suggested that wasn’t the case, but now there’s new evidence on the table. In this latest study, researchers measured temperature differences between black
The beginning of the end of our galaxy is just a few billion years away. That’s when the glittering disk of the Milky Way is projected to smash into its nearest neighbor, a spiral galaxy called Andromeda. The force of the collision will fuse the black holes at the centers of the galaxies, producing a
The amended language retained two key provisions that help SpaceX and Blue Origin, and removed two others that were opposed by United Launch Alliance and Northrop Grumman. WASHINGTON — After a flurry of negotiations, the House Armed Services Committee early Thursday approved legislation that seeks to increase competition in the national security space launch program.
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MIT Economics Professor David Autor MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Next Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation promise to usher in a new era of inexpensive goods, effortless personalization, and freedom from tedium. Yet beneath the surface of innovation a current of economic disenfranchisement threatens to sweep society away. This week business leaders, policy makers and researchers convened at
Once a skeptic about climate change, Jim Bridenstine came around to the prevailing view of scientists before he took over as NASA administrator. That evolution did not sit well with a Trump environmental adviser, nor a think-tank analyst he was consulting, according to newly disclosed emails that illustrate how scepticism of global warming has found
Antlia 2, the “ghost of a galaxy” orbiting the Milky Way, is a dark horse in more ways than one. Not only is it so faint it was only just discovered last year, it may now be responsible for curious ripples in the hydrogen gas that makes up the Milky Way’s outer disc. According to
WASHINGTON — A NASA mission to a metallic asteroid has passed a major review, but questions remain about its ability to remain on budget and schedule. NASA announced June 11 that the Psyche mission had been cleared to proceed into Phase C of its development, which includes final system design as well as assembly and
In recent years, the world has marched towards renewable energy. According to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), unsubsidized renewable energy is now most frequently the cheapest source of energy generation . The report finds that the cost of installation and maintenance of renewables, which was an important stumbling block to mass adoption, continues on a
Mountains are some of the mightiest geographic features on our planet, and no two ranges are the same. Some have soaring peaks, ragged ridges, and deep ravines, while others gently roll away in wavy hills and wide valleys. No matter where they appear, or even how, their branched structures share a universal similarity, and that
Thanks to the far-reaching optics of the Hubble telescope, and some smart visible-light spectral analysis, scientists have detected what looks a lot like sodium chloride – or good old table salt – on Jupiter’s moon Europa. That means the salty ocean hidden just beneath the surface of this moon could be more like Earth’s oceans
If you’ve seen photos of the Los Angeles reservoir covered in millions of black balls, you might have wondered two things. One: what the heck are they? And two… could you swim in them? Derek from Veritasium recently answered the first question in a video that went viral, with more than 32 million views and
Smartphone addiction does not seem like a questionable thing to believe in. It exists. Surely it does, doesn’t it? After all, there’s a Wikipedia page on it. The New York Times writes about it. There are even claims it’s killing us, that smartphones are destroying an entire generation. But while nobody is saying we should be spending
WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a television interview June 13 that it will cost the agency an additional $20 billion to $30 billion to return humans to the moon, the first range of costs given by the agency for the program. In an interview with CNN, Bridenstine said that estimate would be
Standard candles (L) and standard rulers (R) are two different techniques astronomers use to measure the expansion of space at various times/distances in the past. Based on how quantities like luminosity or angular size change with distance, we can infer the expansion history of the Universe. Using the candle method is part of the distance
Carnivorous plants are known for being brutal and opportunistic predators, but an unexpected and fascinating discovery in Canada has proved especially gruesome. Described as a “WTF moment” by researchers, it appears that pitcher plants in the wetlands of Ontario are not just luring in insects and spiders. They are also regularly capturing and devouring vertebrates.
Opportunity’s final message home is not much to look at on its own. If you’re old enough to remember film cameras, it looks like the final exposure on a roll of film, developed but partly missing. It’s a suitable epitaph for Opportunity’s mission. Opportunity captured this image with the left half of its PanCam, or
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