Australia is home to one of the world’s rarest meteorological phenomena, which most people have never heard of. Known as morning glory clouds, these long bands of cigar-shaped formations can stretch up to 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) in length. And they can only be seen reliably in one place in the world – Australia’s Gulf
Month: December 2018
After Chinese scientist He Jiankui shocked the scientific community by announcing last month that he had edited the genes of human babies, he mysteriously vanished. And now he’s been found. The New York Times reports that guards are holding He in a guesthouse at his university, the Southern University of Science and Technology. It’s unclear whether the guards work for the Chinese government, the university,
Every unprofitable coal mine in the European Union must cease production by the first day of 2019, the date on which all public funds for the mines will come to an end. In Spain, that means that 26 coal mines are about to close up shop, according toReuters. This move away from coal is a refreshing
Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin As we enter the new year, we are all making resolutions to be even more effective and productive. Here are a few of the tried and tested tools that can help with this. UnsplashUnsplash Things app has been redesigned and includes new features besides the simple to-do
Fireworks are a brilliant way to celebrate special occasions such as New Year’s Eve and Guy Fawkes Night, as well as big sporting events and independence days – right? Not if you happen to be an animal. All animals, domesticated and wild, are hardwired by evolution to find loud noises frightening. It is an automatic
We know that Venus, our closest planetary neighbour, has a volcanic terrain and a hellish atmosphere with extreme temperatures. But we don’t know much about seismic activity on the planet, which in turn could give us more clues about its internal composition. Now, NASA has a rather exciting proposal to try and answer those questions:
On the cusp of yet another trip around the Sun, I found myself wondering how many alien civilizations within this sector of our Milky Way might have already come and gone? That is, bitten the dust due to wholly natural climate change long after their planet had sung its last Auld Lang Syne? Venus, Earth
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 17, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine. Whether Congress goes along with President Donald Trump’s plan to establish a Space Force, the nation is prepared to protect and advance its dominance in space, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in a Dec. 3 interview. The winner of SpaceNews’ 2018
The world’s caves are easily forgotten. Missing from most maps and hidden from the surface, these underground kingdoms are often cloaked by darkness and shrouded in mystery. They’re natural labyrinths that only the most adventurous dare to navigate. Crafted over many thousands of years into a maze of lava, limestone or ice, finding a way
To ancient explorers, “ultima Thule,” or the most distant region, was what lay past the northernmost edges of maps, beyond the borders of the known world. So when NASA chose a target for its New Horizons spacecraft that was farther than anything previously explored, Ultima Thule seemed a fitting moniker. The far-flung space rock is
Consider this modest New Year’s proposal: to help keep your drinking tendencies and physical health on track throughout the year, take a month off from drinking alcohol at the start of the year. That’s the thinking behind the “Dry January” movement, and new research suggests reasons to take it seriously. Not only can going a month
LAUREL, Md. — NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is ready to perform the most distant flyby ever of a solar system object, an event largely unaffected by the ongoing government shutdown. New Horizons will make its closest approach to the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, at 12:33 a.m. Eastern Jan. 1. The spacecraft
Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin A Chinese space probe is getting ready to be the first ever craft to land on the far side of the Moon, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The Chang’e 4 spacecraft started its planned elliptical lunar orbit this morning, coming as close as 15km
Back in August, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) was surprised to learn that a leak was responsible for a slight loss in air pressure aboard the station. After investigating, they learned that the cause was a small hole in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that had docked with the ISS. While the hole was promptly
Earlier this year, researchers found a deposit of rare-earth minerals off the coast of Japan that could supply the world for centuries, according to a study. The study, published in the journal Nature in April 2018, says the deposit contains 16 million tons of the valuable metals. Rare-earth minerals are used in everything from smartphone batteries
Mining corporation Rio Tinto says that an autonomous rail system called AutoHaul that it’s been developing in the remote Pilbara region of Australia for several years is now entirely operational — an accomplishment the company says makes the system the “world’s largest robot.” “It’s been a challenging journey to automate a rail network of this size and scale in
We can only hope that 2019 will be the year when the ethics of emerging technologies becomes a central part of discussions on innovation and progress. Below, I’ve asked some prolific tech ethicists about their hopes for the upcoming year and to share with readers what they would like to see people and policy bodies pay more attention
FILE PHOTO: The waxing crescent moon is seen over a city center of Warsaw April 22, 2015. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A Chinese space probe is moving into position to land on the dark side of the moon for the first time, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, a mission seen as
The must-read brain books of 2018 featured perception, emotion, hormones, psychedelics, culture, time, technology, addiction, and the biological roots of consciousness. The eight books on this list all reveal important, timely insights about who we are, what we do and why we do it. This is part one of a two-part list; the second installment
Adam and Eve might have managed it in the Bible, but scientifically speaking, would two people be enough to repopulate our world from scratch, despite the inevitable health issues associated with inbreeding and a limited gene pool? First of all, let’s deal with the obvious problems. The first ‘new’ generation would obviously all be brothers and
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 21
- Next Page »