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A recently released United Nations report chronicles an alarming picture of the “unprecedented” and “accelerating” decline in global biodiversity. The highly publicized report found more than one million species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction, many within the coming decades. Key takeaways from the Report include the fluctuating biodiversity within tropical forests,

A new breeding ground for endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) has been found in the Galápagos Islands, according to the Ecuadorian government. The area was discovered in the coastal area of ​​Santa Cruz Island during a recent Galápagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) monitoring excursion. According to Eduardo Espinoza, the park ranger who led the

In 1993, Ruth Riechl, the new restaurant critic for the New York Times, penned a memorable review of Sirio Maccioni’s elegant Manhattan restaurant Le Cirque (which closed, at least temporarily, in January 2018). Riechl described two distinct experiences she had at the establishment, first as an anonymous diner, then as a recognized Times food critic;

The US space agency NASA has selected 11 companies including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX to develop prototypes of human landers for its Artemis lunar exploration programme. NASA aims to put the first woman on the Moon’s south pole by 2024 and establish sustainable missions by 2028. “To accelerate our return to the

In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the untouched tomb of Tutankhamen, a minor pharaoh who ruled over Egypt almost 3,300 years ago. When Carter entered the tomb for the very first time and asked if he could see anything, he famously responded: ”Yes, wonderful things.” Tutankhamen’s burial chambers were filled with statues made of ivory,

Lunar Module ascends in orbit. Credit: NASA A half-century after the Eagle kissed the Sea of Tranquility one almost forgets Apollo 10 — the mission that did everything short of actually landing on the lunar surface.  To those of us watching it live here on Earth, it was one of the most exhilarating and frustrating

After breathlessly ascending the peak of inflated expectations, and careening down through the trough of despair, digital health seems poised to re-emerge, battered but not beaten, in the form of digital medicine: digital health plus evidence plus humility. Andy Coravos, CEO of Elektra Labs and co-organizer of the 2019 Harvard Digital Medicine Symposium. (Photo credit:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. has agreed to buy U.S. supercomputer maker Cray Inc. in a deal valued at about $1.4 billion (roughly Rs. 9,848 crores) as the firm works to become more competitive in high-end computing. Cray investors will get $35 (roughly Rs. 2,462) a share in cash, the companies said in a statement on Friday, confirming an

NASA has awarded $45.5m to a range of US companies in its efforts to get back onto the Moon. The agency has tapped 11 companies to help develop a spacecraft that will get to the Moon’s south pole by 2024, as part of the highly ambitious Artemis lunar exploration program. The goal is for the

A lot of electronic dance music has a very characteristic feature: The music gradually builds, and then suddenly changes to a different rhythm, pitch or instrumentation. It feels like the tension of riding up a rollercoaster, just before you go down. Fittingly, this music phenomenon is called the “drop”. The buildup to the drop in

(Reuters) – A three-year-old filly collapsed and died after racing at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Friday, a day before the Preakness Stakes. FILE PHOTO: May 14, 2019; Baltimore, MD, USA; A general view of the straight away in front of the seating coming out of turn four at Pimlico Race Course. Mandatory Credit:

The next time your friends show you a photo of themselves riding an elephant, you might wince after watching Ashley Bell’s documentary. It’s the story of rescuing Asian elephants from the cruelty they endure to be housed in zoos and “entertainment” in circuses, as well as rides.  We see them as “docile due to their

A team of scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia has measured for the first time accuracy of two-qubit operations in silicon - a feat that would enable companies build a full-scale quantum processor. Computers today process information in binary bits that take either a 0 or 1 value while quantum computers

Hurricane Michael was recently reclassified as a Category 5 storm by NOAA. The storm devastated parts of Florida, Georgia and beyond in 2018 with 160 mph winds, storm surge and rainfall. For my home state of Georgia, it was a particularly tragic event with agricultural losses estimated to be in the $2.5 to 3 billion

images.wellcome.ac.uk, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8776638″ align=”” width=”940″] The coxpox-infected pus came from the hand of a milkmaid named either Lucy or Sarah Nelmes. Friday marks the 270th birthday of Edward Jenner, the doctor who developed the world’s first vaccine. Born on May 17, 1749, Edward Jenner grew up in Berkeley, in southwest England, and after medical

FILE PHOTO: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (in center, in a horizontal position), is readied for launch on a supply mission to the International Space Station on historic launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A SpaceX launch

Case for Space Cover Nicole Sommer-Lecht / Prometheus Books Space luminary Robert Zubrin has just released The Case for Space, a book that expands the motif of his seminal The Case for Mars throughout the solar system. While the founder and President of The Mars Society has long been associated with efforts to colonize the

Photo Credit: NASA/ GSFC/ Arizona State University NASA’s Moon-orbiting spacecraft has spotted the impact site of the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft on a region of the Moon called “Sea of Serenity” where it crash-landed on April 11. SpaceIL, a non-profit organisation, attempted to land its spacecraft on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the

BEIJING (Reuters) – British livestock genetics firm Genus agreed on Thursday to license its know-how on virus-resistant pigs to Beijing Capital Agribusiness Co Ltd, which will seek regulatory approval for the pigs in the world’s biggest pork market. FILE PHOTO: Pigs are seen in Changtu county, Liaoning province, China January 17, 2019. Picture taken January

MU69’s flattened shape surprised astronomers. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute The first science results from the pioneering New Horizons mission to visit an object in the outer Solar System have been released, providing new insights into this fascinating object at the far reaches of the Sun. On January 1, 2019, NASA’s New

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX postponed a planned Wednesday night blastoff of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the first 60 satellites for his new Starlink internet service, citing excessive winds over the Florida launch site. FILE PHOTO: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (in center, in a horizontal position), is readied for

A passenger jet is silhouetted against the rising full moon as it thanks off from Sky Harbor airport Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) ASSOCIATED PRESS Are you a moongazer? If you enjoy looking at our satellite for any reason, there is one very special occasion each lunar month and that’s the

A new California company has created what it says is a revolutionary way to let dementia patients continue to love and be loved by a pet without the demands of every day care. Taking care a pet can be difficult if not impossible for seniors who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia,

FILE PHOTO: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (in center, in a horizontal position), is readied for launch on a supply mission to the International Space Station on historic launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 17, 2017. Launch is scheduled for February 18. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo CAPE CANAVERAL,

On the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine, a Texas investor and explorer found something he could have found in the gutter of nearly any street in the world: trash. Victor Vescovo, a retired naval officer, said he made the unsettling discovery as he descended nearly 6.8 miles (35,853 feet/10,928 meters)

Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin The Aurora Borealis is dipping south this week. Getty The sun has been letting off some high energy blasts recently,  and it could mean quite a display of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis (also known as the Northern Lights and Southern Lights) for millions more

Ginkgo Bioworks founding team: Tom Knight, Reshma Shetty, Jason Kelly, Austin Che and Barry Canton Ginkgo Bioworks Ginkgo Bioworks said today that it had acquired the genome mining platform of Warp Drive Bio, a subsidiary of Revolution Medicines, that will help it push ahead in the search for new antibiotics and other pharmaceutical applications. With

Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin This recent but undated photo provided by the National Park Service shows Ledge Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, within days of its most recent eruption that began on April 28, 2019. The noisy geyser in Yellowstone has roared back to life after three years of quiet.

Photo Credit: Laurent Emmanuel/ AFP The Moon is steadily shrinking, causing wrinkling on its surface and quakes, according to an analysis of imagery captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) published Monday. A survey of more than 12,000 images revealed that lunar basin Mare Frigoris near the Moon’s north pole - one of many vast basins

This visualization of Lee Lincoln scarp is created from LRO photographs and elevation mapping. The scarp is a low ridge or step about 80 meters high and running north-south through the western end of the Taurus-Littrow valley, the site of the Apollo 17 moon landing. NASA/Goddard/SVS/Ernie Wright The moon is still tectonically active and has

Moon as seen from the ISS. Credit: NASA At the end of Ron Howard’s film “Apollo 13,” Tom Hanks intones with a final, rueful quiver, “I look up at the Moon and wonder, when will we be going back? And who will that be?” Let’s hope that will be in five short years. As for

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration asked Congress on Monday to increase NASA spending next year by an extra $1.6 billion as a “down payment” to accommodate the accelerated goal of returning Americans to the surface of the moon by 2024. FILE PHOTO: Astronaut James Irwin, lunar module pilot, gives a military salute while standing

LightSail 2 is a private solar sail project of the Planetary Society. The Planetary Society Can sunlight be used for propulsion? The Planetary Society’s long-held wish to raise a satellite’s orbit around the Earth using sunlight could come true this summer with the confirmation that its LightSail 2 spacecraft will launch atop a SpaceX rocket on

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The moon may be dynamic and tectonically active like Earth – not the inert world some scientists had believed it to be – based on a new analysis disclosed on Monday of quakes measured by seismometers in operation on the moon from 1969 and 1977. FILE PHOTO: Astronaut James Irwin, lunar module

On a recent evening, Elizabeth Ewens was in the middle of an intense run workout. Her coach told her to kick it up, so she did and received encouragement from a fellow runner. She finished the workout feeling good. While Ewens’ evening workout sounds like what running groups around the world do several nights a

While cities are often seen as centers of innovation, a growing number of islands are quietly leading the way in smart technology. Islands worldwide are positioning themselves as incubators as they work towards becoming self-sufficient & reducing carbon footprints, leading to the adoption of new smart technology . Their growth has the potential to provide replicable models for

Papanikolauos was born on this day in 1883. Google Monday’s Google Doodle celebrates the 136th birthday of pathologist Georgios Papanikolaou, who developed the cancer screening test we know today as a Pap smear. Moving to the U.S. in 1913 must have been a drastic change for Papanikolaou and his wife Andromachi at first. Only two

Researchers may have just found the devil’s maternity ward… devil rays, that is. While taking a marine conservation field course in the Gulf of California as an undergraduate at Duke back in April 2014, Leo Chan Gaskins saw gillnets full of dead giant devil rays being hauled out of the ocean. Based out of a

Almost 15 years ago, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson made a bet on launching tourists into space from the scrublands of southern New Mexico. Now, he’s about to move the headquarters of his space venture to the so-called “Land of Enchantment.” Virgin Galactic’s move into its permanent headquarters at Spaceport America, north of Las Cruces,

A giant sea spider (Colossendeis megalonyx) in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Timothy Dwyer, PolarTREC 2016 Sea spiders, or pycnogonids, are marine arthropods found in waters all around the world. In warmer environments, these animals are about the size of a pencil eraser, but in Antarctica, they can become as large as a dinner plate. Scientists call this ‘Polar

Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin Distinct from the more typical phenomenon of the aurora borealis and aurora australis, found near the poles, a separate optical phenomenon in the sky known as STEVE can occasionally be seen. For years, scientists were puzzled as to what caused it, but that mystery has now

China should get rid of the 996–a work schedule of 12 hours a day from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week (72 hours in total) — and replace it with a new work system where people work smarter, not harder. There was a time China was a poor country. Its people had

Most of the debris generated from the anti-satellite test India conducted in March have decayed and rest of it will dissipate in a “short period of time”, Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Chairman G Satheesh Reddy said Friday. He said this in response to a question after delivering a talk on ‘Technology for National Security’

With major flooding and severe weather events increasingly impacting the low-lying areas that make up most of Florida, the state is one of the most vulnerable to changes in the climate and rising sea levels. The Sunshine State has long acknowledged the issues relating to severe weather events, and the state’s decision-makers have been actively

The quantum fluctuations that occur during inflation get stretched across the Universe, and when inflation ends, they become density fluctuations. This leads, over time, to the large-scale structure in the Universe today, as well as the fluctuations in temperature observed in the CMB. These new predictions are essential for demonstrating the validity of a fine-tuning

Another shipment has come, and you watch as the boats are boarded and searched. You notice specks of blood in the corners of the vessel and wonder just what is waiting inside the freezers and fridges. As you walk into a fridge, you are stunned to see it lined from the floor to the ceiling

Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world and head of space company Blue Origin, announced Thursday his intent to participate in the new race to the Moon with a high-tech lander to carry vehicles and equipment. “This is Blue Moon,” the 55-year-old said at a carefully choreographed presentation in Washington, as curtains lifted to

The battle against antimicrobial resistance has reached an inflection point. As a nation, we have implemented groundbreaking legislation, invigorated research initiatives, demonstrated strong leadership in innovative regulatory frameworks, and fostered improvements in clinical practice. Yet, despite these best efforts, challenges sustaining a robust enterprise to address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance remain. For years,