Bill Condie has been a journalist for more than 30 years, working as a writer and editor in Europe, Asia and Australia for newspapers including The Guardian, The Observer and The Times.
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The time for putting up with stupid robots is over
For demanding futurists like Anton van den Hengel, the revolution cannot come quickly enough.
For someone who spends his life working with robots, Anton van den Hengel sure is rude about them. “They are really, ...
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Microplastics transfer from larvae to adults
New route of contamination could spread pollutants further.
We’ve become sadly familiar with the ease with which microplastic pollutants (MP) can be ingested in by aquatic organ...
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Ceres’ lonely ice volcano is only one of many
New research is delving into the little know cryovolcanism of the outer solar system.
The dwarf planet Ceres has had as many as 22 ice volcanoes, new research suggests.Images from NASA’s Dawn mission has...
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Anti-frosting surface could revolutionise deicing
Engineers in US develop chemical and energy-free alternative antifreeze technique.
Researchers in the United States have come up with the first passive anti-frosting surface which could revolutionise ...
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Household cleaners may make kids overweight
Changes to gut biota found with regular use of disinfectants.
Household cleaners could be responsible for making children overweight, by changing their gut microbiota, medical res...
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Review: Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia
Historian Billy Griffiths delivers a uniquely human and humane perspective on archaeology. Bill C...
We often think of science as a forward-facing discipline, bringing the promise of tomorrow and the solutions to the p...
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What is a superbug?
Bacteria immune to the effects of antibiotics are rising.
A superbug is usually defined as a microorganism that’s resistant to commonly used antibiotics – but not all superbug...
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Making robots see
Machine learning and deep neural networks are helping roboticists create machines that can see th...
Remember The Jetsons – the animated sitcom that reflected popular 1960s imaginings that technology had all the answer...
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How saving the wolf saved the day in Yellowstone
Wolf Nation looks at America’s complex 300-year relationship with the wolf and the fight to bring...
NON-FICTIONWolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolvesby BRENDA PETERSONHachette - Merloyd Lawre...
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Relationship with our Neanderthal cousins
A snapshot of our current knowledge about Neanderthals.
The relationship with our distant Neanderthal cousins is complex – part origin story, part romance, and both larded ...
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Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour
While you don’t need to know any science to take the tour, there is plenty here for those who do,...
NON-FICTION Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss & J. Richard Go...
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A new way of seeing the world – through the nose of a dog
Ever wondered what our canine pals smell through their super-sensitive snouts, and how they do it...
NON-FICTIONBeing a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell by Alexandra Horowitz Simon & Schuster (2016) RRP $3...
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Black lives that mattered to NASA: Hidden Figures
Bill Condie reviews the book behind the 2017 film.
Non Fiction Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Raceby Margot Lee...
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Book: Einstein’s Greatest Mistake
Albert Einstein closed his mind to other schools of thought.
NON-FICTION Einstein’s Greatest Mistake: The Life of a Flawed Genius By David Bodanis Little, Brown (2016) RRP $35.0...
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Top illustrated science books of 2016
Six gloriously illustrated science books on the Cosmos Christmas wishlist, reviewed by Bill Condie.
NON-FICTION Story of Life: Evolution Illustrated by Katie Scott The Five Mile Press RRP $24.95Another stunner from Th...
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World War One antiseptic may become 21st century saviour
A previously unknown ability to boost the immune system gives hope that an old treatment could he...
A German soldier is loaded into an ambulance for transport to a field hospital during the Great War. German chemists ...
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Drug-resistant TB rife in West Africa, doctors discover
The incidence of multidrug-resistant TB is far higher than earlier estimates suggest, a new study...
X-ray of lungs and thorax with upper lobes – tuberculosis on both sides.Ernst-Georg KohoutResearchers have sounded a ...
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Scientists discover where fault lines meet in San Francisco Bay area
A new study warns of 7.8 magnitude quake if two faults ruptured together. Bill Condie reports.
The collapsed Cypress Freeway in Oakland after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which killed more than 60 people and ...
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DNA scoring system improves kidney transplant matching
A new organ matching guide based on genetics could improve chances of long-term functionality and...
Up to a half of all kidney transplant patients will be back on the waiting list for a new organ within 10 years. A ne...
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Is there an ocean of water at Pluto’s heart?
A new theory would explain the mass anomaly on the dwarf planet. Bill Condie reports.
This high-resolution image captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft combines blue, red and infrared images taken by...
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Book: In Praise of Simple Physics
The Science and Mathematics behind Everyday Questions.
This wonderful book takes physics back to its most approachable – explaining the world around us, be that sitting in ...
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New rules to make clinical trials more transparent
Andrew Brookes/Getty ImagesNew rules governing clinical trials will come into force in the US in the New Year, which ...
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Book: Lolcatz, Santa, and Death by Dog
Strange and true tales from science and technology.
Andrew Masterson has an unerring ability to winkle out the oddball from the avalanche of research that hits a science...
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The Manga Guide to Regression Analysis
Cosmos are great fans of the Manga Guide to Science series.
NON-FICTION The Manga Guide to Regression Analysis By Shin Takahashi and Iroha Inoue No Starch Press (2016) RRP A$32....
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Octobot – the first soft-skinned, self-powered robot
Engineers have turned to the octopus for inspiration in the first of a potentially new generation...
In this image octobot's pneumatic network is shown in pink.Ryan Truby, Michael Wehner, and Lori Sanders, Harvard Univ...
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Why shift workers may be more prone to infections
Our circadian rhythms may inadvertently allow viruses to replicate faster at some times than othe...
CRADDOCK TONY/Getty ImagesThe time of day we are exposed to a virus may affect how we respond to it and how sick we b...
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China’s great flood really happened, say geologists
Sediments in Yellow River gorge support oral histories that go back to the founding of Chinese ci...
Jishi Gorge upstream the landslide dam. The grey silt deposits dozens of metres above the water level are lacustrine ...
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Chickens brought to New Zealand by Captain Cook
An analysis of bones on the South Island may solve the riddle as to why the birds were not transp...
A red junglefowl rooster, ancestor to modern domesticated chicken Gallus gallus, part of the Introduced wild populati...
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Juno turns a corner, heading back to Jupiter
NASA’s spacecraft is halfway through the first of its two ‘capture orbits’ and now on the way to ...
Juno spacecraft's orbits include two long capture orbits.NASA/JPL-CaltechThe Juno spacecraft has turned a corner. Hav...
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Amateurs discover exotic binary star system with mysterious radiation blast
The star system AR Scorpii was discovered 40 years ago, but it took a group of amateur astronomer...
An artist’s impression shows the strange object AR Scorpii – a double star system combining a rapidly spinning white ...
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Old red dwarfs give insights into sun’s magnetic field
X-ray data showing small, old stars behaving in an unexpected way has forced a rethink into the n...
An artist's illustration depicts the interior of GJ 3253, a low-mass red dwarf star about 31 light-years away from Ea...
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Rice biodiversity has collapsed
Ancient rice DNA sheds new light on where the crops came from.
Japanese short-grain rice, Oryza sativa or japonica – one of the two main cultivars in production today. Credit: ULTR...
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Mixed messages about risk of Zika
Two new models of the epidemic.
Favelas such as Roccinha in Rio de Janeiro provide ideal conditions for the spread of Zika among inhabitants, but vis...
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Book: The Last Man on the Moon
NON-FICTION The Last Man on the Moon By Eugene Cernan and Don Davis St Martin’s Press (2000) RRP $24.99 This highly ...
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Quasar to guide ESA’s Mars landing
One of the brightest objects in the universe will deliver pinpoint accuracy to navigation over 15...
The ESA's deep space tracking station in Argentina with, inset, Quasar P1514-24 on the guidance map.ESA/D. PazosQuasa...
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How the moon causes Californian earthquakes
The gravitational pull of the sun and the moon has a tidal effect on the Earth’s crust that gives...
The San Andreas fault at Parkfield, which appears as a seasonally dry creek bed.Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times via ...
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Book: Lure of the Thylacine
The aim to prove that the thylacine lives amongst us still.
NON-FICTION Lure of the Thylacine: True stories and legendary tales of the Tasmanian tiger by Col Bailey Echo Publis...
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Neolithic farming
Invented by several populations at once.
Rice paddy near Yasuj in the Zagros Mountains in what is today Iran. The mountains are the site of some of the earlie...
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Bizarre giant galaxy found in quiet corner of the universe
A galaxy ‘built in reverse’ with youngest stars on the inside is unlike anything astronomers have...
In optical light, UGC 1382 appears to be a simple elliptical galaxy (left). When astronomers incorporated ultraviolet...
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Scientists warn of Bangladesh earthquake time bomb
A previously unknown subduction zone deep beneath eastern Bangladesh has been building up strain ...
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is a hive of multistory buildings housing around 17 million people in the greater D...
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Astronomers spot new distant dwarf planet
A Kuiper Belt object on a vast elliptical 700-year orbit around the sun may give new insights int...
The orbit of the dwarf planet, currently known as 2015 RR245, shown as an orange line. ALEX PARKER/ OSSOSA dwarf plan...
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Double memory storage with magnetic and electric signals
Electronic data storage devices, such as USB sticks, could benefit from switching between states....
ruthyoel / Getty ImagesA discovery by Japanese scientists could double the storage capacity of USB flash drives by co...
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Astronomers discover planet with three suns
A gas giant 340 light-years from Earth in a complex star system has one of the widest orbits of a...
An artist's impression of the triple-star system HD 131399 from close to the giant planet orbiting in the system.Euro...
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Book: South Pole
NON-FICTION South Pole: Nature and Culture by Elizabeth Leane Reaktion Books (2015) RRP $29.99 There is something i...
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What coconuts can teach us about building design
The structures protecting the fruit from the heavy impact of falling from a coconut palm could be...
The ladder-like design and angle of the vessels in coconut shells helps to dissipate energy.Plant Biomechanics Group ...
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NASA extends New Horizons mission
The spacecraft that opened up the mysteries of Pluto is now on course to rendezvous with a myster...
An artist’s impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system at a staggering di...
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Discovery sheds light on hobbits’ demise
Understanding when Homo floresiensis vanished.
New evidence narrows the time gap between the last Homo floresiensis – the so-called hobbits on the Indonesian stand ...
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Ancient ‘telescope’ to watch the stars
Passages to ancient tombs designed to make stars clear.
Megalithic tombs could have been designed as ingenious tools to observe the faintest stars – effectively telescopes w...
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Vast new reserves of helium discovered
A new source of this rare but vital gas has been identified.
Vast helium reserves have been discovered in Tanzania that scientists say will rescue the world from a critical short...
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Rocks tell of oxygen-rich Martian past
Curiosity has discovered a vein of manganese oxides.
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover at a location called "Windjana", where the rover found rocks containing manganese-oxide m...
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The oceans of the outer solar system
The ocean beneath Enceladus and liquid under Pluto’s surface.
Icy Enceladus, just 504 kilometres across, hangs in the space between the spacecraft Cassini and the giant planet Sat...
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Hubble confirms new dark spot on Neptune
Astronomers are studying the first dark vortex to appear this century. Bill Condie reports.
Neptune photographed by the Voyager 2 probe in 1989, with the 'Great Dark Spot' (also known as GDS-89) visible at the...
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Book: The Idiot Brain
Insight into how and why our brains sabotage our behaviour.
NON-FICTION The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To by Dean Burnett Allen & Unwin (...
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Iceland braces for volcanic ‘disaster’
Hekla usually erupts every 10 years or so, but is overdue.
Snow capped Hekla volcano lies quietly, but could erupt at any time scientists say. Despite this deceptively peaceful...
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The sleeping giant black hole that awoke to destroy a star
Astronomers used X-rays to discover how the debris in an accretion disc flows towards the centre....
An artist's impression of the thick accretion disk that has formed around a supermassive black hole following the tid...
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Wind nebula found around magnetar for first time
Discovery could shed new light on the behaviour of the rare ultra-magnetic pulsars. Bill Condie r...
The Crab Nebula is the best-known wind nebula. At its centre is a rapidly spinning neutron star that accelerates char...
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‘Electric wind’ stripped Venus of oxygen
An unexpectedly powerful force helped suck even large molecules from the planet’s atmosphere. Bil...
An artist's concept of the electric wind at Venus. Rays represent the paths that oxygen and hydrogen ions take as the...
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Climate change ‘the key to megafauna extinction’
Humans alone did not cause their downfall.
A guanaco in Patagonia today. The animals' earl ancestors only survived here because they arrived after the competiti...
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Meet the X-57, NASA’s electric plane powered by sunlight
The space agency has marked a return to its X series of experimental aircraft that could improve ...
This artist's concept of NASA's X-57 Maxwell aircraft shows the plane's specially designed wing and 14 electric motor...
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Gut bacteria linked to autism in mice
A specific bacteria turns on and off behavioural problems.
Lactobacillus reuteri had a dramatic affect on the behaviour of mice. Credit: Photo Researchers One specific specie...
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Don’t look now, but we’re being followed…
…by an asteroid that tracks our every movement. Bill Condie reports.
As we orbit the Sun, a little asteroid orbits us, scientists have discovered, in a dance that will go on for centurie...
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Distant star shows the ‘baby steps’ towards a new solar system
A sudden flare up of a distant star resulted in heat so intense its changed the chemistry of its ...
Researchers found that FU Orionis has dimmed by about 13% in short infrared wavelengths from 2004 (left) to 2016 (rig...
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Did life begin on carbon planets in the early universe?
‘Fossils of the universe’ may hold the key to the origins of life, Harvard scientists suggest. Bi...
The transit of Venus over the skies of Santa Monica beach, California. We could spot dark carbon planets passing in f...
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NASA lifts the lid on Martian dust storms
There is a pattern to dust storms on Mars and they can affect the entire planet. Bill Condie repo...
Comparison images of Mars taken in 2001 by the Hubble Space Telescope show the planet, left, a global dust storm engu...
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Are clouds blocking our view of water on exoplanets?
A new NASA study tries to work out what the atmospheres of ‘hot Jupiters’ have in common. Bill Co...
Hot Jupiters, exoplanets around the same size as Jupiter that orbit very closely to their stars, often have cloud or ...
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Agriculture brought to Europe by farmers
DNA analysis has finally settled decades of archaeological debate.
Archaeologists have debated for decades the origins of Europe’s earliest farmers but, thanks to genetics, we now have...
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Book: This Idea Must Die
‘‘Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error”.
‘‘Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error,” said the Roman scholar Cicero, who would have ...
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Maths mystery solved after 40 years
A proof for graph theory’s Kelmans-Seymour conjecture.
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50 years after Surveyor 1, what’s in store for the Moon?
We mark the anniversary of the first American spacecraft’s lunar landing with a look at the histo...
An artist's impression of Surveyor 1 on the lunar surface ready to transmit data to Earth.PIERRE MION/GETTY IMAGESIt ...
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Superbug resistant to last resort antibiotic
Bacteria resistant to colistin is causing alarm.
A coloured scanning electron micrograph shows E. coli bacteria, a new strain of which is resistant to all known antib...
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Octopus, squid and cuttlefish booming
The changing times suit the clever cephalopods.
Giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama) males fighting. A collapse in its population led to the surprising discover...
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Tsunami warning system turns back time
Algorithm may make forecasting tsunamis more accurate.
Tsunami evacuation route sign on the road to Tofino, British Columbia. Alasdair Turner Seismologists have created a ...
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Early humans – out of Africa and back again
Group of early humans may have returned to the continent.
The female skull from the Pestera Muierii cave. Credit: E. TRINKAUS AND A. SOFICARU While it is well-known that early...
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Europa’s ocean may have chemistry to sustain life
Could life and biological processes complete the electrical circuit that powers a vast hidden sea...
An enhanced-colour view from NASA's Galileo spacecraft shows an intricate pattern of linear fractures on the icy surf...
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New Horizons delivers first data on post-Pluto object
NASA’s pioneering spacecraft takes a new image of a tiny Kuiper Belt object that is orbiting the ...
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is starting to send back information about an object in the Kuiper Belt that is orbiti...
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Can algae help us feed the world?
Could dramatically improve crop yields.
A pyrenoid (blue) is seen in a cross-section of an algal cell by false-coloured electron microscopy. The pyrenoid sit...
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Swarm intelligence pulls off Kentucky Derby betting coup
Twenty punters collectively picked the top four horses in this year’s race using a platform devel...
Mario Gutierrez rode Nyquist (purple helmet) to victory, with Exaggerator (green helmet) second in the 142nd Kentucky...
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Kepler lifts the veil on mysterious unnamed dwarf planet
A distant, dark new world is larger than we thought, and its surface could be covered with volati...
An artist's conception of 2007 OR10. Astronomers suspect that its dark reddish colour is due to the presence of irrad...
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Kepler has found more planets than ever before
NASA has doubled the number of confirmed exoplanets it has identified and now scientists say ther...
An artist's concept depicts a selection of planetary discoveries made to date by NASA's Kepler space telescope. NASA/...
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Starlight analysis gives new insight into Enceladus gas plume
Viewing the eruptions from Saturn’s moon against the backdrop of a star has shown how they change...
Narrow jets of gas and icy particles erupt from the south polar region of Enceladus, contributing to the moon's giant...
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Scientists perfect ‘recipe’ for replacement bone
Adding organic material makes for a better 3D-printed scaffold than plastic alone, US researchers...
A sample 3-D printed scaffold that matches the lower jaw of a female patient. – Johns Hopkins MedicineChoice of mater...
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NASA delivers data on Pluto’s moon Hydra
Pluto's outermost moon has a surface dominated by pristine water ice, latest analysis confirm...
Pluto’s moon Hydra as seen from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. – NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI The latest data about th...
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Pluto surprises again with reaction to solar wind
Scientists did not think Pluto had the gravity to hold on to heavy ions, but once again the dwarf...
Four images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph...
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DNA study builds picture of Ice Age Europeans
Genome shows population movements due to climate.
The fates of ice age human groups in Europe were closely linked to climate change, according to an unprecedented stud...
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What made the painted swirls on the Moon’s surface?
New modelling may provide an explanation for one of the most mysterious features on the Moon'...
An image of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. – NASA LRO WAC science team ...
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Powerful winds stream from unusual binary systems
Cambridge scientists are edging closer to understanding two mysterious ultra-luminous X-ray sourc...
An artist’s impression depicting a compact object – either a black hole or a neutron star – feeding on gas from a com...
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Rocks hold records of Earth’s magnetic history
Scientists have mapped data from tiny grains of magnetite.
The history of the Earth’s magnetic field is indelibly written in vortex-like structures inside grains of the iron ox...
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Cassini explores the depths of a methane sea on Titan
A pioneering oceanographic study of one of Saturn's moon's seas gives a clearer picture o...
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Coral reef discovered at mouth of Amazon
Scientists were amazed to find a thriving ecosystem.
The Amazon deposits three million tonnes of sediment every day into the Atlantic Ocean. This outpouring of water and ...
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Giant dinosaurs were independent from birth
Study suggests it required little attention from its parents.
The largest dinosaurs were almost independent from the moment they were born, a new study suggests. A team of US sci...
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Scientists work on survival plans for US West Coast tsunami
Seismologists gather to discuss a raft of measures to manage risk. Bill Condie reports.
Devastation in the wake of the 2011 Japan tsunami led to the development of a risk management plan in the US. – Getty...
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Are coal-based electronics the next big thing?
MIT researchers have found a way to treat different types of coal into semi-conductors with diffe...
Anthracite is one of four types of coal. It is the hardest type of coal with the highest carbon content. – Science Ph...
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Book: Cure: a journey into the science of mind over body
NON-FICTIONCure: a journey into the science of mind over bodyby JO MARCHANTText Publishing (2016)RRP $32.99 ...
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Ice a surprising heat source on Jupiter’s Europa
New experiments suggest gravitational pull may be generating more heat than previously thought. B...
A colourised surface image of Europa shows the blue-white terrains which indicate relatively pure water ice. – NASA/J...
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Insulin-producing cells created in the lab
Stem cell discovery to transform treatment of type 1 diabetes.
Scientists have for the first time created insulin-producing cells in the laboratory, a discovery that could transfor...
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Expandable ‘space tent’ to be put through its paces
Habitat will be attached to the International Space Station to test durability in the extremes o...
This artist's concept depicts the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), constructed by Bigelow Aerospace, attach...
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NASA begins testing solar wind sail technology
A system that creates momentum for a spacecraft by repelling protons in the solar wind could get ...
NASA has begun testing components of a new propulsion system that could see spacecraft ride the solar wind into inter...
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Super-thin wing could cut aircraft fuel bills in half
Boeing and NASA join forces to test lightweight, low drag, stiletto-shaped wings that could repla...
Greg Gatlin, NASA aerospace research engineer from NASA's Langley Research Center, inspects the truss-braced wing dur...
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Pig hearts beat for 945 days after implants
Modifications appear to have overcome rejection problems.
Animal-to-human organ transplants have taken a step closer to reality, after hearts from genetically modified pigs im...
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How to survive a mass extinction
Why certain animals can thrive in dramatic temperature changes.
Some animals not only survived a mass extinction following a dramatic and sudden climate shift 252 million years ago,...
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Pulsing neutron star spotted in Andromeda galaxy
The European Space Agency says a possible binary system would be the first seen in our nearest ne...
Inset shows the light curve of the source, a possible neutron star, as analysed by XMM-Newton's European Photon Imagi...
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Better on-field concussion diagnosis
Taking the guesswork out of detecting brain injury.
A new balance testing machine could soon replace error-prone subjective examinations for concussion on the sports fie...
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Saving your teeth – the latest 3D bio-printing breakthrough
Gum and bone structures will be made to order, reducing the need for invasive surgery to replace ...
Saso Ivanovski with a bio-printed section of jaw. The breakthrough could save patients' teeth. – Murray Rix ...
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Graphene-based material more sensitive than human skin
Lightweight elastomer could be used for a wide range of flexible electronic devices. Bill Condie ...
Graphene has been hailed a wonder material, but has yet to make the leap from lab to real world. Researchers in Austr...
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Birds inspire radical new NASA wing design
Engineers claim a flying wing, currently being prepared for a new round of test flights, could dr...
Rsearchers David Lee, Golda Nguyen and Scott Gleason recover the Prandtl-D No. 3 after one of its first flights. – NA...
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Did malaria help kill off the dinosaurs?
Origins of the disease are much earlier than thought.
Malaria, previously thought to have been a relatively modern disease, may have plagued the dinosaurs, a new study sug...
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Why wine lovers can cheer climate change – for now
Warmer conditions due to climate change are not combined with droughts the way they have been in ...
Bordeaux's grands crus classés – and humbler wines across France – are enjoying a series of excellent vintages as cli...
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It pays to watch paint dry
A mechanism that creates natural layers in coatings.
It turns out watching paint dry can be pretty exciting, at least if you are a physicist working in materials science....
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Cosmic rays fired at Earth – now we know where from
The violent region at the centre of our galaxy is the prime candidate, after gamma ray analysis, ...
Photo montage of gamma-rays as measured by the HESS array on the night sky over Namibia, with one of the small HESS t...
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A new mystery surrounds Ceres’ bright spots
Observations from Earth-based telescope show the light's intensity changes as the day goes by...
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Myopia set to become a global health crisis
By 2050, half the population will suffer from short-sightedness.
The incidence of myopia, or short-sightedness, is increasing significantly around the world, and could result in an u...
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Nature fights back with plastic-eating bacteria
A microbe that has evolved to break down PET.
Plastic waste is everywhere, littering the countryside and clogging our waterways. Riding the ocean currents, it reac...
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Could ageing stars spawn a new generation of planets?
Astronomers using a new imaging technique have been given their sharpest-ever glimpse of an old s...
The inset shows the VLTI reconstructed image of the close pair of aging stars IRAS 08544-4431 with the brighter centr...
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ExoMars set to sniff out life on the Red Planet
An ambitious European mission to Mars is designed to gather evidence as to whether life has ever ...
Artist's impression depicting the separation of the ExoMars 2016 entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schi...
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Book: Adam Spencer’s World of Numbers
Enlightening romp through the world of numbers.
Broadcaster and science geek Adam Spencer is back with another light-hearted but enlightening romp through the world ...
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Monkeys control wheelchair with their minds
A brain-machine interface has translated thoughts into commands to drive a robotic device that gi...
Rhesus monkeys were trained to control wheelchairs with thoughts to get grape rewards. – Intangible Creations!! / Get...
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The ‘great tilt’ that changed the face of Mars
A new computer simulation of past volcanic activity has led to a major rethink of how the Red Pla...
Global mosaic of 102 Viking 1 Orbiter images of Mars. At the centre is Valles Marineris, with the three Tharsis volca...
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Dogs really can tell what we are thinking
Brain scans reveal dogs process information from facial expressions in much the same way that hum...
– WIKICOMMONS Most dog lovers are convinced their pets understand themand that they react to facial expres...
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Supersonic passenger jets back on the agenda
NASA has commissioned the design of a low-noise supersonic aircraft that could overcome commercia...
More than 40 years after the Anglo-French-designed jetliner Concorde made its first commercial flight, NASA has put s...
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Unlocking the secret world of whale dialects
A new algorithm helps to identify the language of each pod of whales. Bill Condie reports.
A long-finned pilot whale surfaces. A new study analyses differences in communication patterns. – Science Photo Libr...
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Dodos might be dead but they weren’t dumb
New study suggests we maligned the extinct animal, which was at least as smart as a pigeon. Bill ...
A museum employee looks at a Dodo in display at the 'Extinction: Not the End of the World?' exhibition at The Natural...
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Destruction of Easter Island
Tools left over from wars that destroyed Rapa Nui civilisation.
For decades we have been told that the Rapa Nui, the people who lived on Easter Island in the South Pacific, committe...
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NASA puts Pluto’s geology on the map
Exciting data continue to flood in from the New Horizons' mission as scientists grapple with ...
The new geological map covers the left side of Pluto’s heart-shaped feature. – NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI NASA scient...
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Graveyard gives up secrets of migration
Details of who came to the Eternal City and from where.
Isotope analysis of 2,000-year-old skeletons has given the first direct evidence of internal migration within the Rom...
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New perspective on an old Martian maze
Mars' Noctis Labyrinthus – the "labyrinth of the night" – is a hauntingly beautiful place wit...
This image shows sharp detail of landslides in the steep-sided walls of the flat-topped graben in the foreground, and...
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The reason we sigh
It’s a vital reflex that keeps us breathing properly.
Although associated with emotions ranging from wistfulness or relief to despair, sighs – long, deep breaths – also oc...
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Zika mosquitoes to self-eliminate
A high-tech way to control the insects.
The Brazilian city of Piracicaba is expanding the use of genetically engineered mosquitoes to control mosquito borne ...
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Book: The Quotable Feynman
Hard book to review but a great one to read.
This is a hard book to review but a great one to read. How do you single out one or two quotes when every time you di...
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Book: Fish Sticks, Sports Bras and Aluminum Cans
NON FICTIONFish Sticks, Sports Bras and Aluminum Cans: The Politics of Everyday Technologiesby Paul R. JosephsonJohns...
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Documentary: Impossible Engineering
Bill Condie reviews the Discovery Science documentary series Impossible Engineering
HMS Queen Elizabeth – Discovery Channel Impossible Engineering Discovery Science (2015)This has potential ...
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Clay fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria
A traditional indigenous healing treatment kills 16 strains of bugs.
A rare clay used by indigenous people over centuries for its healing properties may provide another weapon in the ars...
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Ada Lovelace remembered
The prophet of the computer age.
The Science Museum in London is celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of pioneering computer scientist Ada Lovelac...
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Book: Even more things that nobody knows
The pleasure of pondering questions we cannot answer.
It turns out there are many things we do not understand. This is Hartston’s second volume, adding another 501 mysteri...
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New Zealand’s famous glow worms
Time lapse video puts a spotlight on glow worms.
New Zealand is famous for its glow worms that can be found across the country in caves, on the damp, overgrown banks ...
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Single-celled organism devours prey in video
Award-winning video puts on a show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf2oMz_ECSQ&feature=emb_title Wim van Egmond’s microscopic video of a Trachelius ...
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ESA prepares for next Mars shot window
The launch window for the European Space Agency's next Mars shot is fast approaching, with 14 March the first availab...
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Glacier melt may play a role in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide
Giant melting icebergs may be nutrient factories that are helping to slow the rate of climate change even as warmer w...
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What the European Space Agency has planned for 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lebUfMmdJEA&feature=emb_title The European Space Agency has another exciting year...
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Massive ancient crocodile unearthed
Twice as big as any of its modern cousins.
Palaeontologists have unearthed a massive ancient crocodile that would have weighed in at 3,000 kilograms and been ne...
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Old mutation key to multicellular life
Billion year old mutation identified as the key.
An ancient mutation that occurred a billion years ago may have set the stage for multicellular life according to new ...
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Sublime sublimation of frozen carbon dioxide on Mars
Mars' seasonal cap of carbon dioxide ice sublimates – goes directly from ice to gas – every spring. The process erode...
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Latest New Horizons’ images focus on Pluto’s icy plains
NASA has released more stunning images from the New Horizons spacecraft of the remarkable varied surface of Pluto. Th...
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Space drill technology may be boost for Earthbound electric cars
Drilling technology designed for the European Space Agency's Mars probe could deliver a portable charger that could r...
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Latest images of Rosetta’s comet
OSIRIS wide-angle camera image taken on 16 December 2015, when Rosetta was 111.9 kilometres from the nucleus of Comet...
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Curiosity weaves its way through steep Martian sand dunes
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is providing dramatic images as it weaves its way through a field of steep shifting sand ...
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Book: Becoming fluent
Bill Condie discovers that children do not necessarily have the advantage when it comes to learni...
NON FICTIONBecoming fluent: How cognitive science can help adults learn a foreign languageby Richard Roberts and Roge...
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Research ship off sets sail to remote islands
Heard and McDonald Islands are on the itinerary.
Australian science agency the CSIRO reports that its research ship, the RV Investigator is off to spend the southern...
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NASA looks at what’s coming up in the skies in January
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j5-rRiUNbU&feature=emb_title What's Up for January? A meteor shower, a binocular...
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A New Year begins on the International Space Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SY7ojOx6mo&feature=emb_title Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition ...
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Hubble spots birth of new merged galaxy
This image, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a new ga...
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Book: Light from the East
Science of medieval Islam on shaping the Western world.
In their frustration and disgust at the barbarity of the modern day Islamic extremists, many commentators in the West...
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Season’s Greetings from the Cosmos news team
The crew at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) will be working throughout Christmas and New Year. ...
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Astronauts take a spacewalk
Flight engineer Tim Kopra and Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly successfully moved the International Space Station'...
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Textbook landing for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B6oiLNyKKI&feature=emb_title https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCBE8ocOkAQ&featur...
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Dawn spacecraft in closest pass by Ceres yet
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has made its closest pass to the dwarf planet Ceres. It is also its last fly-by of the body.Th...
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NASA scraps 2016 launch of new Mars lander
NASA says it won't be ready for the 2016 launch window for its Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geod...
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New material promises more efficient energy storage
Physicists of the University of Luxembourg have discovered a material with special electric properties, which might l...
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High concentrations of silica on Mars puzzle scientists
Curiosity rover has found much higher concentrations of silica at some sites the rover has investigated in the past s...
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Cassini completes Enceladus fly-by
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting data and images from its final close fly-by of Saturn's active moon ...
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Farewell to a landmark year in space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvYCI6sFmnk&feature=emb_title By any standards, 2015 was an exciting year for spa...
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Mystery of prehistoric humans deepens
Ancient thigh bone adds to evidence of human existence.
An ancient thighbone found in China adds to evidence that prehistoric humans existed on mainland Eurasia at the same ...
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Bilingual patients better stroke recovery
Twice as likely to recover from a stroke?
A new study suggests that bilingual stroke patients are almost twice as likely to recover than those who spoke only o...
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New martian spacesuit put through its paces
Engineers from the University of North Dakota are evaluating their space suit design that would be worn by NASA astro...
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NASA releases stunning high resolution image of Earthrise over the Moon
NASA has released this image of Earthrise over the lunar surface, taken by the agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ...
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X-ray view reveals galaxy’s supermassive black hole
High-energy X-rays (magenta) coming from a supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy are captured by NASA's ...
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High resolution swath of Pluto shows detail of the varied landscape
This high-resolution swath of Pluto (below) sweeps over the cratered plains at the west of the hemisphere imaged by t...
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Nepal’s quake could have been much worse
Scientists suggest it triggered less landslides than expected.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal in April 2015 triggered far fewer landslides and much less damage to glacial la...
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So what’s the space program ever done for us?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivw7AzkykOY&feature=emb_title NASA has a long history of transferring technologie...
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Hubble spies celestial lightsabre at heart of young star system
The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a cosmic double-bladed lightsabre-like phenomenon emanating from the heart of a...
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New crew joins the space station
Three new crew members have joined existing astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).The men - one Rus...
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What it takes to make a spacesuit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P32j17Fl5L0&feature=emb_title NASA explains the complex process of making a space...
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Book: The Handbook
Bill Condie reviews a book about how to survive the possible impacts of climate change.
NON FICTION The handbook: Surviving and living with climate change by James Whitmore and Jane Rawson Transit Lounge ...
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New crew prepares to head to the space station
Three new crew members will arrive at the International Space Station today after taking off from the Baikonur Cosmod...
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Books: Holiday science reading
A mathematical colouring book, a sci-fi anthology and more.
You might think there are already enough editions of the Lewis Carroll classic until you pick up this stunning new of...
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3D printers for early adopters
A range of 3D printers are now within reach of ordinary households. Bill Condie describes some co...
The future has arrived. A range of 3D printers are now within reach of ordinary households, but the technology is sti...
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Emissions from cattle lower than thought
Methane emissions decreased.
Methane emissions from cattle in Australia are 24% lower than previously estimates, new research suggests. An update...
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Space Station crew safely home on Earth
Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA captured this image from aboard the International Space Station on Saturd...
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Silicon Valley entrepreneurs unite to defeat killer robots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKC85-jnPpU&feature=emb_title Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will lead a new comp...
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Huge natural bloom of phytoplankton
Bloom swirls through North Atlantic.
The microscopic, plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton bloom across the North Atlantic in spring and autumn. T...
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Zooming in on Pluto’s pitted surface
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRIThe image above is the highest resolution yet of the pitted surface of a section of Pluto's heart-sha...
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Giant storm rages across face of distant star
Astronomers have discovered giant storm raging across the face of a small, cool, distant star."The star is the size o...
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Pesticide in milk linked to Parkinson’s risk
Spike in Parkinson’s Disease cases due to milk?
A pesticide used before the early 1980s may be associated with signs of Parkinson's disease, according to a new study...
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Drone captures bird’s-eye view of Alaska’s sockeye salmon run
The Alaska Salmon Program of the University of Washington each year conducts surveys of sockeye salmon during their r...
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Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft sends first image from Venus
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released this image of Venus was captured by the Akatsuki spacecraf...
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Ammonia-rich clays lead to re-think on origins of Ceres
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8er_0yY1S1o&feature=emb_title Scientists working on NASA's Dawn mission have foun...
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Sons of mothers who smoked ‘less fit’
Sons of pregnancy smokers have lower aerobic fitness.
Young men whose mothers smoked during pregnancy had lower aerobic fitness compared to those whose mothers did not, ac...
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High score? It could be game over
Lifestyle risk score used to predict risk of mortality.
Doctors in Australia have developed a new lifestyle risk score that can be used to predict risk of mortality. The sc...
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New data suggests we have overestimated carbon stored in forests
The latest NASA research suggests that we may have been overestimating the amount of carbon stored by temperate US fo...
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Cassini captures details of Saturn’s pock-marked moon Prometheus
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sent back images of Saturn's tiny moon Prometheus that is just 86 kilometres in diamete...
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Exercise linked to a better memory
Older people exercise perform better in memory tests.
Researchers have found that older people who spent time walking or jogging perform better in memory tests. The study,...
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Global carbon emissions slow for first time in a decade
Slowing growth in emissions from China has led to the first decline in carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere in a de...
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Cassini peers through Titan’s hazy atmosphere
NASA has released this composite image of Saturn's moon Titan, an infrared view acquired during Cassini's flyby on 13...
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Hawaii’s supreme court puts Thirty Metre Telescope in doubt
Hawaii's supreme court has put a question mark over the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) project by ruling that the const...
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Research ship takes on some heavy seas
See the EV Southern Surveyor ploughing through heavy seas.
Some days at the office as a marine scientists can be a bit gruelling. This is our former research vessel Southern Su...
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Cygnus on track for rendezvous with space station after flawless launch
Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft, a commercial resupply mission for the International Space Station, launched successf...
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Highest resolution image of Pluto yet shows giant mountains of ice
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRIThe highest-resolution image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft yet to be released shows in detail t...
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New Horizons spies mystery object moving through Kuiper Belt
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year sent back ...
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The world’s fastest runner
Slow motion video shows how the cheetah does it.
These two videos from National Geographic's award-winning multimedia coverage of cheetahs shows the science of the bi...
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NASA spies faint galaxy 13.4 billion years old
The combined power of NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has been used to image the faintest object ever seen...
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LISA Pathfinder lift-off live footage
The lift-off today of the European Space Agency's LISA Pathfinder mission will pave the way for future missions by te...
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Pioneer guides flights over Antarctic
Diana Patterson gives guidance on the Antarctic overflights.
The guide on Antarctica Flights, Diana Patterson, is well qualified to explain the frozen landscape unfolding below. ...
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Cuttlefish help develop submarine defences
Could the cuttlefish’s stealth system be the answer?
The common cuttlefish hides from sharks by shutting down its own electrical field, US scientists have discovered. Co...
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Watching the Sun for 20 years – NASA’s SOHO
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, has been NASA's main Sun-watching mission for 20 years and it is sti...
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Rare cloud formation spotted in Victoria’s east
A hole punch cloud makes an appearance.
Credit: Nancy Waddington The cloud formation between the towns of Leongatha and Korumburra. Credit: John Pietka v...
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Flaxseed oil helps fight against golden staph
Potential new defense against suberbug.
Organic flaxseed oil could be a new line of defence against the superbug golden staph (Staphylococcus aureus) accordi...
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Book: Southern surveyor
The ship and scientists that explored Antarctica for CSIRO.
For those who love the sea, saying farewell to an old ship can be a sentimental business – particularly when that shi...
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Discovery of massive black hole upends assumptions on galaxy formation
Astronomers have discovered a black hole that grew much more quickly than its host galaxy, a finding that calls into ...
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Satellite timelapse shows glacier in motion
The animations show that they’re not retreating.
This timelapse animation was created from 15 images from Landsat. It compresses 25 years of change into just 1.5 seco...
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Emperor penguins meet robot penguincam
Meeting for the first time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AifKYs1OYuY&feature=emb_title The BBC introduced a robotic model of an emperor pe...
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Robots prepare to invade Australia
Hundreds of robots will arrive in Sydney in 2019 to battle for the coveted RoboCup – the football World Cup for robot...
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NASA completes polar survey Operation IceBridge
NASA has completed its so-called Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice. The mission was actually two o...
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How eating bread help lower cholesterol
Idea of new wheat varieties that lower cholesterol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9p4bYPl1s0&feature=emb_title Scientists are hoping gene technology and plant bre...
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Older siblings are more intelligent
Your position amongst your siblings might matter.
New studies suggest that a person’s position among siblings has a lasting impact on their life, Oxford University's s...
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Foods that make you fart are good for you
A good sign for your microbiome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI3KtR3LoqM&feature=emb_title The production of gas means that your body is hosti...
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Hubble captures a galaxy exhausted by its formation through merger
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope caught this curious galaxy, the result of a merger of two smaller ones. The process h...
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Reusable rocket touches down for the first time
A rocket belonging to Blue Origin, the private-spaceflight company owned by Jeff Bezos, has for the first time succes...
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Toyota’s fuel cell car faces stiff headwinds
The 2016 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car has gone on sale in California but faces stiff odds odds against it's su...
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How Mars lost its atmosphere
NASA has produced this graphic showing the paths by which carbon has been exchanged between Martian interior, surface...
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The physics of the chocolate fountain
And how it demonstrates several aspects of fluid dynamic.
A mathematics student has worked out the secrets of how chocolate behaves in a chocolate fountain, showing they are m...
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Rivers plan may save the Great Barrier Reef
Reducing eroding in gullies could save the Reef.
Australian scientists may have come up with a way to protect the Great Barrier Reef from the dangerous run-off into r...
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Fire tornado in slow motion
Discovering an intense pyro-convective cell.
Scientists have only recently discovered the phenomenon of the fire tornado that can occur in wildfires. Just over 10...
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ESA releases new images of dramatic Martian terrain
The European Space Agency has released this image focusing on a section of Aurorae Chaos and Ganges Chasma on Mars. I...
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Ancient fossil forests unearthed in Norway
Among the Earth’s first trees.
Ancient fossil forests, thought to be partly responsible for one of the most dramatic shifts in the Earth's climate i...
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Dwarf star’s giant magnetic field surprises astronomers
Astronomers have been surprised by the power of a magnetic field generated by a dim, cool red dwarf star located abou...
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No such thing as a diet that suits all
Researchers find that there isn’t one superior diet.
Even with identical meals, everyone metabolises them differently, and every diet should be tailored for a person's un...
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James Webb Space Telescope ready for mirror installation
The James Webb Space Telescope's telescope structure was lifted and lowered by crane onto the bright yellow optical a...
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Satellite system will warn of wildfires in real time
An animation shows how a proposed constellation of satellites with thermal infrared imaging sensors would locate wild...
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A way to stop biofilms from growing
Scientists find method to avoid hospital-acquired infections.
Swedish researchers have found a way to coat medical implants and prostheses to prevent the build-up of a biofilm of ...
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Understanding how lithium ion batteries age
A German research group has discovered the two key mechanisms for the loss of capacity in lithium ion batteries and h...
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ESA looks to the future of 3D printing in space
European Space Agency materials specialist Tommaso Ghidini has given a TEDxESA talk on 3D printing for space, explain...
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Rosetta animation shows sudden jet of ice and dust from comet 67P
ESA/Rosetta/MPS The Rosetta spacecraft orbiting the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko...
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Getting to the bottom of blurry space vision
Astronauts often comp-lain that they eyesight becomes blurry in low gravity, a problem scientists will have to solve ...
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Parasite shows how the jellyfish ‘devolved’
Devolved over centuries to become microscopic parasite.
Scientists have uncovered evidence that jellyfish have actually devolved over the centuries to become a microscopic p...
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Primordial life-giving goo inspires new medical implant technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ung-PySdOLA&feature=emb_title Scientists at Australia's peak government science a...
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ESA recreates Philae’s amazing comet manoeuvres
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ1n2W-BaYA&feature=emb_title The European Space Agency has used data from both t...
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Keeping watch on Greenland’s rapidly disappearing ice
Data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A shows one of Greenland’s glaciers – Zachariah Isstrom – is losing f...
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Unidentified space junk on collision course with Earth
An unidentified piece of space junk will hit the Earth's atmosphere later today over the Indian Ocean about 100 kilom...
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Psychedelic Pluto highlights dwarf planet’s many regions
New Horizons scientists have made this false colour image of Pluto using a technique called principal component analy...
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Nearby planet could be most important outside our solar system
A rocky planet 1.2 times the size of Earth orbiting a nearby red dwarf star is being hailed by astrophysicists as one...
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ESA land monitoring highlights the Nile
The longest river in the world gives the region life.
This image from the European Space Agency's land monitoring mission Sentinel2-A shows the Nile delta, illustrating gr...
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Huge ice cloud forms on Titan as winter arrives with a vengeance
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected a monstrous new cloud of frozen compounds in the low- to mid-stratosphere of S...
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Moons like spinning tops – Pluto’s unusual system
Most inner moons in the solar system keep one face pointed toward their central planet, but this animation by NASA sh...
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Model fills the gaps in charting Ebola outbreak
Study that details how and where the disease travelled.
A map just published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface shows the path that the Ebola virus took during the ou...
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NASA forecasts doom for Mars’ moon Phobos
NASA scientists have released new modelling that suggests the long, shallow grooves lining the surface of Martian moo...
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Rare speartooth shark tagged in QLD
Endangered species caught and tagged in north Queensland.
Scientists in Australia have caught and tagged two critically endangered spear tooth sharks – the first adults of the...
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Electron microscopy carves 3D nanostructures
Researchers have used electron microscopy to develop a unique way to build 3-D structures as small as one to two bill...
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Starving chicks end up as fat older birds
Transforming into fat and food-obsessed birds.
Baby birds that grow up with food shortages become fatter in later life than those that were well-fed as chicks, rese...
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Pluto’s craters give insights into solar system’s building blocks
NASA scientists have presented more details of Pluto’s long history of geologic activity at the 47th Annual Meeting o...
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Yemen faces its second-ever cyclone a week after its first
Yemen is facing its second tropical cyclone in a a week as Cyclone Megh strengthens off the coast. Cyclone Chapala l...
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Relics from the galaxy’s past in Hubble’s ‘cosmic archaeological dig’
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted relics from the earliest days of our galaxy right at the heart of the Milky...
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Gene editing saves baby girl from leukaemia
Cleared of leukaemia following an experimental immunotherapy.
A baby girl in the UK has been cleared of leukaemia following an experimental immunotherapy using gene-edited cells. ...
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New baby disturbing your sleep?
You may be better staying awake…
New research suggests that fitful, broken sleep – such as getting up every few hours to a newborn baby – may be worse...
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MOFs bring fingerprint technology into the 21st century
A burglary at his home gave materials scientist Dr Kang Liang reason to develop a new forensics technique that makes ...
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Robotic eyes will help with remote satellite repair
NASA has given us a closer look at one of the tools – a set of robotic eyes – that could be used for satellite servic...
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The perfect grilled cheese sandwich
The chemistry that goes to create a perfect grilled cheese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rttkpPFNkmY&feature=emb_title The American Chemical Society's Reactions series, c...
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Past earthquakes could help predict landslides
Earthquakes may make regions more prone to landslides.
Earthquakes might have regions more prone to landslides well into the future, research by scientists at Cardiff Unive...
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Diver films mysterious pink manta ray
The question is – why does it have a pink underside?
Scientists have so far been unable to explain why this manta ray, filmed swimming off the coast of Lady Elliot Island...
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Destination Jupiter – European Space Agency explains its next mission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Ez9VnWQMs&feature=emb_title The European Space Agency is setting a course for J...
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Yemen drenched with a year’s rainfall in a few days
The Global Precipitation Measurement mission (GPM) core satellite data has been used to create a video showing the de...
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Calling all astronauts, NASA on a recruitment drive
NASA will soon begin accepting applications for the next class of astronaut candidates as the agency prepares to ramp...
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The force holding anti-matter together
No difference between matter and antimatter?
The measurements show no difference between matter and antimatter, within the accuracy the scientists could achieve. ...
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The Sun ablaze in Ultra-HD video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tmbeLTHC_0&feature=emb_title NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), that keeps...
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The miracle of cuttlefish camouflage
Being able to blend into their surroundings with camouflage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgDE2DOICuc&feature=emb_title Cuttlefish survive by being able to blend into thei...
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A relatively popular theory
Responding to the Einstein anniversary with gusto.
In case you hadn’t noticed it’s been 100 years since Albert Einstein submitted the final version of his world-changin...
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The last straw for the mammoths
A poor mineral diet may have been the tipping point.
Mammoths were not receiving enough essential chemical elements in their diet by the end of their reign, thanks to sho...
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Ancient bones reveal the lives of working class
Remains uncover the lives of Mayan people.
An archaeologist in Florida has turned to ancient animal bones in an attempt to find out more about the daily lives o...
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VW’s cheating will lead to 60 deaths in the US, MIT study says
Volkswagen's use of software to evade emissions testing of its vehicles will directly contribute to 60 people across ...
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Commander posts spacewalk selfie from the space station
International Space Station Expedition 45 Commander Scott Kelly took this selfie during a spacewalk this week.Sharing...
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Ozone hole larger and later than usual
The 2015 Antarctic ozone hole area was larger and formed later than in recent years, according to scientists from NAS...
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Rosetta finds oxygen on comet, upending what we know about planet formation
European Space Agency comet-chaser Rosetta has unexpectedly detected abundant molecular oxygen in the coma of comet 6...
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NASA tests methane-powered engine for future landers
NASA has tested components for a methane-powered engine that could be used for Mars landers.The space agency has neve...
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Artificial intelligence helps in search into heart of galaxies
An astrophysics student at the Australian National University has turned to artificial intelligence to help her to se...
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Bringing Star Trek closer to reality
A sonic tractor beam has been developed!
Scientists have developed a "sonic tractor beam" capable of manipulating objects in mid-air. They say it could be use...
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Australia’s new Chief Scientist sees a coal-free future
Australia's new Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, has advocated an end to the use of fossil fuels, but acknowledges th...
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Cassini unveils the wintry world of Enceladus
The Cassini-Huygens mission has just returned to Saturn's icy moon Enceladus for a flyby of i...
This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows battered terrain around the north pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus....
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NASA video tracks giant hurricane from space station
Outside the International Space Station, cameras captured dramatic views of Hurricane Patricia at on 23 October as th...
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Giant prehistoric shark’s teeth wash up on beach
Teeth of the megalodon washed up on beach in North Carolina.
Teeth of a giant prehistoric shark, buried on the ocean floor for millions of years, have been washing up on a beach ...
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NASA reveals Kerberos – the last of Pluto’s moons
This image of Kerberos was created by combining four individual Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) pictures tak...
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Wearable health monitoring electronics could show ’empathy’
Wearable health monitoring electronics are rapidly becoming less obtrusive and the wearers will soon simply not notic...
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Most Earth-like worlds are yet to be created, scientists say
Earth is an oddity, arriving early in the evolving Universe, a new theoretical study suggests.Based on an assessment ...
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Australian government withdraws support for Bjørn Lomborg
The Australian government has taken its offer to spend A$4 million on a research centre to be headed by climate chang...
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NASA’s solar system boundary rider sheds light on our relationship to space
NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission has shed new light on how the solar system and its heliospher...
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Secrets of digesting a disgusting diet
Vulture genome provides insight into their diet.
Scientists have read the first Eurasian vulture genome, discovering the unique make-up that allows them to digest rot...
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PM’s prizes for science and innovation
The Prime Minister’s prizes announced.
The Australian Prime Minister's Prize for Science and Prize for Innovation are announced today, along with a number o...
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Orionid meteor shower peaks this week
It's time for the Orionid meteor shower again. It appears every year in October when the Earth travels through the de...
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Could lichen be a source for anti-cancer drugs?
Pigment used to slow growth and kill leukaemia cells.
An orange pigment found in lichens and rhubarb called parietin could slow the growth and kill human leukaemia cells, ...
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Life may have emerged earlier than thought
Scientists find evidence of life 300 million years earlier.
Scientists say they have found evidence that life may have begun on Earth 300 million years earlier than previously t...
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Mars Express explores Red Planet’s ancient flood plain
The European Space Agency has just released this image, captured by the High Resolution Stereo Camera about its Mars ...
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Animation compares this year’s El Niño with 1997 shocker
The 1997 and 2015 El Niño animations were made from data collected by the TOPEX/Poseidon (1997) and the OSTM/Jason-2 ...
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Book: The Dingo Debate
A book that looks at origins and status of Australia’s native dog.
NON FICTION The dingo debate: origins, behaviour and conservation Bdited by Bradley Smith CSIRO Publishing (2015) An...
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New polymer foam shows promise to make artificial organs
A new lightweight, stretchable material with the consistency of memory foam could be used to make artificial organs, ...
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Putting Tesla’s Autopilot through its paces on the streets of NYC
Tesla's model S isn't the world's first autonomous system, but its super-advanced cruise control system, called Autop...
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Scott Kelly breaks record as US astronaut to spend the most time in space
Last Friday, astronaut and commander of the current International Space Station's Expedition 45 crew, Scott Kelly, ch...
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Cassini closes in on north pole of Enceladus
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has begun returning its best-ever views of the northern regions of Saturn's moon Enceladus....
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Puzzling patterns on Pluto stump NASA
The latest image of Pluto is taken from the centre of Pluto’s heart feature, which NASA scientists are calling Sputni...
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Ebola stays in survivors’ semen for months
Study warns of a hidden danger of Ebola.
Survivors of Ebola may carry the virus in their semen for months after they recover, according to a study published i...
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Cassini’s Saturn mission – how it all began
NASA's image of the day looks back to 15 October 1997 and the launch of a Titan IVB/Centaur carrying the Cassini orbi...
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String of record highs ends with this year’s Antarctic sea ice extent
Southern Ocean sea ice cover reached its yearly maximum extent on 6 October at 18.83 million square kilometres, NASA ...
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Drone video shows progress on China’s giant radio telescope
Thanks to iflscienc.com for pointing out this video taken from a drone of China's huge 500-meter aperture Spherical R...
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What next for the Pluto mission?
New Horizons spacecraft, having left the Pluto-Charon system, is now destined to meet another Kuiper Belt Object, but...
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Hubble captures changes to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot in HD video
Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have produced new maps of Jupiter using annual "portraits" of the gia...
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What craters can tell us about a new planet
Kelsi Singer, from NASA's New Horizons science team, has been blogging about craters and what they can tell us about ...
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Microlattice – the lightest metal ever made
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has released details of Microlattice, a new material it has developed, which it says is ...
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Cassini begins close-up flyby of Enceladus
NASA begins it’s look at Saturn’s moon.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft today begins the first of three close encounters with Saturn's moon Enceladus with images e...
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Disease-fighting secrets of aspirin
Study unlocks the secrets of ultra-common medicine.
Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, has been something of a wonder drug – one of the oldest and most commonly used medi...
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Images of Martian sand dunes explain soil history
The image above of the shifting sands on the surface of Mars was taken by NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Expe...
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DIY robot kits
One of the best ways to learn about robotics is to build your own robot. Bill Condie surveys the ...
Jeffery Phillips Robotics is complex and multi-disciplinary, combining engineering, construction, electroni...
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Possibility of future organ transplants
Pig DNA edits open possibility.
Scientists have used a gene editing technique to improve the chances of the successful transplant of pig organs into ...
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Morning aurora captured from the International Space Station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the Int...
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Work-out replaced with an exercise pill?
Discussing the development of exercise pills in labs.
Oxford University student science magazine Bang! Science reports on a review in Trends in Pharmalogical Sciences disc...
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CubeSat phones home to confirm orbit
The first of NASA's new mini satellites that was launched last week has radioed back to confirm it is in orbit and op...
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Curiosity confirms ancient lakes on Mars
A new study confirms that Mars was once, billions of years ago, capable of storing water in lakes over an extended pe...
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Why elephants hardly ever get cancer
A gene that encodes a well-defined tumour suppressor.
Elephants have extra copies of a gene that encodes a well-defined tumour suppressor, p53, a new study has found, whic...
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NASA releases plan for the Journey to Mars
“NASA is closer to sending American astronauts to Mars than at any point in our history,” says NASA Administrator Cha...
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Blue skies and water ice on Pluto
NASA has released the first colour images of Pluto’s atmospheric hazes, providing new insights about the dwarf planet...
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A detailed look at the Moon’s north pole
The European Space Agency has released this image from its SMART-1 mission that orbited the Moon. At the centre of th...
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Nobel Prize awarded for mapping DNA repair
Three scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their work on mapping how cells repair damaged ...
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Astronomers baffled by mysterious waves in planet-forming disc
Fast-moving waves racing through a dusty disc surround a young star have baffled scientists who have never seen a fea...
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It was easier to lose weight in the 1980s
Why is it harder now than it was then?
A new study has found that those consuming the same calories and doing the same exercise were 10% heavier in 2008 tha...
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Discovering the mass of neutrinos
Winners of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Japan's Takaaki Kajita and Canada's Arthur McDonald have won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery tha...
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Walking fish and a sneezing monkey
New species discovered in the Himalayas.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has compiled a survey of wildlife discovered by scientists across Bhutan, north-...
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High resolution images of Pluto’s moon Charon record a violent history
Images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft of Charon, Pluto's moon and the largest satellite relative to its planet ...
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NASA tests heat shields for Mars exploration vehicle
One of the challenges of a NASA mission to Mars will be providing heat shield to protect spacecraft entering the plan...
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Climate change creates an evolutionary mismatch between bees and flowers
Climate change is wreaking havoc on bumblebees and flowers in the Colorado mountains, with a study comparing 40 years...
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Book: Atmosphere of Hope
Tim Flannery looks on the bright side. Bill Condie reviews his latest book on climate change.
NON FICTION Atmosphere of hope: Searching for solutions to the climate crisis By Tim Flannery Text Publishing (2015)...
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Seafloor chimneys powered first life
Could this be the electrical kickstart for life?
NASA researchers have replicated the bubbling chimney-shaped structures on the seafloor to investigate how the very f...
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Why didn’t chimpanzees learn to cook?
They prefer taste of cooked food but they don’t know how to cook.
A study has shown that chimps prefer the taste of cooked food begging the question why they never learnt to do it for...
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NASA balloon flight tests whether bacteria can live on Mars
NASA researchers recently launched a helium-fileld scientific balloon to the edge of space to discover if bacteria mi...
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More to a jellyfish than meets the eye
Much more complex creatures than assumed.
Jellyfish are among the oldest creatures on the planet, but also subject to less research than most animals and scien...
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Viruses responsible for motor neurone disease
Dormant viruses may “reawaken” to cause motor neurone disease.
Viruses lying dormant inside the human genome may “reawaken” to cause motor neuron disease, according to new research...
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New insights into star-forming giant galaxy cluster
Galaxy clusters, huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter, are the largest structures in the Univer...
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Exposure to bacteria to protect against asthma
Early exposure to ‘good’ bacteria may help at-risk kids.
Canadian researchers hope that their work will lead to a test to identify at-risk infants. "It shows there's a short,...
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NASA’s Dawn team looks at mysteries and insights about Ceres
The team behind NASA's Dawn spacecraft this week are at the European Planetary Science Conference in Nantes, France, ...
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Will astronauts be able to find their feet on Mars?
One less obvious challenge to people landing on Mars is the adaptation to gravity after a long space flight and wheth...
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Super-porous concrete drains 4,000 litres of water in a minute
UK building materials company Tarmac has developed a new kind of concrete that instantly soaks up thousands of litres...
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Scientists discover the first biofluorescent turtle
A biofluorescent hawksbill sea turtle, the first discovered.
Marine biologist David Gruber was filming coral off the Solomon Islands for National Geographic when he encountered a...
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When black holes collide
The European Space Agency is highlighting a computer simulation of what it would look like when two black holes the s...
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More Mars pictures that show possible water courses
Now that we know what to look for, there is evidence of downhill water flows in many places on Mars. Here, the dark, ...
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Highlights from NASA’s news conference on finding water on Mars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDv4FRHI3J8&feature=emb_title Scientists brief reporters at a media conference to...
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Book: Imagination and a pile of junk
Bill Condie reviews a droll history of inventions.
Imagination and a pile of junk: A droll history of inventors and inventions, by Trevor NortonCoronet (2015)Trevor Nor...
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Fish stand up for their mates
Turns out they have their best mates’ interest at heart.
It turns out fish are a co-operative lot and look out for their mates' best interests. New research from the ARC Cen...
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Did tooth enamel evolve from fish scales?
Found an enamel coating the scales of fossilised bony fish.
The enamel that protects our teeth may have evolved from the scales of ancient fish, a new study published in the jou...
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Microbes’ role in a wine’s ‘terroir’
A fungus that provides wine with a distinctive bouquet & flavour.
New Zealand and British scientists say they have discovered the first direct evidence of a fungus that helps provide ...
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The supermoon eclipse in New York City
NASA released this image of the perigee full moon, or supermoon, seen next to the Empire State Building at the beginn...
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Is there life on Mars? Or flowing water? What mystery has NASA solved?
The internet is buzzing with speculation about what important science announcement NASA will make later today, that i...
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Could 3D printing help repair broken nerves
Customised implants created with the help of a 3D printer have helped injured nerves regenerate in rats, MIT Technolo...
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How sea otter fur is perfectly designed
Their extremely dense fur allows them to live in cold water.
California sea otters have the densest fur of any mammal on Earth, allowing them to live in cold water even though th...
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Detailed Pluto images keep on coming from New Horizons
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced colour view of Pluto that combines blue, red an...
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Your chance to meet Buzz Aldrin and discuss his ideas for a mission to Mars
NASA is going to Mars, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin couldn't be happier about it.But the Apollo 11 moonwalker also has s...
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Hubble uncovers stunning detail of remnant of an 8,000-year-old supernova
Veil Nebula debris is one of the best-known supernova remnants, deriving its name from its delicate, draped filamenta...
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Autonomous drones work together to build a bridge
Quadcopters team up to build a rope bridge in the ETH Zurich Flying Machine Arena.A motion capture system collects in...
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New duck-billed dinosaur
Found in Alaska’s Arctic region.
https://youtu.be/gDuHMOxaU20 A plant-eating dinosaur uncovered in northern Alaska has been found to be a distinc...
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Tiny motors may help remove carbon dioxide from the oceans
Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have designed tiny machines that could one day clean up carb...
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Rosetta reveals the water-ice cycle of Comet 67P
The illustration shows Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (left, top) based on four images taken by Rosetta's navigation...
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Milky Way’s supermassive black hole shows increased X-ray action as mystery object passes by
Scientists are puzzled by an increased rate of X-ray flares from the giant black hole at the centre of our Milky Way ...
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Fidgeting may save your life
Research suggests fidgeting will help those who are sedentary.
If you have to sit down for long periods, make sure you don't sit still. That is the message from a study published t...
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Continental shelf ‘collided with China’
The event happened 100 million years ago.
Chinese scientists say the continental shelf beneath East China Sea and South China Sea collided with the continent 1...
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Vinegar fatal to crown of thorns starfish
Proves to be fatal to coral-eating starfish.
Household vinegar is deadly to the destructive crown of thorns starfish, Australian scientists have discovered, givin...
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Leafcutter ants don’t eat leaves…
So what do they do with leaves?
Leafcutter ants don't eat the leaves they cut and cart away. Instead they use them in sophisticated farming operation...
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NASA declares there is no asteroid threat
NASA has stepped in to reassure the planet that there is no threat of an asteroid strike this month, despite viral in...
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New record for quantum teleportation
Four times further than the previous record.
Researchers have teleported quantum information over 100 kilometres of optical fibre – four times further than the pr...
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Edible electronics could be providing medical treatments in five years
Safe, consumable electronics, such as those powered by the charged ions within our digestive tracts, could be used in...
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Drill uses laser guidance system to keep you on the straight and narrow
The BullseyeBore is a drill attachment that uses lasers to tell you if you’re drilling straight. The attachment can b...
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Scientists find unexpected carbon sink on Antarctic seafloor
In a rare piece of good news on climate change, a paper in the journal Current Biology suggests that the loss of sea ...
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Video captures exoplanet orbiting a star 60 light years away
A team of Canadian astronomers has given us our best view yet of an exoplanet orbiting its star 60 light years away.A...
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Get ready for the supermoon eclipse – the first in 30 years
On 27 September there will be a very rare event in the night sky – a supermoon lunar eclipse, the first in more than...
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Could Concorde be set to fly again?
Plans are in place to resume Concorde flights by 2019, a British newspaper reports.The iconic aircraft, the world's o...
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Will phosphorene take graphene’s crown?
Even before all the potential uses of graphene, the reigning king of wonder materials, have been worked out, there is...
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2015 Astronomy Photo of the Year
Capturing the drama of a total solar eclipse.
French photographer Luc Jamet has beaten over a thousand amateur and professional photographers from around the globe...
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Keeping an eye on Mississippi swamplands
Sentinel-2A captures ‘colour vision’ image.
The Mississippi swamplands are recorded in this Sentinel-2A "colour vision" image as part of the European Space Agenc...
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Stunning backlit images of Pluto show dwarf planet’s features as never before
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRINASA/JHUAPL/SwRIThe images above was taken just 15 minutes after New Horizons' closest approach to Pl...
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New process 3D prints optically transparent glass
A team at MIT has unveiled a first of its kind optically transparent glass printing process called G3DP.The additive ...
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Hiker salvages GoPro footage of lost space mission
In 2013, a group of Stanford students launched a weather balloon outfitted with several cameras into space as part of...
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The solar system built to scale on a dry lakebed in Nevada
A group of friends build the first scale model of the solar system with complete planetary orbits on a dry lakebed in...
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ESA/NASA project spots its 3,000th Comet
The European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory – SOHO – detected its 3000th comet this week.In ano...
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Cattle leukaemia virus linked to breast cancer
Link between bovine leukaemia virus and human breast cancer.
Scientists have established a link between infection with the bovine leukaemia virus and human breast cancer. In the...
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3-Printing brings ancient Irish music back to life
A PhD student at the Australian National University has resurrected an ancient Irish musical instrument, by 3D printi...
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Schrödinger’s microbe
Can a bug be in two places at once?
A common microbe could soon be living in two places at once like Schrödinger's cat in the baffling quantum theory tho...
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Curious light signal alerts scientists to possible black hole collision
An unusual light signal coming from the centre of a far-off galaxy alerted scientists to a binary black hole system w...
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Drones taught to avoid collisions in the air
NASA has been putting its latest drone technology through its paces with a prototype system of its Detect-and-Avoid (...
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Fearless chickens more productive farm animals
A reduced fear of humans makes for better farm animals.
A reduced fear of humans makes for more productive farm animals, a new study of the domestication process shows. Res...
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Beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus
Cassini data confirms a global ocean.
Researchers are more sure than ever that a global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active mo...
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Winning robotics team to be given Washington welcome
The West Virginia Mountaineers, winners of NASA's 2015 Sample Return Robot Challenge, will be recognised for their ac...
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Harnessing the power of nanoscale physics
What gives the Morpho Butterfly its magnificent blue?
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Urbanisation in Pearl River delta
Satellite images show breakneck pace of growth.
These images from NASA show the extraordinary pace and extent of growth of urbanisation in China’s Pearl River Delta ...
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Ant virus linked to honeybee deaths
Study links argentine ant virus to honeybee deaths.
A New Zealand study shows that Argentine ants, one the most invasive and damaging ant species in the world, host a v...
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Satellite imagery shows lowest Sierra Nevada snowpack in 500 years
A new report led by University of Arizona researchers compares the 2015 snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Ca...
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‘The Martian’ director Ridley Scott discusses NASA’s journey to Mars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTAhl1Ud5QY&feature=emb_title Ridley Scott, director of the 20th Century Fox film...
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Massive galaxy cluster found bursting with new stars
Astronomers have discovered a distant massive galaxy cluster with a core bursting with new stars, as it grows by feed...
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Series: Redesign My Brain
Is it possible to expand the potential of your own brain?
DVD: Redesign My Brain: Series 2, Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, run time: 3 x 57 minutes In 2013, adve...
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NASA rocket tests compare 3D printed parts with traditional components
NASA scientists have tested a gas generator – a key part of the F-1 rocket engine of the type that that propelled the...
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Shocking picture of starving polar bear shows reality of climate change
A starving female polar bear. Kerstin Langenberger Photography This shocking picture of a starving polar bear w...
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‘Float the salt please’ – dinner time on the space station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYPI0LDBSCQ&feature=emb_title "When there are nine people aboard the Internationa...
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Curiosity’s Mars panorama shows petrified sand dunes
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has discovered sandstone formations that shows texture and inclined bedding structures ch...
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3-D printed ribs and sternum gives cancer patient new lease on life
A Spanish cancer patient has had his sternum and rib cage replaced with a 3D printed titanium version in a world-firs...
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A new perspective on Mars – the South Pole and beyond
A sweeping view by ESA’s Mars Express extends from the planet’s south polar ice cap and across its cratered highlands...
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Scientists unearth new human ancestor
Human-like species found in Africa.
Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa that is...
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Satellite reveals giant algal bloom in Baltic Sea
Earth satellite transmitted new images of an algal bloom.
The Sentinel-2A satellite has transmitted new images of a huge algal bloom in the Baltic Sea caused by warm weather a...
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Cod bones found in Henry VIII’s ship
Remains reveal global fish trade in Tudor England.
Cod stored in the the Tudor warship Mary Rose was caught as far away as Newfoundland in eastern Canada, a new study h...
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Trials set to start for first dengue fever treatment
Clinical trials could start within a year.
Clinical trials for a dengue fever treatment could start within a year, following a discovery by scientists at Austra...
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Half of risk of testicular cancer comes from DNA
Almost half risk comes from DNA passed down from our parents.
Almost half of the risk of developing testicular cancer comes from the DNA passed down from our parents, much more th...
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Dawn takes a closer look at Ceres’ bright spots
NASA is using data from the Dawn spacecraft to investigate more closely the bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres th...
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Planck’s painterly view of the Magellanic Clouds
An image from ESA’s Planck satellite of the two Magellanic Clouds.ESA and the Planck CollaborationThe European Space ...
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Science beyond fiction
The TEDxESA conference in the Netherlands.
The first TEDxESA conference will take place on 11 November at the European Space Agency's technical headquarters in ...
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Shedding light on how the squid changes colour
More insight into the colour change of squids.
We've written before about how octopuses and cuttlefish change colour to provide their famous camouflage. Back in Ma...
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Engineers start to weld together NASA’s Orion crew module
This diagram shows the seven pieces of Orion’s primary structure and the order in which they are welded together. NAS...
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NASA image captures space station transiting across the Sun
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New Horizons’ data download promises highest resolution images of Pluto yet
Seven weeks after New Horizons sped past the Pluto system, the mission team has begun intensive downlinking of the te...
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Use of electricity to find hidden prey
How sharks and stingrays locate their prey.
Sharks and stingrays can detect tiny electric currents radiating from animals like prawns and small fish and use it t...
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Hubble peers into the heart of a distant galaxy
Messier 96 is of about the same mass and size as the Milky Way. It was first discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain ...
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A hummingbird in a wind tunnel
What happens when you put one in a wind tunnel?
Scientists have used a high-speed camera to film hummingbirds' aerial acrobatics at 1,000 frames per second. They ca...
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What the stars can tell us about Mars’ past
Yesterday we reported on NASA's new analysis of the rocks of Mars to test the theory that carbon sequestration accoun...
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Viking 2 lands on Mars – a look back to 1976
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Magnetic fields provide a new wireless communication technique
Electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have demonstrated a new wireless communication techn...
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Where did Mars’ atmosphere go? NASA rules out one theory
Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on early Mars reacted with surface rocks to form carbonate, thinning the atmospher...
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Gaia celebrates first year of main star survey mission
ESA’s billion-star surveyor, Gaia, has completed its first year of science observation in its main survey mode. ...
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Chameleons change colour to stand out
It is not, in fact, a mechanism to hide.
Chameleons don't change colour to match their environment – it's just the opposite. How do they do it? By manipulatin...
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Space station mission prepares for lift-off
Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Ag...
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Tackling toughest childhood cancers
Australian scientists prepare to take on the challenge.
Cancer researchers in Sydney are launching a research program aimed at tackling the most serious cases of infant, chi...
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Could tiny jellyfish propulsion drive be the answer for submarine design?
Scientists at the University of Oregon say a type of tiny jellyfish - colonial siphonophores - that swims rapidly by ...
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Coffee linked to heart attack risk
Some young adults at risk for a heart attack?
Coffee drinking has been linked to greater risk of heart attacks in young adults with mild hypertension. Lucio Mos, ...
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Cassini captures stunning image of Dione’s transit of Saturn
While the image is stunning, it has a practical purpose, too. By timing transits in the Saturn system, scientists can...
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99% of seabird species will have ingested plastic
By 2050, most seabird species will have plastic in their gut.
Nearly 60% of seabird species – 80 out of 135 – have plastic in their gut, according to researchers by 2050 virtually...
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Book: Microbes reconsidered
A book about the importance of microbes to evolution.
Life’s engines: How microbes made Earth habitable By Paul G. Falkowski Princeton University Press (2015) Long before...
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‘Terminator material’ heals itself after bullet wound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVWFvKxrcLg&feature=emb_title NASA has developed a new material with the ability ...
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Hip & knee replacements may be bad for the heart
Increased risk of heart attack in early post-op period.
Researchers in Boston have found that osteoarthritis patients who had total knee or hip joint replacement surgery wer...
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Tributes flow in for Oliver Sacks
Neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks’ passing on Sunday.
Tributes are flowing in for Oliver Sacks, the eminent neurologist and author, who died on Sunday, aged 82. Sacks, wh...
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NASA imagery shows the scars of Katrina
10 years on the hurricane’s impacts are still showing.
NASA have released images of the New Orleans region showing the impact of Hurricane Katrina, scars of which can still...
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Why are research retractions increasing?
Due to more mistakes and misdeeds, or the scrutiny?
Bouree Lam at The Atlantic asks whether the number of retractions of research papers is increasing because of more mi...
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Astronomers find supermassive black hole in Earth’s nearest quasar
University of Oklahoma astrophysicist and his Chinese collaborator have found two supermassive black holes in Markari...
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Climate change can alter plant genetics
The genetic structure of plant populations can change within 15 years.
The genetic diversity of wild plant species could be altered rapidly by climate change, according to a study by the U...
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Sub-atomic particles that defy standard model
Standard model explains most known behaviours.
A new study of experiments in the Large Hadron Collider suggest that some particles – leptons, to be precise – are be...
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Plane dropped from 30 metres in impact safety test
For the third time in less than two months, researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have ...
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NASA concludes engine test for next gen rocket
NASA has completed the first developmental test series on the RS-25 engines that will power the agency’s new Space La...
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Rare nautilus sighted for first time in 30 years
One of the world’s rarest animals sighted in South Pacific.
Biologist Peter Ward has recorded a sighting in the South Pacific of an Allonautilus scrobiculatus, a species of naut...
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Astronaut Andreas Mogensen prepares for 10 days in space
European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen will spend 10 days in space on a mission to the International Space ...
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Twin jet nebular floats like a butterfly in space
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have released a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope of the Twin Jet Ne...
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NASA focus on sea level rise – How much? How fast?
Seas around the world have risen an average of 7.6 centimetre since 1992, with some locations rising more than 23 cen...
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Smart micro-robot fish could revolutionise drug delivery systems
Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have 3D-printed a school of fish-shaped micro-robots that ca...
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The psychology of predicting domestic violence and murder
Murderers who kill their partners or other family members have a significantly different psychological and forensic p...
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Has Stephen Hawking solved a big black hole mystery?
You could escape a black hole, Stephen Hawking says in a theory Gizmodo describes as "fantastically insane".The famou...
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How NASA reveals supersonic jet shockwaves
NASA researchers in California are using an updated version of a 150-year-old German photography technique – schliere...
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Scientists create record pressure in a lab
Pressure is equivalent to twice that in the Earth’s inner core.
An international team of scientists led by the University of Bayreuth in Germany has created the highest static press...
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Can blind people be racist?
Blind people do categorise people by race, but it is a much slower process than with a sighted person, a sociologist ...
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Scientists find link between Amazon fires and Atlantic hurricanes
NASA and University of California, Irvine researchers have uncovered a strong link between high wildfire risk in the ...
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Chips glued to bees monitor colony collapse
Tiny chips used to discover the cause of colony collapse.
Australia’s national science agency CSIRO has glued computer chips to the backs of 15,000 bees in a bid to discover w...
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Book: Explaining the cosmos
Bill Condie reviews a handbook to the Universe.
NON FICTIONThe Universe in your hand: A journey through space, time and beyondBy Christophe GalfardMacmillan,(2015)No...
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Hubble reveals a stunning cosmic couple
Hubble images show the spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it in t...
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Project Sunroof uses Google Maps to monitor your roof’s earning potential
Project Sunroof uses information in Google Maps to figure out how much sun falls on a roof. It takes into account stu...
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New way to make a pentagon
Mathematicians discovered new kind of pentagon.
A team of mathematicians recently discovered a new kind of pentagon capable of tiling a plane. “Aside from the pract...
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3D bioprinting could transform the way we think about organ transplants
Cosmos contributor and physicist Cathal O'Connell is part of a team that includes world class surgeons, biologists, b...
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IceCube finds confirmation of high-energy neutrinos from other galaxies
Last year Cosmos magazine featured the IceCube Neutrino Observatory a US$271 million project to drill down two and a ...
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50 years of Mars exploration
This year marks 50 years of successful NASA missions to Mars starting with Mariner 4 in 1965.Since then, a total of 1...
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The thermal louvres that help Rosetta keep its cool
They might look modest but these louvres are an essential key technology enabling ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, that is t...
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Aurora lights the sky over Antarctica
Concordia station is given a stunning show.
Concordia station in Antarctica is one of the most remote places on Earth to live, but that is what makes it so attra...
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Cassini’s farewell fly-by of Saturn’s moon Dione
NASA has released the latest images from Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's moon Dione. The pictures were taken during th...
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Cranberries fight colon tumours in mice
Battling colon tumours in mice with cranberry extracts.
The tumours of mice with colon cancer diminished with size and number when the animals were fed cranberry extracts, i...
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Synthetic vaccine shows promise against MERS
Vaccine induces protective immunity against MERS.
A novel synthetic DNA vaccine has been shown to induce protective immunity against the Middle East Respiratory Syndro...
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Maybe sex doesn’t sell after all
Advertising featuring sex as effective as neutral themes?
A new study questions whether advertising featuring sex and violence is as effective as that with neutral themes. The...
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Nine real NASA technologies in The Martian
To mark the release of The Martian, a movie about an astronaut marooned on Mars where only science and innovation can...
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Looking forward to selfies from Mars? Here’s a sneak preview
Julien MauveFrench photographer Julien Mauve has imagined a world where Mars is just another tourist hot spot and a b...
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Engineers test James Webb Space Telescope mirrors that will gaze back 13.5 billion years
An optical engineer inspects the surface of two polished test mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWS...
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Send your name to Mars on NASA’s next mission
NASA is inviting people to add their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard the InSight Mars la...
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Cassini reveals chasms on Saturn’s moon Dione
A pattern of bright icy cliffs among myriad fractures.
NASA has released new imagery of the surface of Saturn's moon Dione taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraf...
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The drinkable book that could save your life
The “drinkable book”, containing pages of paper that can be used to purify sewerage into drinking water, is being hai...
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Monsanto develops genetic pest control sprays
Agricultural biotech giant Monsanto is developing "genetic sprays" that use RNA interference – known as RNAi – to com...
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NASA finds neon in Moon’s thin atmosphere
Presence of neon has been a subject of speculation.
NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer – known as LADEE – found neon in the lunar atmosphere during it...
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Japanese brace for large volcanic eruption
Authorities are making the necessary preparations.
Scientists fear there could soon be a large explosive eruption from the volcano Sakurajima. The Japan Meteorological...
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The science of Donald Trump’s allure
The psychology of why Donald Trump is riding high in the polls.
Psychologist Melanie Tannenbaum has taken a look at the psychology of why presidential hopeful Donald Trump is riding...
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The science of slicing steak
Slicing technique to make it more tender.
It all depends on whether you cut with or against the grain of the muscle. Cutting against the grain provides many sh...
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Hubble investigates spiral galaxy NGC 428
Hubble Space Telescope has zoomed in on spiral galaxy NGC 428, approximately 48 million light-years away from Earth i...
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Astronomers discover ‘young Jupiter’ exoplanet
A team of astronomers has discovered a Jupiter-like planet within a young system that could help us better to underst...
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Meet the ‘Ferrari of rocket engines’
The RS-25 engine for NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, is one of the most complex and efficient rocket engi...
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Cassini gets set for last close fly-by of Saturn’s moon Dione
The continued exploration of Saturn’s 62 known moons.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its final close fly-by of Saturn's moon Dione next Monday when it will come withi...
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Perseid meteor over Washington DC
NASA have released this image, a ten-second exposure, of a meteor streaking across the sky above Washington, DC durin...
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Fitter kids are better at maths, researchers say
Youth that are aerobically fit have thinner grey matter than others.
Nine and 10-year-old children who are aerobically fit tend to have significantly thinner grey matter than those who a...
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Vikings sought more than wealth from raids
Pursuit of wealth was not the only driver of the Viking raids.
New research suggests that the pursuit of wealth was not the only driver of the Viking hit-and-run raids on monastic ...
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Rosetta images show how comet has changed over a year
Contrasting images taken a year apart clearly show the increased activity on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as it ha...
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Wedge-tailed eagle takes down drone
This video taken by photography service Melbourne Aerial Video in Australia shows what it must be like to be a small ...
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Geckos inspire new NASA technology to make things stick together in space
New grippers, using technology inspired by the tiny hairs on the bottom of geckos' feet that allow the lizards to cli...
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Smallest supermassive black hole may help us understand how they grow
Astronomers have identified the smallest supermassive black hole ever detected in the centre of a galaxy, which they ...
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LEDs cut European Space Agency’s power consumption by 60%
The European Space Agency will save around €15,000 ($16,600) a year just by replacing fluorescent and halogen lights ...
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The first digital map of seafloor
It shows a more complex picture than previously thought.
Australian scientists have created the world's first digital map of the composition of the floor of the world's ocean...
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REM sleep the key to dream imagery
Suggests flickering eyes are “viewing” a dream image.
Scientists have since the 1950s known that Rapid Eye Movement sleep is the time when dreams are most vivid, but they ...
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The Universe is slowly dying
A giant survey involving many of the world's most powerful telescopes has found that the Universe is slowly dying, wi...
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Drug shows promise in slowing Parkinson’s
Slowing down Parkinson’s disease with UDCA drug.
UK scientists believe that ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a drug that is used to treat liver disease, may also slow the...
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Astronauts sample lettuce that is out of this world
Astronauts Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui of Japan sample the fruits of their labor after harvesting a cr...
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Hubble unearths a little gem of a nebula
The Little Gem Nebula is located in the constellation of Sagittarius, roughly 6,000 light-years away Earth.This Hubbl...
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Why some animal eyes have horizontal pupils
Shape of pupils is related to whether it is a hunter or hunted.
Scientists have discovered that the shape of an animal's pupils is related to whether it is hunter or hunted. An ana...
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Astronauts to harvest and eat space-grown vegetables for first time
Astronauts on the International Space Station will today harvest a crop of lettuce – the first fresh food grown in th...
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Teaching robots to talk to each other
MIT Technology Review takes a look at work by Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University enabling two types of robots ...
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NASA puzzles over what colours Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
NASA’s Planetary Atmospheres and Outer Planets programs are funding new research into Jupiter's mysterious Great Red ...
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Stormy days in Sagittarius
This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the center of the Lagoon Nebula, a deceptively tranquil name for...
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Was hitchBot destruction part of wider animosity to robots?
Rather than an isolated incident, the destruction of the hitchBot this week represents a fairly common phenomenon – r...
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See the Moon crossing face of the Earth
Quite a sight from 1 million miles away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMdhQsHbWTs&feature=emb_title The DSCOVR project, the deep space climate observat...
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New Chevy Volt travels 40% further than first-gen model
The second-generation Chevrolet Volt can travel 85 kilometres on a full charge, according to EPA testing, nearly 40% ...
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India mourns passing of Abdul Kalam
Abdul Kalam ‘people’s president’, a national folk hero.
India continues to pay tribute to its former president APJ Abdul Kalam, popularly known as "Missile Man" for his work...
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Europe’s latest weather satellite delivers its first image
The Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager instrument on MSG-4, Europe's latest geostationary weather satellit...
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Spicy food diet linked to lower death rates
Regular consumption linked to lower risk of death.
An international team led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has found that the consumption of...
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How earthworms can digest plants others can’t
Plant material that other herbivores cannot digest.
Earthworms can digest plant material that most other herbivores cannot thanks to certain molecules in the earthworm g...
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Teen marijuana use not linked to later issues
Use is not associated with later mental or health issues.
Chronic marijuana use by teenage boys does not appear to be linked to later physical or mental health issues such as ...
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Lost memories can be found
Scientists discover revolutionary process involving our memory.
A process in the brain could help rescue lost memories or bury bad memories, a team of scientists says. That could pa...
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Desert art – images of Libya from space
These three images of the dunes in the Libyan desert were provided by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2A mission...
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New imagery from ESA explores Atlantis Chaos plain on Mars
The European Space Agency has released this colour-coded topography map of a portion of the region known as Terra Sir...
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Robots mimic insects to jump on water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0_454EDwkk&feature=emb_title Researchers have created a robot that can jump on w...
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Piecing together the puzzle of Pangea
Researchers aimed to investigate Pangea’s plate thickness.
Scientists have pieced together the continent of Pangea (which mean "all land" in Greek) that existed 250 million yea...
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Satellite captures giant algal bloom in North Sea
Most abundant in late spring and early summer.
Phytoplankton blooms in the North Sea tend to be most abundant in late spring and early summer due to high levels of ...
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Space station silhouette shows transit across face of Moon
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Science unlocks secrets of Japan’s tsunami past
UNSW researchers take a deep dive into Japan’s tsunami.
Geochemistry of soil in the wake of the 2011 tsunami that ravaged northeastern Japan has given new insights into the ...
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Hubble uses microlensing to find Uranus-sized planet around distant star
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have independently confirmed the discovery of a...
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Oceanographers use backtracking models to trace MH370 wreckage’s route
The University of WA oceanography department is using special reverse computer modelling to re-create the drift of wr...
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Chemistry of tattoo permanency
The chemistry of tattoo ink and its permanence.
The American Chemical Society explores what tattoo ink is made of, why this body art is permanent – whether you like ...
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A 3D-printed house in just three hours
The 3D-printed house took just 10 days to print, and three hours to assemble.
CNWest Chinese media are reporting that a 3D-printed house has been assembled in Xi’an, capital city of Shaanxi prov...
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NASA baffled by red ‘graffiti’ on Saturn’s moon Tethys
New imagery from the Cassini spacecraft shows unexplained arc-shaped, reddish streaks on the surface of Saturn's icy ...
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Modern lizards unchanged
Unchanged from ancient forebears preserved in amber.
Scientists have been amazed to find that a group of lizards, preserved in amber for 20 million years, are identical t...
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NASA orbiter prepares to greet new Mars lander at Red Planet
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will today start preparations for the arrival of the next Mars lander, InSig...
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One of the world’s hottest volcano regions
NASA images show one of the most active regions.
A photograph, taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station, highlights the Kamchatka Peninsula in fa...
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Leading scientists urge a ban on killer robots
More than 1,000 of the leading researchers in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have published an open letter...
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Uranium – desired and feared
Bill Condie reviews the documentary Uranium: Twisting the dragon's tail.
Derek Muller, documentary presenter, wears protective clothing as he walks through the deserted streets of Fukushima,...
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Two images of Pluto reveal more of dwarf planet’s composition
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRINASA/JHUAPL/SwRIThe latest images released by NASA of Pluto, taken from the New Horizons spacecraft, ...
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Plant cultivation 11,000 years earlier
Evidence it occurred earlier than known agriculture.
The site of a 23,000-year-old camp of hunter gatherers on the shores of the Sea of Gallilee in Israel suggest that wh...
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Four-legged snake sheds light on evolution
Discovery suggests it may have evolved as a burrowing animal.
The discovery of a four-legged fossil of a snake suggests it may have evolved as a burrowing animal rather than a mar...
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Kepler spies most Earth-like planet yet
Astronomers have found a close cousin of the Earth – a rocky planet circling its star in the "Goldilocks zone" where ...
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Nano particles that could be used to fight cancer
Technique resulted in first 3D images of nanocrystals.
Scientists have developed a technique to capture 3D images of the structures of nanocrystals – tiny particles that co...
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A satellite-eye view of our planet
These images are just a small selection from the exhibition at the UN Visitors’ Lobby in New York – My Planet from Sp...
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European Space Agency tests antenna for Mercury mission
The antenna that will connect Europe’s BepiColombo with Earth is being tested for the extreme conditions it must endu...
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NASA works on windbot to patrol Jupiter’s atmosphere gathering data
NASA is working on a new class of robotic probe designed to stay aloft in a planet's atmosphere for a long time witho...
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Fossil fuel emissions could make radiocarbon dating impossible
Carbon released by burning fossil fuels could soon make radiocarbon dating impossible, scientists warn. Fossil fuels...
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How backswing can give a basketball wings
It’s all to do with the Magnus effect.
Derek Muller of the YouTube science channel Veritasium explains the Magnus effect with a graphic example of basketbal...
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Wildlife-livestock disease transmission
Humans at risk from ignorance over disease transmission.
Ignorance of the transmission of deadly diseases between wildlife and livestock and humans is putting lives at risk, ...
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Arrival and spread of first Americans
Genome pins down insight of the first Americans.
The original Americans came from Siberia over a land bridge in a single wave no more than 23,000 years ago, at the he...
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NASA New Horizons discovers new mountain range on Pluto
Pluto has another mountain range, new images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft confirm.The mountains are situated o...
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Hawking throws weight behind $100 million bid to find alien life
Russian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner and cosmologist Stephen Hawking have intensified the search f...
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Skeleton of Alexander the Great’s father?
Potential discovery of Alexander the Great’s father’s remains.
Anthropologists are hopeful they have discovered the remains of Alexander the Great's father. A new analysis of bone...
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Earliest attempts at dentistry
Old molar shows the earliest evidence of dentistry.
A 14,000-year-old molar of a young man shows the earliest evidence of dentistry, a new report says. "It predates any...
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How the Earth looks from a million miles away
A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite has returned its first view of the entire sunlit side o...
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Book: Cuckoo – Cheating by nature
Bill Condie reviews an evolutionary detective story.
NON FICTION Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature By Nick Davies Bloomsbury (2015) At first glance, 257 pages may seem rather m...
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Dead galaxies could be packed with dark matter
Astronomers find a cluster of interest.
Dead galaxies in a cluster about 300 million light years from Earth could be packed with dark matter, keeping them fr...
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More women on New Horizons team than any other NASA project
The triumph of the New Horizons mission, that flew within about 12,000 kilometres of Pluto last week, was the result ...
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Fear-mongering, errors and fraud
A takedown of the anti-GMO movement.
The war against genetically modified organisms is full of fear-mongering, errors, and fraud, writes Slate’s William S...
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Bumblebee facing extinction
‘Flying mouse’ bumblebee potential extinction.
The world's largest bumblebee, South America’s Bombus dahlbomii, is facing extinction, with scientists unsure of how ...
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Why do girls deal out of engineering careers?
So few girls go on to pursue well-paid careers in engineering.
New Scientist asks why, when girls do better than boys at maths and science in earlier years of high school, so few g...
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Newly discovered dinosaur
A ‘fluffy feathered poodle from hell’.
North-eastern China continues to amaze scientists with its rich treasure trove of feathered dinosaur fossils. The lat...
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NASA releases new image of Pluto’s moon Charon
This new image of an area on Pluto's largest moon Charon clearly shows a depression with a peak in the middle, shown ...
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Meanwhile, back on Ceres those bright spots continue to baffle scientists
While our attention has been focused on the remarkable fly-by of Pluto by spacecraft New Horizons, NASA's other missi...
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News from the far side of the Sun
NASA's Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory Ahead (STEREO-A) spacecraft collects images in several wavelengths of ...
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New drug could provide one shot against malaria
New malaria drug could provide long-lasting treatment.
A new malaria drug, currently undergoing phase II clinical trials in humans, could provide a long-lasting one shot pr...
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Pressure on Aussie wildlife grows
The Kookaburra threatened with extinction.
Scientists and politicians gather in Melbourne, Australia, today to discuss the country's threatened plants and anima...
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Views of Pluto through the years – animation shows just how far we’ve come
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoCj6_UF2YA&feature=emb_title NASA has put together this animation, combining var...
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Mountains surprise in first high resolution images of Pluto
The first high resolution images of Pluto taken by spacecraft New Horizons during a fly-by of the dwarf planet have a...
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Civilisation may become unviable
If we keep destroying plants, civilisation will be unsustainable.
Scientists warn that unless humans slow the destruction of Earth's plant life, civilisation as we know it may become ...
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Researcher warns of climate change complacency over ‘mini ice age’
There has been much media coverage of the prospect of a so-called "mini ice age" as a result of research published wi...
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Where Pluto fits in the family of ‘not-planets’
Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society website has lost no time dropping in the best-resolution image available fr...
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Hopes of cheaper hydrogen
New catalyst brings the hope of more affordable hydrogen.
Stanford scientists may have solved a major problem with the development of hydrogen fuels cells - the difficulty in ...
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Equations to untangle ‘controlled chaos’
Mathematician devises way to improve complex critical systems.
A new mathematician framework that more effectively analyses "controlled chaos" could potentially be used to improve ...
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Scientists capture movie of black hole x-ray outburst
NASA's Swift satellite has detected the start of a new X-ray outburst from the binary system V404 Cygni, where a blac...
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New Horizons data begins to flesh out picture of Pluto
As NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hurtles the final million kilometres to its rendezvous with the dwarf planet Pluto,...
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Cancer drug combo make chemo more effective
New drug combination may lead to more effective treatment.
Targeting a protein that helps cancer cells to withstand chemotherapy could drastically improve treatment, according ...
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Book: Freedom Regained
Free will vs our knowledge of genetics and neuroscience.
Are we products of our culture, slaves to our genes and upbringing, or free agents? Long before neuroscience and gene...
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ESA receives new message from comet-lander Philae
The Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko communicated with the Rosetta orbiter again on the weekend, alth...
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A turtle-eye GoPro view of the Great Barrier Reef
Clamber on board for a ride through the Great Barrier Reef.
This video is released by WWF as part of a project to investigate the level of pollution affecting turtles within the...
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The chasms and craters of Pluto’s moon Charon
Not only has New Horizons sent back some intriguing images of the far side of Pluto this weekend, it has also provide...
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The diet that helped us defeat Neanderthals
Key to modern humans sweeping the Neanderthals from Europe.
A diet of rabbit meat may have been the key to modern humans sweeping the Neanderthals from Europe and becoming the d...
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New Horizons captures gravitational dance between Pluto and moon Charon
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft continues to deliver on images and information about Pluto and its moons with this ima...
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Juno on track for rendezvous with Jupiter
Good news for space junkies wondering where their next fix of discovery missions is going to come from after New Hori...
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Wind turbines on bridges could be the next big thing in renewable energy
Wind turbines could be installed under some of the biggest bridges on the road network to produce electricity, accord...
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NASA data shows waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by solar wind
New data from NASA shows that the solar wind often forms perfectly shaped waves as it rushes past the magnetic bubble...
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First images as Pluto fly-by officially underway
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft's flyby sequence of science observations is officially underway.The spacecraft was sti...
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Super-bright supernova brings rare gamma-ray burst
A long-lasting gamma-ray burst has been observed after a super-bright supernova – a very unusual event.On the rare oc...
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The physics of why bikes stay upright
Minute physics explains why a bike doesn’t fall over.
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New Horizons mission releases new map of Pluto
The latest map of Pluto, made from images taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) instrument aboard New...
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Book: Cracking the Code
A father’s love for an ailing child leads to medical progress.
NON FICTION Cracking the Code By Stephen and Sally Damiani with Leah Kaminsky Vintage Australia (2015) Before Massim...
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Gathering storm – a beautiful time-lapse captures formation of a supercell
This time-lapse, taken over several hours, shows an amazing stationary supercell being produced over the Black Hills ...
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Sabre-toothed cat’s teeth growth rate
Growth rate is twice as fast as lions.
The terrifying, dagger-like teeth of the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon fatal is grew at twice the rate of those of moder...
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What’s the world’s favourite number?
Author Alex Bellos on the world’s favourite number and why.
Alex Bellos, author of Alex's Adventures in Numberland and The Guardian's maths blog, explains how he came to researc...
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Can too much vitamin B cause acne?
“I think there’s a link” between vitamin B12 and acne.
Too much vitamin B12 may cause acne, or at least make it worse, according to a new study in the US. "I think there's...
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British pilot first to take off in F35 using ‘ski jump’
BAE Systems test pilot Peter Wilson flies F-35B from land based ski jump ramp for the first time. It is designed for ...
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New dinosaur discovered in South Africa
200 million year old dinosaur called Sefapanosaurus.
South African and Argentinian palaeontologists have discovered a new 200 million year old dinosaur from South Africa,...
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PTSD may raise stroke and heart disease
Post traumatic stress disorder puts women at risk.
Women who develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have a greater risk of future cardiovascular disease than...
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Retina’s power supply makes vision possible
Helping provide energy required for visual processing.
A thick band of microtubules in certain neurons in the retina help provide energy required for visual processing, res...
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Hubble spots near-by planet bleeding giant cloud of hydrogen
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an immense cloud of hydrogen dubbed "The Behemoth" bl...
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Microscope shows detail of pores in cell nucleus
The detail can help us better understand some diseases.
A new, high-resolution image of the nuclear pore structure could help us understand better how some diseases involvin...
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In the groove of an LP under an electron microscope
Ben Krasnow of Applied Science describes how he made a stop motion animation of a phonograph needle in an LP groove u...
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Botanic gardens saving Australia’s native orchids
The Royal Botanical Gardens shift their focus to orchids.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria has teamed up with the state's biggest centre for the conservation of rare and thr...
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Grandfather of all turtles found in a quarry
240-million-year-old animal discovered in southern Germany.
A 240-million-year-old lizard-like animal discovered in a quarry in southern Germany is a key missing link in the evo...
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Chlorine is not making your eyes red
Chlorine in pool water isn’t the culprit for red eyes.
Chlorine on its own won't make your eyes red. But when it reacts with human urine it forms chemical compounds that wi...
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Two proteins in foetus’ lungs trigger labour
How these proteins in a foetus’ lungs initiate labour.
A discovery by researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center could lead to new techniques to prevent...
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Creature was thought to be hallucinating
Odd-looking creature leaves memorable impression.
When British palaeontologist Simon Conway Morris first set eyes on a fossil of the creature above in the 1970s, he th...
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Children of same-sex or heterosexual marriages
No difference between children of heterosexual marriages.
New research has found "overwhelming consensus" among scientists that children raised by same-sex couples are no wors...
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Self-assembling nanoscale grids could transform solar cells and touchscreens
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new technique to rapidl...
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Swarm satellites shed light on near-Earth electric current systems
The three Swarm satellites have provided a first glimpse inside Earth and started to shed new light on the dynamics o...
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Microchip lined with human cells
Creation that won Design of the Year.
Human Organs-on-Chips, designed by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, has won ...
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Researchers flag new superbug threat
Antibiotic-resistant superbug – a threat to human health.
An antibiotic-resistant superbug has become an urgent threat to human health, a new study says. The bacterium – Klebs...
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Children show an innate sense of justice, study finds
Children as young as three show a natural inclination towards restorative justice fed by a strong concern over the we...
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Brian Schmidt to be ANU vice-chancellor
Congratulations to nobel laureate Brian Schmidt.
Congratulations to Brian Schmidt who has been named as the next vice-chancellor of Australian National University. Sc...
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Fat and sugar may cause cognitive loss
Can lead to cognitive loss and altered gut biome.
Both high-fat and high-sugar diets can cause changes in gut bacteria that in turn are responsible for significant lo...
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The space station’s dress circle view of the Southern Lights
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly – @StationCDRKelly – captured photographs and video of auroras from the International Spa...
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The theory that helped explain the Universe
Albert Einstein developed the general theory of relativity 100 years ago as an answer to fundamental problems of cont...
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Could this ‘transparent truck’ make the roads safer?
Electronics giant Samsung has unveiled a new "transparent" truck that streams video from a forward-facing camera thro...
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Closer to Neanderthals than we thought
Ancient jawbone linked to our relationship with Neanderthals.
We already knew modern humans had interbred with the Neanderthals before they disappeared from history (See the Cosmo...
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Sun emits mid-level flare
The sun has emitted a mid-level solar flare, its image captured (above) by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Solar f...
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Getting electric cars on the road ‘more important investment than charging stations’
Getting electric cars on the road is a bigger priority in promoting their use than funding charging stations, accordi...
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Mixed reception for plan to 3D print rhino horn
Biotech startup Pembient plans to flood the market with synthetic, 3D-printed rhino horn, in a bid to save the animal...
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Compilation of timelapses from the International Space Station
This breathtaking compilation of time lapses of the Earth from the International Space Station was edited by Dmitry P...
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First colour movie of Pluto and Charon gives taste of things to come
Pluto and Charon in color It's still very low resolution but the first colour movies from NASA’s New Horizons mission...
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The chameleon that still thinks it’s inside an egg
Panther chameleon has hard time believing he has hatched.
Credit: Nick Henn of Canvas Chameleons A tiny panther chameleon still coming to terms with its birth. Credit: Nic...
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Old dental records show the health consequences
400,000-year-old teeth found in Israel reveal quality of health.
Scientists say the build-up of tartar on 400,000-year-old teeth found in a cave in Israel provides direct evidence o...
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Titan’s lakes in close-up
A radar image, created using data collected by the international Cassini spacecraft, shows the lakes of Titan in clos...
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Scientists find methane in Mars meteors and say it’s a clue to life
Traces of methane in Martian meteorites are a possible clue in the search for life on the Red Planet, scientists say....
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All systems go for NASA’s Europa mission
A new NASA mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa is moving forward from concept review to development. Europa is c...
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Why big dinosaurs avoided the tropics
Remains found near the equator.
Large dinosaurs remains have seldom been found near the equator. In fact few dinosaurs of any kind, apart from a few ...
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An abundant mineral you’ve never seen
Bridgmanite has only recenty been named by scientists.
It accounts for nearly 40% of the Earth's total volume, making it the most abundant mineral in the world, but scienti...
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It’s official! Watching cat videos is good for your health
Watching cat videos on the internet boosts viewers' energy and positive emotions and decreases negative feelings, acc...
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Tropical Storm Bill from the International Space Station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly), currently on a one-year mission to the International Space Station, to...
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How to produce gold without using cyanide
Aussie scientists have discovered new way to produce gold.
Australian researchers have found a way to produce gold without using cyanide for the first time. The country's gove...
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Timelapse of Chile’s Calbuco volcano
A production company was there to catch the action.
Southern Chile's Calbuco volcano, near the cities of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt, erupted on 22 April for the first...
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Do avocados hold the key to beating Leukaemia?
Molecules from avocados may be effective in treating a cancer.
New research suggests that molecules derived from avocados could be effective in treating a form of cancer. Professor...
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Latest Cassini images show Tethys craters in relief
The latest imagery from the Cassini spacecraft clearly shows the two large craters on Saturn's moon Tethys.The image ...
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Documentary turns people away from drug
Anti-satin documentary turns thousands away from drug.
A study in Australia has found that tens of thousands of people stopped taking cholesterol-lowering statins in the wa...
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Art meets science
The camera has always been a useful laboratory tool.
Science and art have always had a close relationship – both seek to observe and explain the world. Leonardo da Vinci...
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Palaeolithic division of labour
Stone tools reveal clues of social division of labour.
Stone tools unearthed from a cave in Jordan, reveal clues about how humans may have started organising into more comp...
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Philae comet lander wakes up and phones home
Rosetta's lander Philae has come out of hibernation, sending signals to ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Dar...
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Can you solve this driverless car puzzle?
Driverless cars are on their way. The Google car is well advanced, with plenty of competitors hot on its heels, inclu...
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Robots take a spill in the DARPA Challenge
All credit to DARPA – the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – for making this compilation of failures in i...
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Ancient church unearthed in Israel
1,500-year-old church found beside road.
A new road project between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem has become an archaeological dig after the remains of a 1,500-year-...
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MH370 must have hit ocean in nosedive
Why no trace was found of missing Malaysia Airlines flight.
A team of mathematicians has suggested that the reason why no trace was found of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH3...
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Latest images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft
The latest images of dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, give us the clearest view yet of the myster...
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Valet parking by smartphone – where your car parks itself
Daimler, Bosch and Daimler's car-sharing subsidiary car2go are partnering on a project to develop automated parking, ...
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Stanford engineers draw road map to 100% renewable US energy by 2050
Stanford engineers have outlined a state-by-state plan that could transition the United States to having 100% renewab...
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Perinatal depression has roots before childbirth
Perinatal depression may have roots well before pregnancy.
Depression during pregnancy and after childbirth may have its roots well before women become pregnant, new research f...
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EasyJet to use drones to inspect grounded aircraft
The budget carrier says that it will save time and money to have automated drones, using lasers, to inspect and analy...
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Running and jumping, a giant leap for robots
MIT researchers have trained their robot, Cheetah, to recognise and jump over hurdles as it runs along – a first for ...
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Microbe handprint of child shows what grew
Bacteria growth from a child after playing in the dirt.
Credit: Tasha Sturm Microbiologist Tasha Sturm took a handprint from her eight-year-old son on a Tryptic Soy Agar...
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How to build a perfect fire
What that means for mankind.
While you've probably worked it out by trial and error, scientists have proven the shape of the perfect fire. In a s...
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Deep space climate observatory arrives in orbit position
The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), which will provide vital warnings of damaging solar eruptions and collec...
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New crater spotted on Mars
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured this close-up image of a relatively recent impact crater in the Siren...
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Triceratops teeth more complex than thought
Analysis of fossils suggests complexity.
The three-horned dinosaur Triceratops had more complex teeth than previously thought, according to new analysis of fo...
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Gemini mission’s legacy of Earth images
This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. ...
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Mapping the Milky Way from the inside out
NASA scientists describe the task of mapping our own Milky Way galaxy as like trying to create a map of your house wh...
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Birds cry wolf to scare away predators
A cunning way to protect its nest from predators.
One of Australia's smallest birds has found a cunning way to protect its nest from predators. The tiny brown thornbil...
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Can scientists make friction disappear?
Superlubricity means the surfaces slide over each other.
Physicists at MIT have developed an experimental technique to observe and manipulate individual atoms at the interfac...
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Large Hadron Collider back in action
After a revamp, the atom smasher is back.
The world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is back at work after a two-year revamp. The 27 k...
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The behaviour of Pluto’s unpredictable moons
This illustration depicts Pluto and its five moons from a perspective looking away from the sun. The outermost moon i...
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How an octopus goes camping…
More evidence of the intelligence of these remarkable creatures.
As regular readers will know, we like octopuses here at the Cosmos newsblog (see The Awesome Octopus) and so were exc...
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The hidden structures right over our heads
A team of astronomers has detected tube-like structures only hundreds of kilometres above the Earth's surface.The tub...
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Bay of Fundy set to get giant tide turbines
Two turbines will generate about 4 megawatts of electricity.OpenHydro Electricity-generating tidal turbines are se...
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Organic farming more profitable
Benefit more from organic farming than conventional.
Organic agriculture is more profitable for farmers than conventional agriculture, despite the lower yields, according...
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Silk screws could replace metal in repairing fractures
Screws made out of silk have significant advantages in fixing fractured bones.GABRIEL PERRONEScientists have come up ...
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Antibiotics in agriculture eliminated?
New vaccination could stop use of antiobiotics in agriculture.
An American animal scientists has come up with a new technique that could reduce or even eliminate the need for antib...
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Breast is best for fighting leukaemia
Associated with lower risk of childhood leukaemia.
Breastfeeding for six months or longer has been associated with a lower risk of childhood leukaemia in a new Israeli ...
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Ancient algae trapped deep in glacier’s ice
Remains of creatures dating from sixth century deep inside glacier.
Scientists have found the remains of tiny creatures dating from the sixth century deep inside a glacier in Peru. The...
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Why dogs stink when they’re wet
Canine chemistry – youtube video on smells and your dog.
An entertaining video from the everyday chemistry YouTube channel Reactions on smells and your dog – both going and c...
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Students comprehending mathematics
Concentrate on identifying and creating patterns when young.
Researchers at Notre Dame University have been studying why some children have such difficulty understanding mathemat...
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Designer carbon improves battery storage
A new carbon material significantly boosts battery performance, according to the Stanford University scientists who d...
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Hubble focuses on Milky Way’s most crowded neighbourhood
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way.It is loc...
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Planetary Society delighted as LightSail phones home
Privately funded solar sail satellite LightSail has rebooted itself and sent a message to its controllers on Earth af...
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India’s heatwave turns roads into molten bitumen
The heatwave currently baking India with temperatures up to 47.6°C is not only deadly, but playing havoc with infrast...
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Wingsuit fliers swoops over active volcano
The Red Bull Skydive Team takes to the sky above Mount Bromo, an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia.Bromo, which ...
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New breed of robot bounces back after injury with a limp
A new breed of robots can recognise when they have lost a limb and adjust their walking motion to cope with the "inju...
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Shape-memory metal will spring back after 10 million uses
A new shape memory alloy retains its properties even after ten millions of transformations, compared with the previou...
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NASA tests parachute for Mars mission
NASA is under way with testing equipment for its InSight mission to Mars. The latest tests were of a parachute that w...
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View from the cockpit of a NASA research F-15D
NASA operates research support aircraft – commonly called chase planes – that act as escorts during research flights....
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Hubble video shows near-light-speed collision inside black hole jet
Hubble astronomers have captured a near-light-speed collision between two collections of matter ejected from a superm...
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NASA reveals details of planned mission to Europa
NASA has unveiled nine science instruments it will use on a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, to investigate whether ...
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Hoverboard breaks world distance flight record
Hoverboard inventor Catalin Alexandru has set a record for a 375-metre flight on his creation, which was inspired by ...
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How candle smoke lights in super slow motion
The mechanics behind reigniting a candle.
The Slow Mo Guys show the mechanics of how the smoke from an extinguished candle – vapourised candle wax – can be use...
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Searching the Deep Web for science clues
The internet contains vast amounts of information that does not show up on Google searches. The so-called "Deep Web" ...
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11 new species of chameleon
Scientists discover 11 more species in Madagascar.
Madagascar, already a by-word for extraordinary biodiversity, has been shown to have 11 more species than previously ...
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NASA imaging shows magnetic field over a sunspot group
The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) images the solar atm...
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Substitution for sight in blind people’s brains
Echolocation a complete substitution.
Some blind individuals can use echoes from tongue or finger clicks to recognise objects in the distance. And in thes...
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Infections can lower your IQ
Correlation between infections and impaired cognitive ability.
New research shows a clear correlation between infections and impaired cognitive ability measured by IQ. "Our resear...
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Liquid crystal lens configuration works like an insects eye
Engineers and physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a way to use liquid crystals to grow compou...
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A new history of ancient snakes
According to analysis, early snakes had hind legs.
Early snakes had hind legs, according to Yale palaeontologists who have analysed snake genomes and new fossil records...
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The nature vs nurture debate put to rest?
Study on the influence of nature vs nurture.
A meta-analysis of data going back 50 years found that 49% of the variation for human traits and diseases could be bl...
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Women scientists like their toys, too
#GirlsWithToys trends as female scientists get involved.
The Twittersphere has reacted rapidly to comments by California Institute of Technology astronomy and planetary scien...
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The search for the fountain of youth
It’s back to square one.
Scientists have called into question previous research that suggested blood of a young mouse can reinvigorate an olde...
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Viruses: the key against drug-resistant bacteria?
To help fight antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.
We may be able to enlist the help of viruses to fight antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, according to Israeli ...
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Scars of Mount St Helens eruption remain
35 years on the scars are still there to see.
It's 35 years since Mount St. Helens in the US state of Washington state exploded, killing 57 people and dramatically...
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High-speed vacuum chamber creates space-like conditions on Earth
Vacuum chambers are essential to testing the operation of hardware in space while still on Earth. NASA, unsurprisingl...
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Homemade heroin
How genetic engineering opened the way for synthetic opiates.
Scientists have discovered how to make heroin and similar other opiates without using poppies. The team led by resea...
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Why hyenas are ideally suited to Facebook
They tend to form bonds with friends of friends.
Spotted hyenas, just like Facebook users, tend to form bonds with friends of friends, a phenomenon known to behaviour...
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Bionic 3D-printed jaw gives sea turtle a new lease on life
Engineers have saved a loggerhead turtle, injured in a collision with a boat propeller, by replacing its jaw with a 3...
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Blame agriculture for sexual inequality?
Prehistoric societies may have had equality between the sexes.
Prehistoric human societies were probably egalitarian places with equality between the sexes, a position that only ch...
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Gas gamble to solve energy crisis
Rwanda pins hopes on gamble to solve crisis.
Energy-starved Rwanda in central Africa is looking to put to use the 60 billion cubic meters of methane and 300 billi...
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How zebrafish produce their own sunscreen
Produce a chemical, called gadusol, that imitates sunscreen.
Zebrafish produce a chemical, called gadusol, that works as a sunscreen, protecting them from the harsh sunlight in t...
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NASA’s rover Opportunity completes its first Martian marathon in just 11 years
This year, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity completed the first Martian marathon – 26.219 miles or 42.195 kilometres. It...
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10,000-year-old Antarctic ice shelf ‘will be gone within five years’
A new NASA study says that the last remaining section of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf will have disintegrated befo...
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Joan Clarke, one of the forgotten women of Bletchley
DiscovHer, a new website and newsletter focusing on women in science, has a fascinating feature about Joan Clarke, on...
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Curiosity rover records blue sunset on Mars
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded this sequence of views of the sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Ma...
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Carl Sagan’s light sail spacecraft ready to take the test
A spacecraft propelled through space by the radiation from the Sun was first envisioned by Carl Sagan 40 years ago. N...
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NASA introduces the space cup to go with ISS’s new espresso machine
A couple of months ago we reported on the installation of the ASI (Italian Space Agency) ISSpresso machine on the Int...
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Google doodle celebrates Inge Lehmann
The seismologist discovered the Earth’s core.
Today's Google doodle celebrates the 127th birthday of Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann who died aged 105 in 1993. Sh...
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A rough guide to identifying bad science
Useful site run by UK chemistry teacher Andy Brunning.
A useful primer from Compound Interest, a useful site run by UK chemistry teacher Andy Brunning. The site takes a cl...
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MIT lets undersea robot make its own decisions
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new system for underwater robots that ...
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Doctor stitches a grape back together using robotics
The da Vinci Surgical System is used in this promotional video to stitch a grape back together.The technology is desi...
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Cassini’s latest view of Saturn shows deceptive tranquility
The latest images of Saturn from the Cassini mission show a deceptively tranquil planet that belies the turbulent wor...
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The dirt on your shoes could prove your guilt
Forensic soil science is nearly 150 years old.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyurHTD2Kro&feature=emb_title This video from Nature (via Lady Scientists of Tumb...
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More sex doesn’t mean more happiness
Correlation between happiness and sexual frequency?
While research has shown a positive correlation between happiness and sexual frequency it has not been clear that the...
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Ebola virus lives on for days on hospital surfaces
It can live on surfaces in hospitals for nearly two weeks.
The Ebola virus can live on surfaces in hospitals for nearly two weeks, longer than it would under non-climate contro...
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A diet of graphene flakes helps spiders spin super-webs
Spiders sprayed with water containing carbon nanotubes and graphene flakes have produced the toughest fibres ever mea...
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SpaceX tests Dragon launch escape system in skies over Florida
A Space Exploration Technologies' passenger spaceship has made a quick debut test flight in Florida to demonstrate an...
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NASA super balloon touches down in remote outback Queensland
Parts of a NASA super pressure balloon have been found in remote south-west Queensland, in Australia.The balloon's fl...
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The lake that drains away down a lava tube plug hole
The video shows the remarkable annual event at Lost Lake in Oregon, which fills up every winter and empties like a ba...
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Rare Oarfish washes up on beach
Rare fish found washed up in New Zealand’s Otago Harbour.
Credit: The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre A rare three-metre Oarfish has washed up on a beach in New Zealand's O...
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World’s earliest bird found in China
Fossils have re-written the history of the birds.
Two well-preserved fossils have re-written the history of the birds, showing this one lived five to six million years...
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Astronomers set new record to spy galaxy 13 billion years in the past
Astronomers have identified the farthest spectroscopically confirmed galaxy observed to date, as seen in this Hubble ...
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Bacteria kills ‘generation after generation’
Zombie bacteria that kill living microbes.
Bacteria killed with silver can turn into "zombies" that kill living microbes, scientists have discovered. In the st...
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Risk from ‘performance-enhancing’ drugs
‘Performance-enhancing’ drugs put performance at risk.
So-called performance-enhancing drugs have done nothing to improve times, distances or other results, according to re...
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A powerful undersea eruption at volcano
A massive eruption is underway off the US coast.
A powerful eruption is under way at the Axial Seamount, a massive underwater volcano located about 400 kilometres off...
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Twenty years on, tuna tells us tales of the sea
Research organisation reunited with a southern bluefin tuna.
My how you've grown...this is not Bluey, but this juvenile southern bluefin tuna has just been tagged behind the dors...
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Eta Aquarids meteor shower set for pre-dawn show
The Eta Aquarids – a meteor shower associated with Halley's comet – will peak on tomorrow, 5 May and 6 May.The dust c...
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NASA’s 10-engine electric aircraft takes to the skies
A team at NASA's Langley Research Center is developing a battery-powered plane that has 10 engines and can take off l...
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The eclipse that proved a coup for Newtonian theory
300 years ago, on 3 May 1715, a rare solar eclipse occurred over England. It was the first to be predicted on the bas...
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Interceptor drone designed to net rogue drones
Until now drones have had more or less unrivalled air freedom – they can fly unimpeded wherever they like over our ci...
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Aussie outback grass could be used to build lightweight electric cars
Spinifex grass from outback Australia could be used to make a nanofibre similar to Kevlar, that could be used to manu...
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One in six species could face extinction from climate change
Up to one in six species face extinction due to climate change, a new study published in Science suggests. The resea...
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High speed Japanese camera can take 1 trillion frames a second
Japanese engineers have produced a high-speed camera that can record events at more than one trillion frames per seco...
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Shapeshifting wing passes its latest NASA test
NASA and the US Air Force Research Laboratory have announced another successful flight of a plane with a new, flexibl...
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New Horizons spies possible polar cap on Pluto
Bright and dark regions on the surface of faraway Pluto have been seen for the first time, with scientists speculatin...
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Penguins don’t put all their eggs in one basket
“Resource allocation” strategy in egg-laying practices.
Phillip Island’s little penguins – also known as fairy penguins – exercise a distinct strategy of "resource allocatio...
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Talk of the decline of the West may be overdone, say researchers
Western country birth rates are now nearing replacement levels, a new paper by Oxford researchers argues.The publicat...
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Sex difference in the Stegosaurus
The male and female differed in appearance.
The male and female Stegosaurus looked very different, new research by Princeton University, published in PLOS ONE sh...
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New membrane reduces aircraft cabin-noise
Researchers have developed a membrane that can be incorporated in an aircraft fuselage dramatically to reduce low-fre...
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Five of the smartest animals after us
The top five nerdiest animals out there.
How Stuff Works' excellent YouTube channel looks at five of the nerdiest animals out there.
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The dinosaur scientists thought was a fake
Oddball ‘platypus’ dinosaur real species?
OK it's not really all that like a platypus but it is just as strange. So strange in fact that, like the platypus, sc...
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Can paracetamol mend a broken heart?
Study suggests painkiller could also sooth emotional distress.
Paracetamol, or acetaminophen, is one of the world's most popular painkillers, but a new study suggests it could also...
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Drone footage shows Kathmandu quake damage
This video taken from a drone over Kathmandu shows the damage done to the Nepalese capital in the 7.8 magnitude earth...
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Baxter’s younger brother Sawyer brings finesse to industrial robotics
The robot Baxter, pictured in the video above, was designed to be a simpler, safer manufacturing robot. It has a scre...
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The English were eating each other
Signs of cannibalism 14,700 years ago.
Scientists have found signs of gnawing and butcher marks on human leg, rib, other bones in a cave in the Cheddar Gorg...
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New card game puts the fun into chemistry
Strategy-based card game which makes a game out of chemistry.
There's a new strategy-based card game, called Ion, which makes a game out of chemistry. It challenges players to gr...
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NASA releases image of star nursery Westerlund 2 to mark Hubble anniversary
This brilliant image of a star nursery has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NASA Hubble Space T...
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Kathmandu was a geological time bomb
The geology around Kathmandu is ‘tricky’.
The 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal and north India today, causing at least 1,500 casualties and widespread d...
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Treatment of breast cancer metastases
New stem-cell-based therapy could eliminate metastatic cells.
A new stem-cell-based therapy could eliminate metastatic cells from the brain that develop from lung, breast or skin ...
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Vale the Sumatran rhino
Now officially extinct in the wild in Sabah.
There are no Sumatran rhinos left in the wild in the Malaysian state of Sabah, government minister Masidi Manjun says...
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Chile’s Calbuco comes to life
A timelapse of the historic eruption.
This timelapse is mixed with some other images of the two eruptions so far of the volcano. Calbuco volcano erupted o...
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Why mosquitoes bite some and not others?
It could be in your genes, researchers say.
"Female mosquitoes display preferences for certain individuals over others, which is determined by differences in vol...
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Could nuclear waste power our way to the stars?
Many think it might.
The European Space Agency certainly does. It has funded a program to produce americium-241 – the end product of the d...
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Biometric security
‘Once your fingerprint is stolen it’s gone forever’.
Biometric technology – the use of fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition for user identification – is seen as ...
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Changing climate forces rethink of Aussie farming timetable
Anzac Day – 25 April – is not only the day when Australians honour their soldiers, for the country's wheat farmers it...
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NASA gathers experts to search for life beyond the solar system
NASA is bringing together experts from all scientific fields in an initiative dedicated to the search for life on pla...
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Thoughts on the power bill of the third little pig
There are some flaws in the tale.
Physicist Marcus Wilson from the University of Waikato in New Zealand takes issue with the children's fairy story The...
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Australian becomes first woman to win the Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology
Australian nanoscientist Amanda Barnard has become the first woman – and the first person in the southern hemisphere ...
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Warming ‘slowdown’ has no impact on longer term climate trends
The recent slowdown in the rise of global average air temperatures will make no difference to how much the planet wil...
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Chile’s Calbuco volcano erupts
The eruption marks the first time since 1972.
The Calbuco volcano, one of the three most dangerous of the 90 in Chile, has erupted for the first time in 42 years. ...
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Chinese genetically modify human embryos
Taking science into controversial territory.
The research was reported in the online journal Protein & Cell. Chinese researchers report that they have genetically...
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Revolutionary beehive harvesting system
Innovative system delivers honey with ease – on tap.
Australian backyard beekeepers Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart Anderson have invented a revolutionary beehive in...
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Wolves more tolerant than domestic dogs
Study states that they are more tolerant and kinder than dogs.
Wolves are more tolerant and kinder than dogs, according to a new study, which is at odds with the generally accepted...
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Daily vitamin pills increase risk of cancer?
If taken in high amounts, your daily vitamin may lead to cancer.
Dietary supplements may increase the risk of cancer if you take too many of them, according to an investigation by Un...
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Images mark 25 years of Hubble’s stargazing
This week, NASA is celebrating 25 years of the Hubble Space Telescope. On April 24, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery...
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170-year-old Champagne from shipwreck
Bottle gives insight into 19th century winemaking.
Scientists have analysed samples of 170-year-old Champagne which was recovered from a shipwreck on the bottom of the ...
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Sex secrets of the vampire squid
The unique thing about these mysterious creatures.
Vampire squid are named for their lives in utter darkness up to 3,000 metres beneath the oceans, not for sucking bloo...
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Clockmaker vindicated 250 years after he was derided for accuracy claims
British clockmaker John Harrison, who was derided for his claims to having designed the most accurate pendulum timepi...
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The white dwarf star that tore apart a planet
Astronomers believe that a white dwarf star may have ripped apart a planet at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy as it ...
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E. Coli bacterium expand to more than a metre
Detailed cut-paper sculpture expands bacterium over a metre.
Credit: Rogan Brown Artist Rogan Brown created this incredibly detailed cut-paper sculpture of an E. coli bacteri...
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New drone tests US Air Force’s next generation of flight systems
NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory, with support from Lockheed Martin, hav...
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Grapefruit compound huge commercial future
Recreation of the flavour and scent of a grapefruit.
Scientists have recreated the flavour and scent of a grapefruit in the lab, using an orange. But the work was far fro...
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Data collection app speeds up Ethiopian sorghum research
Plant scientists at the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR) are now gathering data using a smartphon...
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The winners from NASA’s photo competition
Image of China’s Piqiang fault lines takes top honours.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="417"] The winning image in NASA's Tournament Earth photo competition shows ...
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The clam that lost its shell
How the octopus learnt to move.
Octopuses probably evolved from animals similar to clams, with a protective outer shell and almost no movement to spe...
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The entangled sound of quantum music
Avant garde has nothing on this soundtrack.
Two physicists have mapped out a way to create "quantum music" with the probability of two members of the audience he...
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How curiosity boosts your memory
Easier to learn about a subject we find interesting, but why?
It's no secret that it is easier to learn about a subject we find interesting compared to one we find boring, but why...
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NASA’s Spitzer telescope spots most distant planet yet
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has teamed up with a telescope on the ground to find a remote gas planet about 13,000 ...
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New Horizons releases first colour images of Pluto system
This blurry image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was taken by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA's New Horizo...
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Supplements linked to testicular cancer
Body-building supplements pose higher risk for cancer.
People using muscle-building supplements containing creatine or androstenedione have a significantly higher likelihoo...
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GM salmonella anti-cancer therapy
Kill cancer cells while keeping the patient safe from infection.
Genetically modified Salmonella could be used to kill cancer cells while keeping the patient safe from infection, acc...
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Rosetta documents the evolution of a comet
The Rosetta spacecraft continues to track comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which will reach perihelion – the closest ...
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Alan Turing’s notebook sells for $1 million
A scientific notebook compiled by computer science pioneer.
A scientific notebook compiled by World War Two codebreaker and computer science pioneer Alan Turing has sold for $1....
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Curiosity data shows Mars might have liquid water
There could be liquid water close to the surface of Mars, according to data collected by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity....
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New technology makes drones safer and smarter
A safety system developed by Swiss engineers allows drones to recover stable flight from any position and land autono...
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NASA imaging reveals layers in surface of Mars
NASA has released this image of a circular depression on the surface of Mars captured by the High Resolution Imaging ...
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Depressed? There’s an app for that
An app that acts as your therapist to treat depression and anxiety has been launched by Northwestern Medicine in Chic...
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Synthetic muscle that could power robot limbs faces space test
A synthetic muscle that could be used to power prosthetic limbs, or on robots on a deep space mission, will be carrie...
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Quantum computing pioneers in a silicon first
The team uses electrical pulses for the first time.
A UNSW-led research team has encoded quantum information in silicon using simple electrical pulses for the first time...
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Being too thin may pose risk for dementia?
Can possibly be bad for brain health later in life.
Being too thin in middle age might be bad for brain health later in life, a new study suggests. The findings contradi...
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Nearly one in 10 US adults have anger issues
Anger issues and access to guns.
An estimated 9% of adults in the US have a history of impulsive, angry behaviour and have access to firearms, accordi...
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Engineering that broke the land speed record
This week, RiAus looks at the incredible engineering of two attempts to break the land speed record.You can see more ...
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International Dark Sky Week highlights problem
Raising awareness of the scourge of light pollution.
Next week is International Dark Sky Week, designed to raise awareness of the scourge of light pollution, that has mad...
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Water, water everywhere – and NASA is finding it in surprising places
NASA missions to explore our solar system are finding water in surprising places, which the space agency gives us hop...
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Chameleon’s deadly tongue
Slow-motion capture of the chameleon’s deadly weapon.
The chameleon's tongue, which it uses as a deadly weapon to capture and reel in its prey, can accelerate at four time...
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New aluminium battery ‘safer than conventional batteries’
Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that's fast-charging, long-l...
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Scientists say we can fix the Great Barrier Reef
Six-point plan will help restore reef.
Australia could restore the Great Barrier Reef to its former glory through better policies that focus on science, pro...
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Cars and backyard drones set to get military grade radar
Powerful radar that until now has been limited to the military, could soon be cheap enough for cars and consumer dron...
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New way to create fuel may make hydrogen cars more viable
A new way to create hydrogen fuel with a biological process using corn could greatly reduce the time and money it tak...
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How long will your company last?
Science says about 10 years.
Publicly traded companies die off at the same rate regardless of their age or economic sector, by scientists at the S...
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We’ll find signs of alien life within a decade, says NASA chief scientist
"I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have...
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A closer look into the Virgo cluster
NASA today posted this image of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, the closest to our own Milky Way Galaxy.The Virgo clus...
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Information can survive in a black hole, scientists say
A new study finds that – contrary to what some physicists have argued for the years – information is not lost once it...
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Carbon nanotubes could lead to new ‘unconventional’ miniature computers
Single-walled carbon nanotube composites could be used as a material in "unconventional" computing, scientists say.In...
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The Sun has seasons, too, scientists discover
The Sun undergoes a seasonal variability with its activity waxing and waning over the course of nearly two years, acc...
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Time lapse charts weekend’s Blood Moon eclipse
If you missed it, here's a time lapse video of the total lunar eclipse of 4 April – one of the shortest such events f...
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New steelmaking process leads to greener production
A new technology that harvests blast furnace waste to make cement, while slashing water use and greenhouse gas emissi...
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Human trials for new Hendra virus antibody
World-first human Hendra virus clinical trials starting this month.
An antibody manufactured at the University of Queensland will be used in world-first human Hendra virus clinical tria...
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Soil microbes could speed up thaw of permafrost
Heat produced by Arctic soil microbes could increase the thaw of permafrost and the release of carbon to the atmosphe...
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Online breast milk often mixed with cow’s milk
Babies receiving the milk are at risk from allergic reactions.
Human breast milk bought over the internet contained added cow's milk in 10% of cases tested by researchers in a rece...
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Three new species of lizard discovered
New species of lizard discovered in the Andes.
Scientists have discovered three new species of wood lizards in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. The new species differ...
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Documentary: Human Universe
Brian Cox turns his attention to the story of evolution.
Human Universe, BBC Earth (2014), run time: 295mins, RRP $29.99. It's not often you see Professor Brian Cox, the ro...
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Are we ready for the data explosion in health care?
Most of our health care teams in developed countries now have “electronic health records”. But are we ready to have a...
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Peering into the eye of a super-typhoon from space
The gallery shows pictures taken from the International Space Station of Super Typhoon Maysak. The storm, which has w...
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Improved prostate cancer treatment
Genetic roots of prostate cancer brings hope for treatment.
Scientists discovered the genetic roots of prostate cancers, which could bring the hope of new treatments. The team ...
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Lucy and Little Foot alive at the same time?
The most famous hominids may have roamed the Earth together.
Two of the most famous hominids, Lucy and Little Foot, may have belonged to species that were contemporaries, accordi...
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These exoskeleton boots were made for walking
Exoskeleton device can reduce energy expended in walking.
A wearable exoskeleton device attached to the foot and ankle can reduce the energy expended in walking by around 7%. ...
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Paracetamol useless for treatment of back pain
Not effective for treatment of spinal pain and osteoarthritis.
Paracetamol is not effective in the treatment of spinal pain and provides negligible benefits for osteoarthritis, acc...
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Schizophrenics hope of memory recovery
A researcher has found a new way to treat memory loss.
A researcher at Australia's Monash University says she has found a way to treat the debilitating effects of memory lo...
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Graphene put to commercial use for the first time
A new efficient lightbulb, believed to be the first practical application of the new wonder material graphene, has be...
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Get ready for the shortest lunar eclipse of the century
A total lunar eclipse will be visible from across all Australia this Saturday, 4 April, but you will have to be quick...
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Potion knocks out super-resistant microbes
Medieval potion from the world’s first known medical textbook.
A 1,000-year-old formula for a potion from the world's first known medical textbook has shown remarkable results in k...
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World’s largest aircraft: Is it a plane, a balloon or a hovercraft?
Actually it's a hybrid of all three. The Airlander 10 claims to be the next-generation of lighter-than-air flying mac...
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Poverty may hinder brain development in children
Parts of the brain are smaller in those from poorer backgrounds.
Parts of the brain tend to be smaller in people from poorer backgrounds than those from richer families, a new study ...
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The solar eclipse as seen from an aircraft window at 14,000m
This great time-lapse via Twisted Sifter shows the shadow of the moon during the total solar eclipse on 20 March, 201...
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Counting Asiatic black bears nearly impossible
Asiatic black bears fear humans.
New Zealand zoologist Brendan Moyle reports from China where he is at a meeting discussing the problem of counting As...
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Space Station gets its first espresso machine – the ISSpresso
The Italian Space Agency, Italian engineering company Argotec, and coffee company Lavazza have collaborated to bring ...
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Book: The passenger pigeon
How a bird that once numbered in billions became extinct.
Some years back, after a fruitless day spent up to my waist in a chilly Scottish river, I was sipping a restorative m...
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‘Star Wars’ Tatooine may be Earth-like
Mathematical simulations suggest that Luke Skywalker’s home in “Star Wars” is the desert planet T...
Mathematical simulations suggest that Luke Skywalker’s home in “Star Wars” is the desert planet Tatooine, with twin s...
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‘Google Maps for the body’ could open way to reverse tissue damage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87LUdxQq51o&feature=emb_title Australian biomedical engineer Melissa Knothe Tate ...
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Data processing speed the key to getting the most out of SKA
A team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has developed a new, faster approach to analysing the flo...
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If you want to be a billionaire, an engineering degree is your best bet
An analysis of the Forbes rich list shows that 22% of the world’s wealthiest people studied engineering at university...
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Bringing back extinct animals
Scientists move step closer to bringing extinct animals back.
Scientists have moved a step closer to bringing extinct animals back to life by inserting the DNA of a woolly mammoth...
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Antarctic ice shelves vanishing faster than previously thought
The rate of ice loss in the West Antarctic is accelerating, with ice shelves shrinking at an alarming rate, according...
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‘Super-termite’ bring wave of destruction
Two of the world’s most destructive species of termites.
Two of the world's most destructive species of termites have swarmed at the same time, creating a hybrid that scienti...
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Black hole’s winds so strong they can blow out stars
Researchers have observed winds blowing from a black hole that are capable of gusting gas out of a galaxy and killing...
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How Jupiter may have wrecked the competition and paved the way for Earth
We may have Jupiter to thanks for Earth's existence, according to a new study that suggests that before Mercury, Venu...
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Tropics face bigger more organised thunderstorms as climate warms
Image above from Mike Hollingshead on his website Extreme Instability. Climate scientists have long predicted that c...
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Newly found shape-shifting frog
Tiny frog can change its skin texture from spiny to smooth.
Scientists have discovered a tiny frog in the Andes in Ecuador change its skin texture from spiny to smooth in just m...
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Suspending kids for marijuana use just encourages more
Suspending kids from school for using marijuana is likely to lead to more - not less - marijuana use among their clas...
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Britain’s ‘poo bus’ takes over Route Number Two
A “poo bus” enters regular service in Bristol, UK.
A "poo bus" enters regular service today in Bristol, UK. The commuter bus runs on biomethane gas produced by food was...
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Increase of antibiotic use in livestock
Increase in meat consumption means more antibiotics.
Dramatic increases in meat consumption in developing giants such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China mean we stand li...
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Dangers of online breast milk market
Mothers warned for purchasing human breast milk on internet.
The sale of human breast milk on the internet poses serious risks to infant health and needs urgent regulation, exper...
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Rover Opportunity captures new image of Mars’ Marathon Valley
The image above of "Marathon Valley" combines four pointings of the rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) on 13 March 201...
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Kepler team wins National Air and Space Museum trophy
The team in charge of NASA's Kepler mission, responsible for history's first detection of Earth-sized planets orbitin...
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Time-lapse of seed drilling into the ground
When in contact with water it drills itself into the ground.
The seed of Erodium cicutarium (stork's bill or filaree), once in contact with water, will bore or drill itself into ...
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Is the Ceres bright spot caused by a plume of gas?
With NASA's Dawn spacecraft only recently entering orbit around Ceres, it's early days but we are getting the first h...
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Zoos body accused of link to dolphin slaughter
Accused of complicity in the Taiji dolphin hunts in Japan.
The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) has been accused of complicity in the notorious Taiji dolphin hunt...
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World’s most active volcano puts on a show
Kilauea is the youngest and most-active Hawaiian volcano.
Lance Page has produced this study of the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. He writes: "Many in Hawaii re...
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Could bacteria be the next diet craze
Bacteria that is metabolised into a hunger-suppressing fat.
Researchers have programmed bacteria to generate a molecule that is metabolised into a hunger-suppressing fat. The r...
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Trying hard to remember makes it easier to forget
Trying to remember something can make you forget other things.
Simply trying to remember something can make you forget other things, researchers have found. The study, combined wo...
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The war cry of one very angry frog
Almost sounds like a pet’s squeaky toy.
It sounds more like a pet's squeaky toy, but this desert rain frog is hopping mad. The frog, which is endangered, liv...
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Mars One CEO defends mission against claims it is a scam
Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp has responded in a video to mounting criticism that the one-way mission to colonise the Red...
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HIV drug could thwart virus’ ability to resist
Drug could stop virus from becoming resistant to treatment.
Scientists have announced a new anti-HIV drug that they say could stop the virus' tendency to become resistant to tre...
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Political conservatives are crying on the inside but liberals are actually happy
Politically conservative people pretend to be happy, but liberals actually are, according to research published in th...
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Reaction to music is the same worldwide
Despite culture, people around the globe react the same way.
People react the same way to the same piece of music, no matter what their cultural background, according to research...
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Turtle IV system improves survival rate
Increasing chances of surviving health treatment.
A new health care system for sea turtles – notoriously difficult patients – could save many more of the animals' live...
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The science of improving reality
A Week in Science by RiAus looks at augmented reality from its origins in the 1960s to Google Glass and beyond.
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NASA finds mystery dust cloud high above Mars
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has detected an unexplained high-altitude dust clou...
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Feral cats killing bigger animals than thought
Feral cats killing larger prey than conservationists thought.
Feral cats are a major cause of the extinction of numerous Australian mammals. The country has between 15 and 23 mill...
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Saving the bees is not simple
Not as simple as banning pesticides.
Pesticides can kill bees, of course, but they are not the sole reason for the collapse of colonies across the world, ...
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Orangutans use cupped hands to ‘shout’ louder
Only other primate to amplify sounds with this method.
Orangutans are the only primate apart from humans to cup their hands round their mouths to amplify sounds, a new stud...
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DNA study dismisses unique Celtic people
Study of Britain shows no distinct, unique Celtic group.
A DNA study of the people of Britain has surprised many by showing that there is no distinct, unique Celtic group in ...
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Catfish species named after Star Wars character
Named in honour of Star Wars character Greedo.
A little known species of catfish from Brazil has been named in honour of Star Wars character Greedo with whom the fi...
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Corpse flower puts on a display in Melbourne
The tallest ever plant of its type ever recorded in Australia.
The Titum Arum, or corpse flower, blooms at its full height which it reached on 14 March. Credit: ROYAL BOTANIC GARDE...
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Designing the spacesuit of the future
Current NASA spacesuits use gas to maintain atmospheric pressure inside the suit. While necessary for the astronauts ...
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New liquid 3D printing process could be 25 times faster than rivals
3D printing company Carbon3D has developed a new process that it claims is at least 25 times faster than other resin ...
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NASA marks 57th anniversary of Vanguard satellite launch … it’s still orbiting today
Vanguard 1, the world’s first solar-powered satellite, launched on 17 March 1958. It was designed to test the launch ...
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Supernova hurls star out of the galaxy
Usually when stars are moved to velocities fast enough to eject a them from the galaxy, the supermassive black hole a...
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Bot passes the Turing test on Tinder
Tinder users at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, have been taken in by a bot on the dating app posing as a 25-year...
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Light pollution harm plants and insects
Affecting the growth plants and reducing the numbers of insects.
Light pollution is not only interfering with our ability to see the stars, it is affecting the growth and flowering p...
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Buzz Aldrin sends a message to the cosmos from Stonehenge
Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step onto the Moon, now is an eager advocate of a mission to Mars. He's rallying suppo...
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Coffee at risk – climate change just got more serious!
Maybe this is the issue to make climate sceptics take global warming seriously. Their morning coffee could be the fir...
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‘Mini supernova’ gives insights to larger cosmic blasts
Astronomers at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory believe a small nova explosion – a sort of "mini supernova" – may pro...
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St Patrick banish the snakes from Ireland?
Legend has it patron saint of Ireland banished snakes.
Legend has it that one of the patron saint of Ireland's greatest achievements was to banish snakes from the country f...
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Men do navigate better than women
The question is, why?
Expresso Science grasps the nettle, pointing to a meta analysis of the data. Put simply, spatial awareness is the ab...
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Chinese mission unlocks secrets of Moon’s volcanic past
The Moon's geologic history is far more complex than previously thought, according to preliminary results of tests by...
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Australian government retracts threat
Refusing to fund research to force changes.
The Australian government, which had been using the threat of refusing to fund vital scientific research infrastructu...
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Explore the amazing Hang Son Doong cave
Take a quadcopter tour of Vietnam’s wonder.
The Hang Son Doong cave in a remote part of central Vietnam near the Laos border, is so big it has an entire jungle g...
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New York politician aims to outlaw vaccines
Part of an anti-GMO campaign.
A New York state politician has introduced a bill that would outlaw any vaccine that contains a genetically modified ...
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Are physicists saner than mathematicians?
Physicist J Willard Gibbs certainly thought so.
The American physicist J Willard Gibbs thought so, defining the difference as "a mathematician can say what he likes....
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Big Bang until now: graphic summarises 14 billion-year history of the Universe
The European Space Agency has released a beautiful graphic summarising the almost 14 billion year history of the Univ...
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Best evidence yet of Ganymede’s giant ocean
Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede's subterranean ocean could have more water than all the water on Earth's surface, acc...
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The animals with superpowers
A look at some superhero animals.
The weekly video from RiAus looks at some superhero animals including the shapeshifting cuttlefish and self-healing f...
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Space station crew safely back on Earth
International Space Station Expedition 42 personnel have landed safely near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.Comman...
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New evidence of hydrothermal activity on Enceladus
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided evidence that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has hydrothermal activity that may be si...
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Neanderthal jewellery pre-dates human contact
Jewellery worn before contact with modern humans.
Neanderthals were wearing jewellery long before they encountered modern humans, a new study suggests. Researchers hav...
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The giant grandaddy of prawns sheds light
Insight on the evolution early evolution of arthropods.
A crocodile-sized sea creature called an anomalocaridid, that swam the seas 480 million years ago was, in its day, th...
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NASA’s Space Launch System booster passes test
The largest, most powerful rocket booster ever built successfully fired up successfully yesterday in a test in prepar...
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How chameleons change colour
They do not rely on pigments to create their dazzling hues.
Scientists have discovered the secret of how chameleons change colour. They do not rely on pigments to create their d...
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Astronauts get a rare glimpse of a cloud-free New Zealand
It's not called the Land of the Long White Cloud for nothing. NASA says it rarely gets a clear view of NewZealand fro...
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The world of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
A harrowing neurological disorder.
Robin Tricoles in The Atlantic gives a first person account of a harrowing neurological disorder, Alice in Wonderland...
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Simulation shows rate of measles outbreaks
Videos showing the difference in spread of measles.
The videos above show the difference in spread of measles in a community – in this case New York – with 80% of school...
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Arctic heads for new low ice record
The Arctic Ocean could be heading for a new record – the lowest maximum winter extent for sea ice in the satellite er...
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Engineers take stock of Orion after successful flight
Engineers are studying NASA's Orion spacecraft and the data it produced during its successful flight test in December...
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Solar Impusle 2 completes first leg of round-the-world flight
Solar Impulse Si2 by Solar Impulse on Sketchfab Solar Impulse 2, the solar-powered plane attempting to fly a...
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Science agency chairman falls victim
Research at risk to pursue a short-term political agenda.
As Australian scientists warn that the government is putting the future of the country's research at risk to pursue a...
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Mars lost more water than the volume of the Arctic Ocean
An ancient ocean on Mars held more water than is in the Arctic Ocean today, NASA scientists estimate, but 87% of it h...
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Jaw bone discovery may rewrite human history
Fossil found in Ethiopia suggests first Homo species.
A fossil of a lower jaw bone found in Ethiopia is about 400,000 years older than other fossils from the earliest know...
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McDonald’s to phase out chicken with antibiotics
Stop buying chicken raised with the routine use of antibiotics.
Food giant McDonald's has said it will stop buying chicken raised with the routine use of antibiotics. The company sa...
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Researchers hail new thermoelectric material for power and efficiency
A new thermoelectric material developed by researchers at the University of Houston that can generate electric power ...
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‘Range anxiety’ still the key bar to electric car demand
A new study shows that "range anxiety" – the fear of being stranded with flat batteries – is the still the key deterr...
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L’Oréal Women in Science
Applications for the 2015 Women in Science Fellowships open.
Applications are open for four $25,000, one-year fellowships for early-career women scientists in the 2015 L’Oréal-UN...
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Revolutionise the DNA transfer to cells
This amazing device is not actually new.
The MEMS (microelectromechanical system) nanoinjector for genetic modification of cells, set up here (top) with a pol...
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NASA’s GeneLAB platform expands life science experiments in space
NASA s expanding life science research on the space station with a new collection of investigations called GeneLAB al...
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The more friends you drink with, the more you drink
A convivial evening in the pub may become more dangerous the more convivial it gets, according to new research in the...
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Genetically, you are closer to your father
All mammals are genetically closer to their fathers.
All mammals are genetically closer to their fathers than their mothers, according to research by scientists at the Un...
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Solar industry braces for eclipse that will take 35,000 MW off the grid
The European solar energy is bracing for the shock of a solar eclipse on the morning of 20 March 2015 that will last ...
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Heart attacks are more sexist than you think
Women suffer heart attacks differently from men.
Women suffer heart attacks in a different way from men and that may have disastrous consequences. The image of a man...
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Is perovskite solar cell efficiency more hype than reality?
Matthew Gunther asks some searching questions about the potential of perovskite solar cells over at Chemistry World.R...
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What Earth’s other ‘moon’ could tell us about the Solar System
You probably didn't know that the Earth has a second 'moon', which orbits our planet on a crazy path called a horsesh...
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Could this be the model of life that lives on Titan?
A team of scientists at Cornell University has modelled a new type of methane-based, oxygen-free life form that could...
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Wind-powered freighter design could revolutionise international shipping
Norwegian engineer Terje Lade has designed a wind-propelled cargo ship that could revolutionise the way we transport ...
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Astronauts complete their third spacewalk
NASA have released this exciting image of Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry Virts on the third spacewalk in eight d...
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It’s official – cats despise your music collection
Add this to the list of things your cat despises about you.
To the long list of things your cat despises about you, you can now add your music collection. Scientists in the Unit...
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Astronaut pays tribute to Leonard Nimoy from space
Astronaut Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) tweeted this image of a Vulcan hand salute from orbit in the International Space ...
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Neil deGrasse Tyson wins academy’s top honour
In recognition of exciting the wonders of science to the public.
The US National Academy of Sciences is presenting its 2015 Public Welfare Medal to astrophysicist, cosmologist, autho...
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Too much sleep increases risk of stroke
More than eight hours a night could increase your risk of stroke.
Too much sleep – more than eight hours a night – could increase your risk of stroke, University of Cambridge research...
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Research suggests room-temperature superconductors are possible
Scientists at the University of Southern California may have discovered a family of materials that could make superco...
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Why a cricket ball swings
And why baseballs curve differently.
Physics at work on the sporting field in this latest edition of the Week in Science from RiAus.
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The scale of things – a yardstick for understanding the vastness of space
Astronomy CentralAstronomy CentralOne of the most difficult things about thinking about space is to imagine the scale...
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Curiosity rover’s latest selfie shows progress through Mount Sharp foothills
The latest self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Mojave" site, where its drill colle...
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Australian researchers create 3D-printed jet engine
Researchers from Monash University have 3D-printed two jet engines that could revolutionise aircraft manufacture.Part...
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More adventures of the awesome octopus
Another video has emerged of an octopus capturing a crab.
We don't want you to think that we are fixated by octopuses here at Cosmos (although we do think they are pretty cool...