After having a sumptuous feast of “Outredgeous” red romaine lettuce grown in space, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are set to witness flowers blooming on the orbiting laboratory after the New Year. NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren has activated…
Astronomers have discovered a mysterious dwarf planet that is three times farther away than Pluto and believed to be the most distant object in our solar system.The discovery of the dwarf planet known as V774104 was announced Tuesday at a…
In a first, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has revealed the process that may have played a key role in turning the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment supporting life to a cold, arid…
The well-preserved partial skull and skeleton of a gibbon-like creature that lived 11.6 million years ago in Spain is shedding new light on the evolutionary history of modern apesScientists on Thursday announced the discovery in Catalonia of fossil remains of…
When it comes to unleashing their trademark zaps, electric eels employ an impressive and sophisticated set of tactics.A study unveiled on Wednesday detailed how these dangerous denizens of the muddy waterways of South America’s Amazon and Orinoco basins can double…
You can call it the fertilisation cessation, and scientists say it has had a disruptive effect on ecosystems around the world.A study unveiled on Monday showed that the extinction or precipitous population declines of large land and sea mammals starting…
Opening the door for the development of new treatment of the lethal disease sepsis, scientists have identified a gene that triggers the inflammatory condition.Sepsis is a severe whole-body infection that occurs as a complication to an existing infection, and if…
The plague germ that caused the “Black Death” in the 14th century and other ferocious pandemics has stalked humankind far longer than previously known.A study unveiled on Thursday of DNA from Bronze Age people in Europe and Asia showed the…
The universe really is weird, which is bad news both for Albert Einstein and for would-be hackers hoping to break into quantum encryption systems.Eighty years after the physicist dismissed as “spooky” the idea that simply observing one particle could instantly…
A diet of putrid rotting flesh may not be your cup of tea, but to the cinereous vulture, found across southern Europe and Asia, it is positively delightful. This tough bird, it turns out, is genetically wired to thrive on…
An ancient zircon crystal unearthed in Western Australia may hold evidence that life appeared on the planet 4.1 billion years ago, or about 300 million years earlier than previously thought, according to a team of US researchers.Scientists from Stanford University…
A new tool to assist developing countries in designing a “custom made” plant variety protection suitable for the seed and agricultural systems that prevail in developing countries has been published by an international group of NGOs. It was presented on…
Maybe we cannot blame late-night TV, endless Internet surfing, midnight snacks, good books, bothersome work deadlines and other distractions of modern life for encroaching on our sleep.Research unveiled on Thursday showed that people in isolated and technologically primitive African and…
A trove of 47 fossil human teeth from a cave in southern China is rewriting the history of the early migration of our species out of Africa, indicating Homo sapiens trekked into Asia far earlier than previously known and much…
Researchers extracted DNA from a 4,500-year-old skull that was discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia.A comparison with genetic material from today’s Africans reveals how our ancient ancestors mixed and moved around the continents.The findings, published in the journal Science, suggests…
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded for discoveries in DNA repair. Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar were named as the winners on Wednesday morning at a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Their work uncovered…
The blue whale is the largest creature on Earth and perhaps the biggest that ever lived, so it is no surprise it has a huge appetite. But the strategies this behemoth uses to get enough food has not been well…
Beneath London, a successful five-week experiment in reclaiming waste electricity could save millions of pounds each year — and make Tube riders a whole lot happier in the process.
Briny water flows during the summer months on Mars, raising the possibility that the planet long thought to be arid could support life today, scientists analyzing data from a NASA spacecraft said on Monday. Although the source and the chemistry…
Neuroscientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have identified a brain circuit that processes the “when” and “where” components of memory. This circuit, which connects the hippocampus and a region of the brain known as entorhinal cortex, separates location…
A cloak of invisibility may be common in science fiction but it is not so easy in the real world. New research suggests such a device may be moving closer to reality. Scientists said on Thursday they have successfully tested…
Kazakhstan welcomed the world’s most experienced space flier and two rookie crewmates on Saturday, including Denmark’s first-ever astronaut, who returned from the International Space Station with a bull’s-eye parachute landing. The descent capsule departed the space station at 2139 GMT…
Europe came a step closer to setting up its own satellite navigation system after successfully launching two Galileo satellites from French Guyana on Friday. The European Space Agency’s Galileo project is meant as an EU alternative to the US Global…
By James Gallagher It is “essential” that the genetic modification of human embryos is allowed, says a group of scientists, ethicists and policy experts. A Hinxton Group report says editing the genetic code of early stage embryos is of “tremendous…
Ian Randall Editing the DNA of human blood cells has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of hereditary blood diseases such as sickle cell anaemia and thalassaemia, according to researchers from Australia and the United States. In their study,…
By Arthur White A Russian billionaire is bankrolling a $100 million effort to scan the cosmos for evidence of alien life, with a bonus $1 million contest to decide what to say to them. Alongside renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, technology…
By Ryan Faith ic regime begins at Mach 5 or so — about one mile per second — and goes up from there. There’s not a super-precise, fixed definition, exactly, but these are the speeds at which all those equations…
A genetically-engineered version of a virus that normally causes cold sores shows real promise for treating skin cancer, say researchers. The modified herpes virus is harmless to normal cells but when injected into tumours it replicates and releases substances to…
The Bangladesh Bank has asked the banks to increase loan flow to the housing sector to help it overcome the current crisis.
Scientists in China have described one of the weirdest flying creatures ever discovered, a pigeon-size dinosaur with wings like a bat that lived not long before the first birds.