News

XMM-Newton Uncovers A Celestial Rosetta Stone

ESA's XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope has uncovered a celestial Rosetta stone: the first close-up of a white dwarf star, circling a companion star, that could explode into a particular kind of supernova in a few million years. These supernovae are used as beacons to measure cosmic distances and ultimately understand the expansion of our Universe.

The Milky Way’s Not-So-Distant Cousin

ESO, the European Southern Observatory, has released a striking new image of a nearby galaxy that many astronomers think closely resembles our own Milky Way. Though the galaxy is seen edge-on, observations of NGC 4945 suggest that this hive of stars is a spiral galaxy much like our own, with swirling, luminous arms and a bar-shaped central region.

Stanford Open-Source Camera Could Revolutionize Photography

Stanford photo scientists are out to reinvent digital photography with the introduction of an "open-source" digital camera, which will give programmers around the world the chance to create software that will teach cameras new tricks.

Open Source DNA

Tel Aviv University finds a new solution to guarantee privacy and freedom in scientific research. In the chilling science fiction movie Gattaca, Ethan Hawke stars as a man with "inferior genes" who assumes another's genetic identity to escape a dead-end future.

Will Galactic Bombardment Destroy The Milky Way?

As scientists attempt to learn more about how galaxies evolve, an open question has been whether collisions with our dwarf galactic neighbors will one day tear apart the disk of the Milky Way. That grisly fate is unlikely, a new study now suggests.

Ethnic Groups Don't Exist!

Central Asian ethnic groups are more defined by societal rules than ancestry. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Genetics found that overall there are more genetic differences within ethnic groups than between them, indicating that separate 'ethnic groups' exist in the mind more than the blood.

India's Moon Mission Failed, Aims At Mars

The country's first unmanned mission to Mars is at conceptual stage and will be taken up after Chandrayaan-2, says ISRO chief. India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, may have been abandoned after the country's national space agency lost radio contact with the spacecraft on Saturday.

Disney To Buy Marvel Comics

Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Cygnus X-1 Is Still A Star

Since its discovery 45 years ago, Cygnus X-1 has been one of the most intensively studied cosmic X-ray sources.

Ant Has Given Up Sex Completely

The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely, has been confirmed by a team of Texas and Brazilian researchers.

Brain Predicts What Eyes In Motion Will See

When the eyes move, objects in the line of sight suddenly jump to a different place on the retina, but the mind perceives the scene as stable and continuous. A new study reports that the brain predicts the consequences of eye movement even before the eyes take in a new scene.

Evidence Of Iridescence In 40 Million-Year-Old Feather Fossil

Known for their wide variety of vibrant plumage, birds have evolved various chemical and physical mechanisms to produce these beautiful colors over millions of years. A team of paleontologists and ornithologists led by Yale University has now discovered evidence of vivid iridescent colors in feather fossils more than 40 million years old.

Search For Elusive Gravitational Waves

Glasgow scientists are taking part in an international search for gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of spacetime thought to have been created by the Big Bang.

18th Century Old Sunspot Puzzle Solved

Scientists at the Universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde and Central Lancashire have used 21st Century solar observations and image processing to finally solve a sunspot puzzle first noticed in the 18th Century.

Lightening Goes Upward!

With a very lucky shot, scientists have captured a one-second image and the electrical fingerprint of huge lightning that flowed 40 miles upward from the top of a storm.

Should Females Be Tricked By Showy Males?

How honest are males when using sexual displays to signal their eligibility to females? Research by evolutionary biologists at the universities of Glasgow and Exeter suggests females should be wary of initial flashy displays which may not have staying power.

Life's Building Blocks Found In Comet

NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.

Vehicles That Drive Themselves

The thought of a car or truck that can drive itself is at once both exciting and frightening. Autonomous vehicle navigation, as the technology is known, may make life more convenient if it allows people to kick back and enjoy a good book or movie while their cars guide themselves through rush-hour traffic. But what happens if it starts to rain or if traffic suddenly picks up?

Healing With Light

Star Trek scanners that fix injuries with beams of light may not be science fiction after all. A new optical technology that lines up living cells and controls their movements has opened the door to better artificial tissues and wounds that heal faster with less scarring.

Intense Heat Killed The Universe’s Would-Be Galaxies

Millions of would-be galaxies failed to develop after being exposed to intense heat from the first stars and black holes formed in the early Universe, according to new research.

	Buckle Up For A Trip To A New World: A Review Of 'Red Sky, Blue Moon'
	The Ash Virus
	The Tale of Bob
	Mission 197
	R. L. Vogeler’s “Reminiscence of an American Dream”

Main menu