Science

No one is traveling to or from the International Space Station (ISS) right now thanks to the recent Soyuz launch failure, but data continues to flow freely. NASA maxed out its connection recently to beam a lovely 8K ultra high-definition (UHD) video down to Earth. It’s the first 8K video …

A three-species hybrid warbler found in Pennsylvania is the offspring of a hybrid warbler mother and a warbler father from an entirely different genus — a combination never recorded before now. A rare triple-hybrid warbler (golden-winged warbler, blue-winged warbler, and chestnut-sided warbler). Image credit: Lowell Burket. The triple-hybrid bird was …

On November 5, 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe achieved its first perihelion — its first close approach to the Sun — and flew within 15 million miles (24 million km) of our star’s surface. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. “Parker Solar Probe …

Fusion powers the Sun, and thus all life on Earth. However, generating usable fusion power here on Earth has proven difficult. For decades, experimental reactors have achieved fusion at low levels, but never has there been net power generation. MIT says it has the tools to make true fusion power …

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day has been operating for years, but something odd appeared in the feed recently. A photo entitled “Flying Saucer Crash Lands in Utah Desert” hit the internet, and it does look a bit like the traditional flying saucer UFO. There are no aliens on the …

An international team of archaeologists from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, Egypt, and the University of Liverpool, UK, has discovered an ancient ramp system used to haul massive alabaster blocks out of a quarry. The remains of the 4,500-year-old ramp were found at the site of Hatnub, …

A team of scientists from Tufts University and the University of Florida has found that delivering progesterone to an amputation injury site can induce the regeneration of limbs in otherwise non-regenerative adults of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). The team created a wearable bioreactor attached to the wound site …

A new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, shows that a number of polyphenolic compounds found in brewed coffee can inhibit the aggregation of beta-amyloid and tau — protein fragments common in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Drinking coffee may protect you against developing both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. …

The kilogram is one of the most important and widely used units of measure in the world — unless you live in the US. For everyone else, having an accurate reading on what a kilogram is can be vitally important in fields like manufacturing, engineering, and transportation. Of course, a …

Our first confirmed interstellar visitor was a tough nut to crack. Scientists puzzled over ‘Oumuamua when it appeared in the sky last year. The classification flipped back and forth a few times before eventually landing on “comet,” but it’s a weird comet. Now, researchers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for …