Science news

• Better batteries charge forward

  09-01-2017 23:50
  
  Next-generation batteries must hold more energy for longer periods at low cost. Several contenders may achieve some of these elusive goals.
  
  Read more

• Earliest galaxies got the green light

  09-01-2017 23:26
  
  Galaxies in the early universe might have emitted lots of green light, powered by large populations of stars much hotter than most found today.
  
  Read more

• Two supermassive black holes discovered in nearby galaxies

  09-01-2017 23:06 via cbc.ca
  
  Detecting black holes can be tricky: not only do these guzzling kitchen sinks of the universe absorb everything they consume, but they are often obscured by dust. Now a NASA telescope has peered through the dust and found two supermassive black holes lurking nearby.
  
  Read more

• SpaceX's Return-to-Flight Rocket Launch Slips to Saturday

  09-01-2017 22:49
  
  SpaceX's first Falcon 9 rocket launch since an explosion in September will now lift off no earlier than Saturday (Jan. 14), a five-day delay that's due to high winds, rain and schedule conflicts at the company's California launch site.  
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Dark Nebula Glows Red in Amateur Astronomer's Photo

  09-01-2017 22:49
  
  Thick blankets of dust surround the predominantly dark region in Barnard 343, a dark nebula in the constellation Cygnus. Astrophotographer Jeffrey O. Johnson took this image from his backyard in Las Cruces, New Mexico. "I took this image after I found the dark area when looking at a star map (Google Sky) and looking specifically for dark nebulae.
  
  Read more

• On the iPhone's 10th anniversary, how it revolutionized smartphones

  09-01-2017 22:02 via cbc.ca
  
  This year marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, a device that quickly impressed consumers and took over the smartphone industry.
  
  Read more

• Get your gloves out! A cold snap is coming and it's going to bring a lot of snow

  09-01-2017 21:55
  
  Forecasters are warning about the possibility of “blizzard type conditions”.
  
  Read more

• Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf nears breaking point

  09-01-2017 21:32
  
  A fast-growing crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf could soon break off a 5,000-square-kilometer hunk of ice into the ocean.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Norris Point family finds dozens of dead lobsters on town beach

  09-01-2017 21:25 via cbc.ca
  
  A high tide in Norris Point, N.L., pushed dozens of dead lobsters, conners and starfish onto the Deckers Cove beach last month.
  
  Read more

• How New Hubble Telescope Views Could Aid Interstellar Travel

  09-01-2017 21:03
  
  Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have gotten their best looks yet at the mysterious interstellar clouds surrounding the solar system, a new study finds. In 2012, NASA's Voyager 1 probe crossed the so-called heliopause — the giant bubble of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields surrounding the sun — and, in the process, became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. NASA notes that Voyager 1 and 2 are currently zipping through space at roughly 38,000
  
  Read more

• U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots at Iranian vessels

  09-01-2017 20:56
  By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy destroyer fired three warning shots at four Iranian fast-attack vessels near the Strait of Hormuz after they closed in at high speed and disregarded repeated requests to slow down, U.S. officials said on Monday. The incident, which occurred on Sunday and was first reported by Reuters, comes as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on Jan. 20. In September, Trump vowed that any Iranian vessels that harassed the U.S. Navy in the
  
  Read more

• New form of hydrogen created

  09-01-2017 20:50
  
  Scientists have created negatively charged clusters of hydrogen for the first time.
  
  Read more

• Newfound Asteroid Gives Earth a Close Shave

  09-01-2017 20:48
  
  The asteroid, known as 2017 AG13, flew by our planet at just half the distance from Earth to the moon today at 7:47 a.m. EST (1247 GMT). 2017 AG13 is thought to be between 36 and 111 feet (11 to 34 meters) wide, according to astronomers at the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Initial observations of the object show that it takes about 347 Earth days to circle the sun, on an orbit much more elliptical than that of Earth: 2017 AG13 gets as close to our star as 0.55 astronomical uni
  
  Read more

• Obama says shift to green energy is 'irreversible' despite Trump

  09-01-2017 19:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Renewable energy will continue to grow in the US despite the antipathy of the incoming Trump administration.
  
  Read more

• Report: Our moon may have formed from multiple small ones

  09-01-2017 19:54
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A series of cosmic collisions may have spawned multiple moonlets that morphed into the one big moon we know today.
  
  Read more

• 'Caterpillar' Robot Wriggles to Get Around

  09-01-2017 18:51
  
  "I believe that this kind of robot is very suitable for our living environment, since the softness of the body can guarantee our safety when we are interacting with the robots," said lead study author Takuya Umedachi, now a project lecturer in the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. However, soft materials easily deform into complex shapes that make them difficult to control when conventional robotics techniques are used, according to Umedachi and hi
  
  Read more

• Long-distance birdie call: Alaska's sex-crazed sandpipers travel far to try and find mates

  09-01-2017 18:37 via cbc.ca
  
  You fly more than 100 miles for love. You get rejected. You fly another 100 miles. Another rejection. And another. That's the high-flying but futile sex life of the male pectoral sandpiper looking for love in northernmost Alaska, according to a new study.
  
  Read more

• Climate Change Could Trigger Collapse of Major Ocean Current

  09-01-2017 18:31
  
  The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a deep-sea system that circulates warm water and helps to regulate Earth's climate, is far less stable than scientists once thought, according to a new study. Under climate-change pressures such as dramatic increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), the AMOC could even collapse entirely, resulting in a much colder Northern Hemisphere and a wetter tropical Atlantic region.
  
  Read more

• Earth's Moon Formed in 'Moonlet' Mash-Up After Many Earth Impacts

  09-01-2017 18:30
  
  Earth's moon may be the product of many small moonlets that merged after multiple objects as big as Mars collided with Earth, leaving disks of planetary debris orbiting the planet, a new study suggests. This idea that multiple impacts led to the moon's birth challenges the most prevalent theory of lunar formation, which suggests that one giant impact led to the formation of the moon. This graphic illustrates how the moon may have formed after multiple collisions on Earth.
  
  Read more

• Why is Spain so good at organ donations?

  09-01-2017 18:28
  
  How has the nation got it right?
  
  Read more

• Huge Lava Collapse Rings in Hawaii's New Year

  09-01-2017 18:06
  
  A lava delta — an expanse of unstable rocky terrain formed by cooled lava — in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park collapsed suddenly into the ocean on New Year's Eve, creating a spectacle of volcanic ash, steam and gas to mark the end of 2016. The 26-acre (11 hectares) delta was created by a recent and massive lava flow from the Kilauea volcano pouring into the sea. The feature's collapse produced towering plumes of ash and sent large waves washing over and eroding the nearby sea cliff,
  
  Read more

• Forget About Global Warming Pause — It Doesn't Exist

  09-01-2017 18:06
  
  Forget about the so-called climate change hiatus — a period beginning in 1998 when the increase in the planet's temperature reportedly slowed — it doesn't exist, according to a new study that found the planet's ocean temperatures are warming faster than previously thought. "Our results mean that essentially NOAA got it right, that they were not cooking the books," study lead author Zeke Hausfather, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley's Energy and Resources Gr
  
  Read more

• Cat–astrophe! Feral Cats Have Invaded Nearly 100% of Australia

  09-01-2017 18:03
  
  A new study finds that feral cats inhabit 99.8 percent of the continent's landmass, including 80 percent of the land that makes up its islands. Feral cats have long been recognized as a grave and widespread threat to vulnerable native wildlife — particularly in Australia, where species found nowhere else in the world are ill-equipped to deal with these invasive and deadly predators. European explorers first introduced cats to Australia in the 18th century.
  
  Read more

• Exoplanet Anniversary: 1st Alien Worlds Confirmed 25 Years Ago Today

  09-01-2017 18:00
  
  On Jan. 9, 1992, astronomers Alex Wolszczan and Dale Frail published a paper in the journal Nature announcing the discovery of two planets circling an incredibly dense, rapidly rotating stellar corpse known as a pulsar. It was a landmark find: While several alien-world "candidates" had recently been spotted, Wolszczan and Frail provided the first confirmation that planets exist beyond our own solar system. "From the very start, the existence of such a system carried with it a prediction that pla
  
  Read more

• Uber to help cities get a better grasp on traffic patterns

  09-01-2017 17:38 via cbc.ca
  
  Uber is offering a helping hand to some of the same city leaders it sometimes antagonizes with the aggressive way it runs its popular ride-hailing service.
  
  Read more

• US had near record heat, costly weather disasters in 2016

  09-01-2017 17:18
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — With steamy nights, sticky days and torrential downpours, last year went down as one of the warmest and wildest weather years on record in the United States.
  
  Read more

• Long-distance birdie call: Sex-crazed pipers travel for tail

  09-01-2017 17:08
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — You fly more than 100 miles for love. You get rejected. You fly another 100 miles. Another rejection. And another.
  
  Read more

• Obama presses Trump not to back away from clean energy

  09-01-2017 17:06
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama cast the adoption of clean energy in the U.S. as "irreversible," putting pressure Monday on President-elect Donald Trump not to back away from a core strategy to fight climate change.
  
  Read more

• Right-wing politicians are deemed better looking and apparently people vote for them because of it

  09-01-2017 17:02
  
  When we imagine beautiful politicians we might think of Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau, but it’s apparently right-leaning leaders that benefit from being good looking.
  
  Read more

• Mother-baby bonding insight revealed

  09-01-2017 17:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists say mothers hold babies on the left to help in bonding - and this is not unique to humans.
  
  Read more

• Many tiny moons came together to form moon, simulations suggest

  09-01-2017 17:00
  
  Earth’s moon formed from mini-moons generated by a series of medium to large impacts, rather than from one colossal collision, researchers propose
  
  Read more

• How Well Are You Aging? This Blood Test May Tell You

  09-01-2017 16:56
  
  Indeed, a new study finds that certain "biomarker signatures" in the blood can signal people's risk of later developing some age-related health conditions. "These signatures depict differences in how people age, and they show promise in predicting healthy aging, changes in cognitive and physical function, survival and age-related diseases such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer," the researchers wrote in the study, published today (Jan. 6) in the journal Aging Cell. In the stud
  
  Read more

• How 1 Family Discovered Their New Home Was a Former Meth Lab

  09-01-2017 16:56
  A family in Australia who developed health problems found out their sickness had an unusual cause: They had unknowingly moved into a home that was a former meth laboratory, according to a new report of the case. Just months before the family moved in, the home was the site of a clandestine drug laboratory, where the owner made methamphetamine. Police discovered the laboratory in May 2013, arrested the owner and notified other authorities that the home needed to be decontaminated because it conta
  
  Read more

• One of the tallest waterfalls in Europe is starting to ice over and it's all kinds of beautiful

  09-01-2017 16:00
  
  We also feel very, very chilly looking at the water cascade down over long icicles.
  
  Read more

• US announces polar bear plan; critics call it toothless

  09-01-2017 15:21
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its plan Monday for the recovery of threatened polar bears, acknowledging it will take no direct action for addressing the primary threat — greenhouse gases that contribute to the decline of sea ice habitat.
  
  Read more

• U.S. says Navy ship fired warning shots at Iranian vessels

  09-01-2017 14:41
  By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy destroyer fired three warning shots at four Iranian fast-attack vessels after they closed in at a high rate of speed near the Strait of Hormuz, two U.S. defence officials told Reuters on Monday. The incident, which occurred Sunday and was first reported by Reuters, comes as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office on Jan. 20. In September, Trump vowed that any Iranian vessels that harass the U.S. Navy in the Gulf would be "shot ou
  
  Read more

• Here are the scientifically proven benefits of drinking

  09-01-2017 14:06
  
  Don’t feel bad about that post-work pub trip – it’s good for you.
  
  Read more

• Frosts kill dozens in central Europe, smog forces production cuts

  09-01-2017 14:00
  The Danube river was slowly freezing over in Budapest, a rare sight in recent years. Air pollution, mostly from airborne dust particles, forced production cutbacks at large polluters in the Czech Republic and Poland. In Poland, 17 people died of the cold over the weekend, according to the Government Centre for Security, bringing the death toll since November to 65.
  
  Read more

• 'Levitating' Moon Dust Explained in New NASA Study

  09-01-2017 13:45
  
  In a recent laboratory study, researchers found that micron-size dust particles could "jump" several centimeters high under ultraviolet (UV) radiation or exposure to plasmas (electrically charged gas), said a statement from NASA. "On Earth's moon, these dust particles would have been lofted more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) above the lunar surface, leading researchers to conclude that the moon's 'horizon glow' — seen in images taken by Surveyor 5, 6 and 7 five decades ago — may hav
  
  Read more

• Wild Tarantula Eats a Foot-Long Snake in a First

  09-01-2017 13:15
  
  When scientists in southern Brazil turned over a rock while looking for tarantulas, they came across something they never expected: a spider eating a snake. The tarantula, called Grammostola quirogai, was chowing down on the body of an Almaden ground snake (Erythrolamprus almadensis). It's the first time a tarantula has ever been seen preying on a snake in the wild.
  
  Read more

• DARPA's Biotech Chief Says 2017 Will "Blow Our Minds"

  09-01-2017 13:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  The Pentagon's research division is betting its high-risk, high-reward programs will change medicine
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
  Read more

• Cuban rides around advertising rules on towering bike

  09-01-2017 12:47
  By Sarah Marsh HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans are adept at inventing ways to earn cash but Felix Guirola stands - or rather, cycles - head and shoulders above them. The handyman, who loves heights, provides advertising space for companies on homemade bikes that tower up to 7.5 meters (24.61 ft).
  
  Read more

• APNewsBreak: US energy boss lauds opening of nuke repository

  09-01-2017 12:06
  
  It was the determination of workers over nearly three years and pure ingenuity that allowed the nation's only underground repository for low-level nuclear waste to recover from a radiation release, the ...
  
  Read more

• This year, we'll probably need a little space from our smartphones

  09-01-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  There comes a time in all romances when we need to start having conversations about what’s working and what's not. When it comes to our love affair with technology, we've finally reached that point.
  
  Read more

• WSU researchers discover unique microbial photosynthesis

  09-01-2017 06:00
  
  (Washington State University) Researchers at Washington State University have discovered anew type of cooperative photosynthesis that could be used in engineering microbial communities for waste treatment and bioenergy production.
  
  Read more

• What teeth reveal about the lives of modern humans

  09-01-2017 06:00
  
  (Ohio State University) When anthropologists of the future find our fossilized teeth, what will they be able to conclude about our lives? Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg has an idea.
  
  Read more

• 'Weekend warriors' have lower risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease

  09-01-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Sydney) Physical activity patterns characterized by just one or two sessions a week may be enough to reduce deaths in men and women from all causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer, regardless of adherence to physical activity guidelines, a new study of over 63,000 adults in JAMA Internal Medicine reports today.
  
  Read more

• Wanting to stay in education is 'NOT main reason why women delay having children'

  09-01-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Oxford) Researchers calculate that for every extra year of educational enrollment after the age of 12, a woman delayed motherhood by an average of six months. However, strikingly, they also find that the main influence on whether a woman postpones having children is largely associated with her family background. Education alone contributes to only 1.5 months.
  
  Read more

• VLT to search for planets in Alpha Centauri system

  09-01-2017 06:00
  
  (ESO) ESO has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the Very Large Telescope instrumentation in Chile to conduct a search for planets in the nearby star system Alpha Centauri. Such planets could be the targets for an eventual launch of miniature space probes by the Breakthrough Starshot initiative.
  
  Read more

• UTSA study shows how phishing scams thrive on overconfidence

  09-01-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Texas at San Antonio) A new study by H.R. Rao, AT&T Distinguished Chair in Infrastructure Assurance and Security at The University of Texas at San Antonio, examines overconfidence in detecting phishing e-mails. According to Rao, most people believe they're smarter than the criminals behind these schemes, which is why so many fall easily into a trap.
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!