Science

It turns out even brainless creatures such as jellyfish need to sleep. This extraordinary discovery, reported on by researchers at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, makes sleep even more mysterious than it already is. In a paper published in the journal Current Biology, a team led by Caltech biologist Paul Sternberg show that jellyfish from the genus Cassiopea – ... Read More »

Offering some potentially game-changing applications for engineering, a team of researchers has forged a new type of ultra-light aluminium. If you restructure the common household metal at the molecular level, as Utah State University chemist Alexander Boldyrev and colleagues did using computational modeling, you could produce an ultra-light crystalline form of aluminum that’s lighter than water. Boldyrev, along with scientists ... Read More »

Researchers have discovered a ‘devil’ frog, which was the size of a giant beach ball, had a ferocious bite that let it feed on small dinosaurs and crocodiles. Beelzebufo ampinga — the largest frog to have ever lived — boasted a bite strong enough to snap up small dinosaurs, according to a team of scientists. The research, published in the ... Read More »

Scientists use CRISPR to show how a key gene has orchestrated the evolution of butterfly wing patterns. Scientists led by George Washington University’s Arnaud Martin report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they used the CRISPR gene-editing tool to knockout the WntA signaling gene in seven butterfly species. Removing this one gene led to a variety ... Read More »

A study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, reports three new craters near Mercury’s north pole that appear to harbour large surface ice deposits. The scorching hot surface of Mercury seems like an unlikely place to find ice, but research over the past three decades has suggested that water is frozen on the first rock from the sun, hidden ... Read More »

If you had big plans this weekend, David Meade regrets to inform you that the world will be ending Saturday. A Christian numerologist has proclaimed that the world will end over the weekend. David Meade, a self-proclaimed “researcher,” is predicting that a series of apocalyptic events will begin on September 23 and “the world will not be the same.” According ... Read More »

SES, EchoStar Corp., and Airbus Defence and Space announced today that the new EchoStar 105/SES-11 spacecraft, built by Airbus, has been shipped from the Airbus facilities in Toulouse, France, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its forthcoming launch by SpaceX in October. The first satellite that EchoStar has constructed with manufacturer Airbus, EchoStar 105/SES-11 will be launched by SpaceX on a ... Read More »

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has released footage of some of their less fortunate tests from the past few years and it makes for a pretty epic blooper reel. The American billionaire made good on his promise to publish footage of spectacular rocket fails, releasing the video titled ‘How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster’ on social media on September 14. ... Read More »

With one of its twin satellites almost out of fuel after more than 15 years of chasing each other around our planet to measure Earth’s ever-changing gravity field, the operations team for the U.S./German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission is making plans for an anticipated final science collection. On Sept. 3, one of 20 battery cells aboard the ... Read More »

Sea lice surge is damaging the salmon industry. The tiny lice attach themselves to salmon and feed on them, killing or rendering them unsuitable for dinner tables. Meanwhile, wholesale prices of salmon are way up, as high as 50 percent last year. That means higher consumer prices for everything from salmon fillets and steaks to more expensive lox on bagels. ... Read More »

Scientists at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) presented a mission plan today at the European Planetary Science Congress that would allow scientists to observe hundreds of asteroids over the course of just a few years The research outlines a plan to send 50 nanoprobes propelled by electric solar wind sails (E-sails) to conduct flybys and science observations at more than ... Read More »