Did Neanderthals bury their dead with flowers? Iraq cave yields new clues2/18/2020 10:00:16 PM A Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in an Iraqi cave already famous for fossils of these extinct cousins of our species is providing fresh evidence that they buried their dead - and intriguing clues that flowers may have been used in such rituals.
Robots, clocks and computers: How Ancient Greeks got there first2/18/2020 2:09:06 PM A humanoid figure dressed as a maid holds a jug in its right hand and, as hidden gears click and whirr, lifts it and pours wine into a cup a bystander has placed into the palm of its left.
'Ghost' ancestors: African DNA study detects mysterious human species2/13/2020 10:16:53 PM Scientists examining the genomes of West Africans have detected signs that a mysterious extinct human species interbred with our own species tens of thousands of years ago in Africa, the latest evidence of humankind's complicated genetic ancestry.
Oddly shaped celestial body Arrokoth sheds light on planet formation2/13/2020 7:09:17 PM A vaguely hourglass-shaped icy object called Arrokoth residing in the far reaches of the solar system - the most distant body ever explored by a spacecraft - is giving scientists intriguing clues about the formation of the planets including Earth.
Car-sized prehistoric South American turtle was built for battle2/13/2020 5:09:42 AM One of the largest turtles that ever lived prowled the lakes and rivers of northern South America from about 13 million years ago to 7 million years ago - and this car-sized freshwater beast was built for battle.
Novacyt biotech company says winning race for high-speed virus test2/11/2020 2:55:10 PM Franco-British biotech company Novacyt says it can offer a coronavirus test that is faster than rival methods by focusing on a narrow sequence of DNA coding, as it fights stiff competition to turn the outbreak into a business opportunity.
White House calls for biggest NASA budget in decades to reach the moon, Mars2/10/2020 10:36:36 PM The White House on Monday asked Congress for $25.2 billion for NASA in 2021, the agency's biggest budget in decades, calling for steady increases over five years to meet President Donald Trump's goal of landing astronauts on the moon and Mars.
Solar probe embarks on unprecedented mission to map sun's polar regions2/10/2020 1:06:34 PM A new probe built by NASA and the European Space Agency set off on a blazing hot journey to the sun on Sunday to take the first close-up look at the star's polar regions, a mission expected to yield insight into how solar radiant energy affects Earth.
Latest solar probe to get first close up of the sun's polar regions2/8/2020 1:44:29 AM A new spacecraft built jointly by U.S. and European space agencies is ready for a blazing journey to the sun to capture an unprecedented view of its two poles, an angle that could help researchers understand how the star’s vast bubble of magnetic energy affects Earth.
The bitter end: Last woolly mammoths plagued by genetic defects2/8/2020 12:33:27 AM The world's last woolly mammoths, sequestered on an Arctic Ocean island outpost, suffered from serious genetic defects caused by generations of inbreeding that may have hampered traits such as sense of smell and male fertility in the doomed population.
Fireflies threatened globally, with light pollution a glaring problem2/7/2020 8:50:58 PM Fireflies are under threat globally, with familiar hazards such as habitat loss and pesticides compounded by another peril: humankind's ubiquitous nighttime artificial light that plays havoc with their balletic nocturnal courtship, scientists said.
OneWeb launches 34 satellites from Kazakh cosmodrome in global internet push2/7/2020 8:34:25 PM The UK firm OneWeb launched 34 satellites from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early on Friday as part of its effort to provide global high-speed internet access using satellite communications by 2021.
Boeing's botched Starliner test flirted with 'catastrophic' failure: NASA panel2/7/2020 2:00:50 AM Boeing narrowly missed a "catastrophic failure" during its December flight test of an unmanned space taxi that was cut short by an unrelated problem, a NASA safety review panel said Thursday, recommending that the agency examine Boeing's software verification process before letting it fly humans to space.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch returns to Earth after record mission2/6/2020 11:31:43 PM American astronaut Christina Koch, who led the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday after a record stay on the International Space Station, ending a 328-day mission expected to yield new insights into deep-space travel.
NASA astronaut Koch returns to Earth after record space mission2/6/2020 11:58:03 AM A capsule carrying a crew of three from the International Space Station, including record-setting United States astronaut Christina Koch, landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a live feed by Russian space agency Roscosmos showed.
Data suggests virus infections under-reported, exaggerating fatality rate2/5/2020 4:02:17 PM Fatalities from the coronavirus epidemic are overwhelmingly concentrated in central China's Wuhan city, which accounts for over 73% of deaths despite having only one-third the number of confirmed infections.
'Weird,' sharp-nosed thalattosaur species identified from Alaska fossil2/5/2020 2:57:37 AM An iguana-like creature with a needle-sharp snout has been confirmed from a fossilized skeleton as a species of the marine reptile thalattosaur previously unknown to science that roamed the coast of what is now Alaska some 200 million years ago.
Bionic jellyfish? Yes, and they are here to help1/31/2020 1:09:07 PM It may sound more like science fiction than science fact, but researchers have created bionic jellyfish by embedding microelectronics into these ubiquitous marine invertebrates with hopes to deploy them to monitor and explore the world's oceans.
New telescope reveals sun's surface in closest detail yet1/30/2020 4:48:37 PM Images from a powerful new telescope installed on top of a volcano in Hawaii show the surface of the sun in the closest detail yet, revealing features as small as 30km (18 miles) across.
On eve of Brexit, Britain faces critical test to defend drug trial crown1/30/2020 9:08:27 AM It's 2023. Britain's brightest and best drug researchers are packing their bags as clinical trials start to dwindle, leaving a nation renowned as a global leader in pharmaceutical development to face a future in the slow lane.