Science

Bed bugs – the blood-sucking bane of backpackers everywhere – are notoriously difficult to stamp out once they take hold. Not only can they survive a year without feeding, but they’re also rapidly developing resistance to insecticides. David Lilly at the University of Sydney has found that the outer shells, or cuticles, of these bugs are getting thicker. And bed …

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis may be responsible for the development of monogamy in humans, researchers claim. Scientists Chris Bauch, an applied mathematician at the University of Waterloo, and Richard McElreath, an evolutionary ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, suggest that early civilizations feared what sexually transmitted infections could do …

Loch Ness Monster hunters disappointed after ‘Nessie’ find at bottom of loch turns out to be 1970s film prop. An underwater robot mapping the depths of Loch Ness has found a “monster”, but not the lake’s mythical creature. The sonar-equipped robot, named Munin, was developed by technology company Kongsberg Maritime and will study areas never accessed before in a bid …

NASA has ploughed cash into a pioneering project aimed at working out how to hijack asteroids and turn them into controllable space ships. The objective of this study is for Made In Space (MIS) to establish the concept feasibility of using the age-old technique of analog computers and mechanisms to convert entire asteroids into enormous autonomous mechanical spacecraft.

After a nail-biting few days, NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has recovered from emergency mode, officials announced Monday. Contact with the telescope was lost on April 7, just before it was supposed to begin its ‘Campaign 9’ mission to observe the galactic center. Kepler went into Emergency Mode (EM) and engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California had to commandeer …

If you need a break at work, trying counting penguins: An oddly addictive website called Penguin Watch will show you a photo from Antarctica and ask you to tag baby penguins and adults, all in the name of science. Scientists at Oxford University recently launched PenguinWatch 2.0, and they are asking the public to help them observe penguin colonies in …

NASA is planning an ambitious mission for exploring the possibility of life on the moon of planet Jupiter, Europa. The researchers of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will work with other scientists around the world to perform the mission. “We are planning to mount an international effort. We are trying to formulate a mission to go Jupiter’s giant moon …

Researchers studying biodiversity off the coast of Panama were treated to a red crab migration that looks more like a swarm of insects than anything you would expect to see in the ocean. Jesús Pineda, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and chief scientist on the cruise, called the encounter unexpected and mesmerizing. The researchers describe their findings …

Researchers say they have some good news about global warming and its impact on British Columbia’s forests, especially about the environment’s recovery from the devastating mountain pine beetle outbreak more than a decade ago.. The finding was made by a group of scientists working together on the Forestry Carbon Management Project—an initiative of the University of Victoria-led Pacific Institute for …

Extreme temperatures linked to climate change can be expected to cause a significant increase in the number of premature deaths, according to a report released by the Obama administration. “Extreme heat can be expected to cause an increase in the number of premature deaths, from thousands to tens of thousands, each summer, which will outpace projected decreases in deaths from …

The World Bank Group has adopted a new Climate Change Action Plan, aiming to add 30GW of global renewable capacity by 2020. In particular, the Climate Change Action Plan intends to help countries meet their Paris COP21 pledges and address increasing climate impacts. As part of this effort, the bank plans to provide $25bn in private financing for clean energy …