Conversations with your hairdresser can be quite revealing. And when I went for a trim earlier this year, the gossip was especially good. It was close enough to Christmas for our chat to turn to gifts and giving and, as he snipped away, my stylist had some juicy anecdotes to share. One customer had complained…
The evolutionary path leading to the rise of modern humans is full of twists and turns, and the latest surprise reveals that our species likely sprung forth from two ancient intermingling populations. A new study has confirmed that these groups first diverged from each other around 1.5 million years ago and later merged back together…
The first astronauts to fly on board two different commercial spacecraft during a single mission have returned to Earth, splashing down with two of their International Space Station crewmates. Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore did not set out to make history other than being the first crew to launch on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner…
Best-Yet ‘Baby Pictures’ of the Universe Unveiled The final results from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope offer the sharpest, most sensitive view of the early cosmos that anyone has ever seen By Lee Billings edited by Dean Visser The Atacama Cosmology Telescope, seen here on the Chilean peak of Cerro Toco, mapped the big bang’s afterglow…
A new image of the cosmic microwave background radiation for part of the sky – the zoomed in area is about 20 times the width of the moon as seen from Earth ACT Collaboration; ESA/Planck Collaboration Our latest and best ever map of the early universe is five times more detailed than anything we have…
New findings from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) collaboration may have just unveiled the sharpest images of the universe as an infant. After measuring light that traveled 13 billion light years to Earth, the images reveal the universe at about 380,000 years old — the equivalent of an image of a human baby only mere…
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander made the most of its last few hours of life on the moon. The solar-powered Blue Ghost shut down on Sunday evening (March 16), shortly after the sun set over its lunar locale. The lander watched our star’s descent and disappearance over the cratered horizon, capturing the oncoming, killing…
For nearly a century, scientists have been puzzled by the thorny skates of the North Atlantic. These creatures, found in waters from South Carolina to the Arctic Circle, exhibit a peculiar trait: in some areas, particularly along the North American coast, they come in two distinct sizes. This mystery, which intensified as skate populations plummeted,…
WATERY SANCTUARIES In “The Afterlives of Oil Rigs,” Asher Radziner describes how oil rigs are habitats for marine species and explores the question of whether they should be allowed to remain after they stop producing oil. For years I was an avid diver and dove on several oil rigs. I must admit that these were…
How quickly can a public charging station fill up an electric car? Ralf Hahn/Getty Images Chinese car firm BYD has announced that its newest ultra-fast charger can refresh electric vehicle batteries in nearly the time it takes to fill a petrol tank. While this is good news for electric car owners in China, the chargers…