Science

It has been discovered that certain special visual abilities help hummingbirds avoid accidents while flying at high speeds. “Birds fly faster than insects and it’s more dangerous if they collide with things,” said Roslyn Dakin, a postdoctoral fellow in the UBC’s department of zoology who led the study. “We wanted to know how they avoid collisions and we found that ... Read More »

A scientist at Arizona State University has discovered how to control multiple robotic drones using the human brain. A controller wears a skull cap outfitted with 128 electrodes wired to a computer. The device records electrical brain activity. If the controller moves a hand or thinks of something, certain areas light up. “I can see that activity from outside,” said ... Read More »

It seems there’s finally good news for the humpback whale. An unprecedented number of them have been spotted off the Pacific Northwest after fears the whale was reaching dangerously low numbers blamed on commercial hunting. Once nearly wiped out by commercial whaling, the humpbacks are making a comeback – and it’s not just two or three whales in any one ... Read More »

Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve on the southeastern tip of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula has made the list of World Heritage Sites designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Isabella Antonella-Gabrielle says the area located in Portugal Cove South on the Southern Avalon is rich with history dating back billions of years. Read More »

A novel dwarf planet, 700 kilometers in size and has one of the largest orbits for a dwarf planet, has been discovered in the Kuiper Belt. Named 2015 RR245, roughly 435 miles across, was found using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii, as part of the ongoing Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS) and has one of the largest orbits ... Read More »

Scientists from the UK have successfully made a raised object appear flat to electromagnetic waves – meaning that they are a step closer to having a full-blown cloaking device that can hide objects. Scientists from Queen Mary College of London have demonstrated for the first time how a cloaking device can make curved surfaces look flat to electromagnetic waves. Though ... Read More »

Luzon is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Amid rapidly shrinking forests — the Philippines is one of the most heavily deforested countries in the tropics — Luzon is home to world’s greatest concentration of unique mammal species, according a paper published in Frontiers in Biogeography. Scientists only realised the importance of Luzon after identifying 28 new ... Read More »

It’s a good time to hit the seas for whale watching! An unprecedented number of whales have been spotted in the last few weeks, according to the Pacific Whale Watch Association. Large groups of 15-20 whales have been seen together. Executive Director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, Michael Harris says it’s like Hawaii and Alaska right off Victoria and ... Read More »

Researchers in rural Argentina found themselves in one misfortune to another in order to bring a new species of dinosaur in paleontology. Considering what they had to go through, it seems that the name is apt: Gualicho, the word for “curse.” Introducing Gualicho shinyae, a 450kg, bipedal theropod that featured a pair of short arms with two fingered claws on ... Read More »

NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter has sent back its first picture of the planet since going into orbit around it last week. The image shows a section of the gas giant, along with three of its 67 moons: Io, Europa and Ganymede. The image was taken on July 10 at 10:30 am PDT. It was the first image captured after ... Read More »

A HYPERSONIC plane could be a reality in just four years, getting passengers anywhere in the world in just four hours. The new plane, which will combine the technology of a jet and a rocket to travel five times the speed of sound, will even allow Brits to travel to Australia in four hours. The first demonstrator engine could be ... Read More »