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NASA's New Flagship Telescope Fully Deploys Sunshield in Critical Mission Milestone
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NASA's New Flagship Telescope Fully Deploys Sunshield in Critical Mission Milestone
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NASA's New Flagship Telescope Fully Deploys Sunshield in Critical Mission Milestone
The James Webb Space Telescope fully deployed its tennis-court sized sunshield Tuesday, a critical milestone for the success of its mission to study every phase of cosmic history, NASA said.
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China's 'Artificial Sun' Just Broke a Major World Record For Plasma Fusion
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China's 'Artificial Sun' Just Broke a Major World Record For Plasma Fusion
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China's 'Artificial Sun' Just Broke a Major World Record For Plasma Fusion
Just seven months after it announced a milestone record for plasma fusion, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has absolutely smashed it.
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Mind-Blowing New Fossil Site Found in The 'Dead' Heart of Australia
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Mind-Blowing New Fossil Site Found in The 'Dead' Heart of Australia
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Mind-Blowing New Fossil Site Found in The 'Dead' Heart of Australia
The arid heart of Australia may not easily support life now, but once, many aeons ago, it was lush and teeming. What is now arid desert and dry shrub- and grasslands was once thick with dense forests, alive with life.
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For The First Time, We've Seen a Red Giant Star Transition Into a Supernova
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For The First Time, We've Seen a Red Giant Star Transition Into a Supernova
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ScienceAlert
For The First Time, We've Seen a Red Giant Star Transition Into a Supernova
We're seeing many spectacular sights out in space as our telescopes become more powerful, but there's a new contender for the most exciting one yet: According to researchers, we've observed a red supergiant star exploding into a supernova for the f
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Ocean Battery stores renewable energy at the bottom of the sea
As useful as renewable energy sources are, they need to be backed up by storage systems that hold energy for times when the Sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Ocean Battery is a new design for an energy storage system that functions a bit like a hydroelectric dam at the bottom of the sea: https://newatlas.com/energy/ocean-battery-renewable-energy-storage/
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As useful as renewable energy sources are, they need to be backed up by storage systems that hold energy for times when the Sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Ocean Battery is a new design for an energy storage system that functions a bit like a hydroelectric dam at the bottom of the sea: https://newatlas.com/energy/ocean-battery-renewable-energy-storage/
#energy #technology
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In a Truly Historic Milestone, JWST Has Been Successfully Deployed! Now What?
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In a Truly Historic Milestone, JWST Has Been Successfully Deployed! Now What?
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ScienceAlert
In a Truly Historic Milestone, JWST Has Been Successfully Deployed! Now What?
We can all let out a collective sigh of relief. With its primary mirror array fully unfolded, the major components of the beleaguered James Webb Space Telescope are now deployed, and it continues to calmly make its way to its destination.
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Surgeons Implant Pig Heart Into Human Patient in World-First Case
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Surgeons Implant Pig Heart Into Human Patient in World-First Case
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Surgeons Implant Pig Heart Into Human Patient in World-First Case
US surgeons have successfully implanted a heart from a genetically modified pig in a human patient, a first-of-its-kind procedure, the University of Maryland Medical School said Monday.
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Ten Scientific Discoveries From 2021 That May Lead to New Inventions
From nanobots to cancer treatments, nature inspires a wide variety of innovations
In science, inspiration can come from anywhere.
A researcher might wonder about the thrust produced by butterfly wings as they flit through a meadow. Maybe watching squirrels navigate campus trees like parkour artists sparks curiosity about what goes through their furry little minds as they decide to jump from branch to branch. Others, of course, get their spark from less likely sources: analyzing shark intestines or studying how microscopic water bears walk.
These scenarios and more inspired scientists to take a closer look at the natural world this year, but their influence won’t stop there. Discoveries in nature often inspire new designs for water filtration, solar panels, building materials and lots and lots of robots.
Here are ten findings from 2021 that could one day lead to new inventions.
From nanobots to cancer treatments, nature inspires a wide variety of innovations
In science, inspiration can come from anywhere.
These scenarios and more inspired scientists to take a closer look at the natural world this year, but their influence won’t stop there. Discoveries in nature often inspire new designs for water filtration, solar panels, building materials and lots and lots of robots.
Here are ten findings from 2021 that could one day lead to new inventions.
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Microbes in The Ocean Depths Can Make Oxygen Without Sun. This Discovery Could Be Huge
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Microbes in The Ocean Depths Can Make Oxygen Without Sun. This Discovery Could Be Huge
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ScienceAlert
Microbes in The Ocean Depths Can Make Oxygen Without Sun. This Discovery Could Be Huge
For most of life on Earth, oxygen is essential, and sunlight is usually needed to produce that oxygen. But in an exciting twist, researchers have caught a common, ocean-dwelling microbe breaking all the rules.
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A Rare, Isolated Script Invented From Scratch Holds Clues to The Evolution of Writing
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A Rare, Isolated Script Invented From Scratch Holds Clues to The Evolution of Writing
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ScienceAlert
A Rare, Isolated Script Invented From Scratch Holds Clues to The Evolution of Writing
A rare script from a language in Liberia has provided some new insights into how written languages evolve.
Evolution study suggests DNA mutations are less random than we thought
Chance plays a big part in evolution. Conventional thinking goes that DNA mutations will randomly arise in an organism’s genome, and if these new traits happen to help the organism survive and reproduce, then those mutations will be passed down to the next generation. Over a long enough period, the traits can become characteristic of a population or species.
But is there a pattern to where in the genome DNA mutations occur?
To investigate, researchers from UC Davis and the Max Planck Institute grew hundreds of thale cress plants in the lab , then sequenced their genomes and compared where DNA mutations had taken place – and a non-random pattern seemed to emerge.
“We always thought of mutation as basically random across the genome,” says Grey Monroe, lead author of the study. “It turns out that mutation is very non-random and it’s non-random in a way that benefits the plant. It’s a totally new way of thinking about mutation.
Chance plays a big part in evolution. Conventional thinking goes that DNA mutations will randomly arise in an organism’s genome, and if these new traits happen to help the organism survive and reproduce, then those mutations will be passed down to the next generation. Over a long enough period, the traits can become characteristic of a population or species.
But is there a pattern to where in the genome DNA mutations occur?
“We always thought of mutation as basically random across the genome,” says Grey Monroe, lead author of the study. “It turns out that mutation is very non-random and it’s non-random in a way that benefits the plant. It’s a totally new way of thinking about mutation.
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There's a Hidden Mathematical 'Law' in The Sand Megaripples Found All Over Earth
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There's a Hidden Mathematical 'Law' in The Sand Megaripples Found All Over Earth
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ScienceAlert
There's a Hidden Mathematical 'Law' in The Sand Megaripples Found All Over Earth
Wherever there is sand and an atmosphere, prevailing winds may whip the grains into undulating shapes, pleasing to the eye with their calming repetition.
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A Common Virus Can Trigger Multiple Sclerosis, According to Huge New Study
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A Common Virus Can Trigger Multiple Sclerosis, According to Huge New Study
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ScienceAlert
A Common Virus Can Trigger Multiple Sclerosis, According to Huge New Study
Multiple sclerosis – an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord – may emerge after infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
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60 Million Fish Nests in Antarctica Found in Single Largest Breeding Colony to Date
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60 Million Fish Nests in Antarctica Found in Single Largest Breeding Colony to Date
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ScienceAlert
60 Million Fish Nests in Antarctica Found in Single Largest Breeding Colony to Date
Scientists onboard an icebreaker in Antarctica were blown away when they spied a trove of 60 million icefish nests dotting the floor of the Weddell Sea. The bonanza of nurseries – each guarded by a ghostly looking parent – represents the lar
A new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm has got your chess style pegged. AI software can already identify people by their voices or handwriting. Now, an AI has shown it can tag people based on their chess-playing behavior, an advance in the field of “stylometrics” that could help computers be better chess teachers or more humanlike in their game play. Alarmingly, the system could also be used to help identify and track people who think their online behavior is anonymous.
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This Ancient Peruvian Empire Put Hallucinogenics in Beer For Political Reasons
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This Ancient Peruvian Empire Put Hallucinogenics in Beer For Political Reasons
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ScienceAlert
This Ancient Peruvian Empire Put Hallucinogenics in Beer For Political Reasons
The ancient Wari empire of Peru might have used hallucinogenic beer to rally support in new territories.
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Data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument's (DESI's) first survey run has produced the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe so far. The stunning image reveals the gigantic cosmic web of galaxies across billions of light-years – and this is only the beginning for the project.
The image contains 7.5 million galaxies within a distance of about 5 billion light-years in the direction of the constellation Virgo, with Earth located at the lower left. With the large-scale structure of the cosmos clearly visible, it’s not hard to see why it’s often referred to as the cosmic web, and there’s plenty that astronomers can learn from the data.
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The image contains 7.5 million galaxies within a distance of about 5 billion light-years in the direction of the constellation Virgo, with Earth located at the lower left. With the large-scale structure of the cosmos clearly visible, it’s not hard to see why it’s often referred to as the cosmic web, and there’s plenty that astronomers can learn from the data.
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The extremely hot interior of the Earth is slowly cooling down, but exactly how fast remains unknown. By studying how well a common deep-Earth mineral conducts heat, researchers from Carnegie and ETH Zurich have found that the planet’s interior may be cooling much faster than we thought.
Earth is essentially a giant pie that’s been cooling on a windowsill for 4.5 billion years. At first, it was broiling hot from surface to center, covered in oceans of magma, but as it cooled from the outside in, a solid crust of rock formed. The core is still emanating huge amounts of heat into the mantle, which drives vital processes like plate tectonics and volcanism, but it too will eventually cool off.
Exactly how long this will take is a mystery, but the scientists on the new study sought some answers by investigating a key mineral called bridgmanite.
Earth is essentially a giant pie that’s been cooling on a windowsill for 4.5 billion years. At first, it was broiling hot from surface to center, covered in oceans of magma, but as it cooled from the outside in, a solid crust of rock formed. The core is still emanating huge amounts of heat into the mantle, which drives vital processes like plate tectonics and volcanism, but it too will eventually cool off.
Exactly how long this will take is a mystery, but the scientists on the new study sought some answers by investigating a key mineral called bridgmanite.
ScienceAlert - Latest
NASA's Curiosity Rover Drilled Holes Into Mars, And Found Something Very Strange
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NASA's Curiosity Rover Drilled Holes Into Mars, And Found Something Very Strange
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ScienceAlert
NASA's Curiosity Rover Drilled Holes Into Mars, And Found Something Very Strange
As it's the foundation for all life on Earth, discovering carbon on other planets always gets scientists excited – and the Curiosity Rover on Mars has found an unusual mix of the chemical element that could hypothetically point to the existence o