Science

NASA and the White House have since late last year quietly drawn up contingency plans for the International Space Station in light of tensions with Moscow that began building before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to nine people with knowledge of the plans. The US space agency’s game planning shows how the US is juggling its relationship

Stargazers and space enthusiasts might want to turn their eyes to the night sky in the coming weeks, as the stage is set for a spectacular meteor shower. Known as Perseids, these meteor showers occur annually and are usually visible from Earth in the night sky. The shower usually peaks during mid-August and this year,

An underwater volcano that erupted in the South Pacific near Tonga on January 15 this year causing a catastrophe in the archipelago. The Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption also triggered an earthquake and tsunami that flooded the country. A new study indicates that during this event, the volcano spewed not just ash into the atmosphere but also a

A geomagnetic storm, triggered by high-speed solar winds from the Sun, is predicted to hit Earth today. However, it is unlikely to pose any threat to life on the planet as it has been classified as G-1 and is expected to be a mild geomagnetic storm. The high-speed solar winds that cause the solar storm, originate from a

The James Webb Space Telescope has peered through time and huge amounts of dust to capture a new image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, revealing the spinning ring of colour in unprecedented clarity, NASA and the European Space Agency said Tuesday. Located around 500 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Sculptor, the Cartwheel gained its shape

Scientists combined data from NASA’s New Horizons mission with novel laboratory experiments and exospheric modelling to reveal the likely composition of the red cap on Pluto’s moon Charon and how it may have formed. This first-ever description of Charon’s dynamic methane atmosphere using new experimental data provides a fascinating glimpse into the origins of this

A water-activated disposable paper battery has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of electrical trash produced by single-use devices, such as those used in the medical and industrial sectors. Researchers have developed a battery that is cheap to assemble, biodegradable and made of renewable materials. Additionally, it can be made in a range of

A robot created at Standford University in the United States is diving down to shipwrecks and sunken planes and allowing its operators to feel like they’re underwater explorers too.  The robot known as OceanOneK has humanoid top half, with eyes that have a 3D vision, capturing the underwater world in full colour. It resembles a

Experiments on mice have helped scientists identify some key differences in the development of brains in modern humans and our closest relative, Neanderthals. After our ancestors split from the Neanderthals, some one hundred amino acids underwent changes and spread to almost all modern humans. The reason behind this change had puzzled scientists all this while.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are the most common neurodevelopmental disorders that are diagnosed in early childhood. While both are separate conditions, their symptoms tend to overlap which makes it quite tricky to differentiate between them. Now, in a novel study, researchers from the University of South Australia and Flinders

To understand any physical phenomenon, one must identify the variables that are responsible for it. While scientists are familiar with the variables for most physical connects, some have remained to be elusive. Now, researchers from Columbia University have used artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a program that observes such physical phenomena and detects the relevant

Powerful storm systems triggered flash flooding across the US in late July, inundating St. Louis neighbourhoods with record rainfall and setting off mudslides in eastern Kentucky, where at least 16 people died in the flooding. Another deluge in Nevada flooded the Las Vegas strip. The impact of climate change on extreme water-related events like this

The “origin of life” is a subject that scientists have invested an unparalleled amount of time and resources in to understand it better. How life emerged from non-living molecules continues to be a much-debated topic. But now, scientists at Scripps Research may have found something to shed light on the subject. Scientists have discovered a

The amount of time, effort, and money needed to train ever-more-complex neural network models are soaring as researchers push the limits of machine learning. Analogue deep learning, a new branch of artificial intelligence, promises faster computation with less energy consumption. The findings of the research were published in the journal ‘Science’. Programmable resistors are the

Alphabet’s DeepMind unveiled its AlphaFold software in 2020, and it has since been used to create the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database (AlphaFold DB). It includes highly accurate protein structures predicted by the software. This database has been accessed by researchers to tackle real-world problems like plastic pollution, antibiotic resistance, and more. DeepMind has now partnered

Scientists have worked out how to turn dead spiders into “necrobotic spiders” that can mechanically grip objects.  Researchers at Rice University in the United States released a report of their experiment in the journal Advanced Science, in which they were able to repurpose the bodies of dead spiders by pumping air into their legs to

Satellite startup OneWeb’s past decade has resembled a space opera. Founded by a US entrepreneur and headquartered in London, it has partnered with Google and Elon Musk, supplied Arianespace, attracted investment from Hughes Network Systems and SoftBank Group and fallen into bankruptcy. It was then rescued by the UK government and India’s Bharti Global. The

Google’s former chief executive Eric Schmidt recently compared artificial intelligence (AI) to nuclear weapons. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday, Mr Schmidt discussed his role at Google and the developments that were happening 20 years ago. The former Google CEO stated that he himself had been “naive” about the power of information in the

A chess-playing robot grabbed the finger of a seven-year-old boy and broke it during the ongoing match with him at the Moscow Open last week, according to news reports. The incident took place on July 19 and videos of it were soon circulated on the Internet. A clip, shared by the Baza Telegram channel, shows the

Scientists have uncovered why Jupiter does not have rings like its neighbouring planet Saturn. Researchers from the University of California, Riverside, ran a computer simulation of both Jupiter’s orbits and the four main moons that surrounded it to understand why the giant gaseous planet is missing the hoops.  As per the Independent, astrophysicist Stephen Kane