Science

Researchers plan to grow potatoes in Mars-like conditions simulated on Earth, in a major step towards building a controlled dome on the red planet capable of farming the invaluable crop. The experiment, led by the International Potato Centre (CIP) in Peru and NASA in US, demonstrates that potato crops can be grown in the most inhospitable environments to save millions …

A team of UBC scientists is celebrating after filming what may be the world’s only video a wild seahorse birth. “We were doing a survey and found a very, very pregnant male that had a tiny tail sticking out of his brood pouch,” said Clayton Manning, a master’s student with Project Seahorse, a marine conservation group based at the University …

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum is conserving a fossilized woolly mammoth tusk measuring more than a meter long and weighing about 30 pounds after workers discovered it while moving gravel just outside of Saskatoon. In early October, an operator stockpiling gravel a few kilometres east of Saskatoon spotted something out of the norm. The company, Inland Aggregates, quickly looked up the …

Wild bee populations have declined significantly since 2008 in Central California and some other key areas of the United States, according to a recent study. If losses of these crucial pollinators continue, the new nationwide assessment indicates that farmers will face increasing costs — and that the problem may even destabilize the nation’s crop production.

A pair of American astronauts stepped out on a three-hour spacewalk on Monday to move a stalled railcar outside the International Space Station, NASA said. Tim Kopra and Scott Kelly made their way to the stuck “Mobile Transporter,” a rail car used to move supplies on the outside of the space station. Once complete, the astronauts will begin tackling other …

Researchers say a fossilized femur belongs to an archaic human species thought to be long extinct by the time this person walked the Earth. A thigh bone discovered in Southwest China could indicate that an ancient species of human survived until as recently at 14,000 years ago. Until now, the Neanderthals of Europe and ‘Denisovans’ of southern Siberia, both of …

2 venomous sea Serpents wash ashore in SoCal this year. For the second time in two months, a “highly venomous” yellow-bellied sea snake has washed ashore on a Southern California beach, this time in Orange County. The exotic reptile — seen only three times on the state’s shoreline in the past three decades — was found by a volunteer at …

The planet, named Wolf 1061c, orbits a star 14 light years away – about a third closer than the next nearest potentially inhabitable planet, which was found in 2013. It is one of the first times that astronomers have spotted a planet near to us that has the kind of rocky, solid surface that is thought to be necessary for …

Plesiosaurs–ancient marine reptiles that ruled the seas during the time of the dinosaurs–used their flippers to ‘fly’ through the water in the same way that penguins do, a study published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology reports. The scientists find that the most effective swimming motion for the plesiosaur is flapping the two front flippers in an underwater flight motion, …

A Canadian-made laser mapping system to help explore a distant asteroid on a possible collision course with Earth is getting ready for a long space voyage. The instrument will also help to guide the spacecraft on the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission to a safe spot to grab a sample to bring back to Earth. “From a science perspective, we …

Humans Caused a Major Shift in Earth’s Ecosystems 6000 Years Ago. The study, published in the journal Nature, offers the first long-term view of how species associated with each other for half of the existence of multicellular life on Earth, says co-author Donald Waller, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We did not expect, or predict, that …