Science

A Russian Soyuz rocket has blasted into space carrying 34 new satellites from British operator OneWeb, which aims to provide broadband internet everywhere in the world. The rocket, operated by Europe’s Arianespace, took off at 1807 GMT (11:37pm IST) Tuesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, broadcast live by the Russian Roscosmos space agency. “The

SpaceX’s all-civilian Inspiration4 crew spent their first day in orbit conducting scientific research and talking to children at a pediatric cancer hospital, after blasting off on their pioneering mission from Cape Canaveral the night before. St Jude tweeted its patients got to speak with the four American space tourists, “asking the questions we all want

Blood tests are vital for diagnosis and monitoring a number of diseases. In many rural areas, people have to travel a significant distance to reach the nearest health care facility to get their blood samples tested. Sometimes, this results in a delay in detecting serious diseases. But if two Indian researchers have their way, this

Australia’s two most populous states are trialling facial recognition software that lets police check people are home during COVID-19 quarantine, expanding trials that have sparked controversy to the vast majority of the country’s population. Little-known tech firm Genvis said on a website for its software that New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, home to Sydney,

NASA often shares images of the Earth and space that leaves social media users in awe. This time around, the space agency shared not one but four images of nebulae — star-forming gaseous clouds — on its official Instagram page. Sharing the breathtaking pictures, NASA wrote in the caption, “Stars: they’re just like us!” Before

A new discovery in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) takes inspiration from one of the simplest marine creatures in the world — the sea slug. AI is in a constant state of growth, trying to improve and be more efficient. A simple sea slug has helped researchers break new grounds. Researchers from Purdue University,

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 is scheduled for launch on September 15 at 8:02pm EDT (5:32am IST on September 16). Netflix will livestream the lift-off of the all-civilian mission starting 7pm EDT (4:30am IST on September 16). The livestream will be shown via Netflix’s YouTube channel. SpaceX will take four people onboard its spacecraft and will orbit the

Space appears to be the new frontier for tech entrepreneurs. After Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, it’s time for Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to join the league. Wozniak on September 13 announced that he is setting up a private space company that is “unlike the others.” The new company will be called Privateer

A recent study regarding nutrition suggests that overeating may not be the main cause of obesity. The research was carried out by 17 internationally prominent scientists in the field and was published on September 13 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The conclusion of the paper is backed by research that looks into the

For decades, people across the world have wondered if there was a possibility to bring back the hundreds of species lost to extinction. Now, a group of scientists and entrepreneurs has come together to create a company that will work on technology to achieve this. Software entrepreneur Ben Lamm, who is known for his penchant

SpaceX is set to launch four people into space Wednesday on a three-day mission that is the first to orbit the Earth with exclusively private citizens on board, as Elon Musk’s company enters the space tourism fray. The Inspiration4 mission caps a summer that saw billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos cross the final frontier, on

Scientists in Chile’s Atacama Desert have unearthed the fossil remains of a so-called “flying dragon,” a Jurassic-era dinosaur previously known only to the northern hemisphere. The flying reptile belonged to a group of early pterosaurs that roamed the earth 160 million years ago. It had a long pointed tail, wings and sharp, outward pointing teeth.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has now collected two rock samples, with signs that they were in contact with water for a long period of time boosting the case for ancient life on the Red Planet. “It looks like our first rocks reveal a potentially habitable sustained environment,” said Ken Farley, project scientist for the mission,

The eternal question lurking in the minds of every space enthusiast is — does life exist outside Earth? Despite numerous space expeditions, we have been unable to find any trace of life outside our planet so far. However, every once in a while we hear about a UFO seen in some part of the world.

The James Webb Space Telescope, which astronomers hope will herald a new era of discovery, will launch on December 18, NASA said Wednesday. The $10 billion (roughly Rs. 73,700 crores) observatory, which is a joint project by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, will blast off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Spaceport

A new study has warned that a super solar storm, which occurs once in about a century, could plunge the world into an “Internet apocalypse”, keeping large swathes of the society offline for weeks or even months. The Sun constantly bombards the Earth with electromagnetic particles. These particles — that make the solar wind — are

About 90 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, a gigantic dinosaur with ‘shark-like’ teeth prowled in present-day Uzbekistan, says a new study. The meat-eating dinosaur was 7.5-8 metres long and weighed 1,000 kg – which would make it a little longer than an African elephant and heavier than two fully grown water buffaloes. Researchers

A group of physicists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently achieved a feat that could pave the way for practical carbon-free power. The achievement was three years in the making . It is a result of intensive research and design work, project leaders say. For the first time, researchers built a large high-temperature superconducting

NASA confirmed Monday that its Perseverance Mars rover succeeded in collecting its first rock sample for scientists to pore over when a future mission eventually brings it back to Earth. “I’ve got it!” the space agency tweeted, alongside a photograph of a rock core slightly thicker than a pencil inside a sample tube. The sample

Singapore has started trialing robots to patrol public areas and deter poor social behaviour in its latest effort to further augment its strong portfolio of surveillance tools. Ranked one of the safest countries in the world, Singapore has put two autonomous robots on trial to detect bad behaviour such as flouting of COVID-19 safety measures,