Science

An international team of researchers led by University of Exeter archaeologists has discovered the ruins of an ancient city — once thought to be the ‘home of giants’ — in eastern Ethiopia. The ruins of a 12th-century mosque in Harlaa, eastern Ethiopia. Image credit: Timothy Insoll, University of Exeter. The …

Today, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission — sent to Mars to explore its upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the Sun and solar wind — celebrates 1,000 Earth days in orbit around the Red Planet. This artist’s concept shows MAVEN in orbit around Mars, with a fanciful …

Chinese researchers have successfully demonstrated satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs to two locations separated by 747.5 miles (1,203 km) on Earth, through two satellite-to-ground downlinks with a summed length varying from 994 to 1,491 miles (1,600-2,400 km). Yin et al realized the satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs over …

The willow-leaved justicia (Justicia gendarussa), a medicinal plant found throughout Southeast Asia, contains a potent anti-HIV-1 compound more powerful than the clinically used drug azidothymidine (AZT), according to new research. Zhang et al used the leaves’, stems’, and roots’ extract of the willow-leaved justicia (Justicia gendarussa).Image credit: University of Illinois …

It’s no secret we’re in the midst of a mental health crisis. Whether you attribute this to social-media-induced nausea or a societal trade-off between “purpose and power,” as explored in Yuvai Hariri’s latest offering Homo Deus, it amounts to much the same thing – an explosion in prescription SSRIs, billable …

Using multispectral imaging, a team of Israeli researchers has discovered a hitherto invisible text on the back side of an ostracon (ink-inscribed pottery shard) that has been on display for half a century. The recto (upper image) and the verso (lower image) of the ostracon Arad 16: color images, multispectral …

On June 9, 2017, NASA’s Cassini orbiter captured an image of methane clouds drifting in the summer skies of Saturn’s moon Titan. Titan’s summer skies. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute. Compared to earlier in Cassini’s mission, most of the surface in Titan’s northern high latitudes is …

Solar eclipses happen every so often, but the one taking place on August 21st will be a first-of-its-kind event. That’s not because of the eclipse itself, but because of what the people in its path are doing. Google has partnered with the University of California Berkeley to collect an unprecedented …

Progura gallinacea, a species of extinct giant brush turkey that lived in Australia during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene (1-3 million years ago), is among five megapode birds described (or redescribed) by Flinders University paleontologists. A reconstruction of Progura gallinacea (right), alongside a kangaroo and modern bush turkey (Alectura …

An article entitled ‘Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species’ presents the vision of Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, for future manned trips to Mars and other planets in the Solar System and specifically what will be needed to create a self-sustaining Martian city. Artist’s concept of humans working on Mars. Image …