PC: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)/Handout via REUTERS Nearly 12 billion years ago, the Milky Way was still in its infancy, assembling itself from smaller collections of stars, gas and dark matter. During that turbulent period, another galaxy came within its gravitational reach and was eventually absorbed, leaving traces that have survived to the present … Read more
Sophie Adenot’s first spacewalk was supposed to be about replacing an antenna. Instead, the 18 August outing left the French astronaut with two milestones to carry back inside the International Space Station: becoming the first French woman to walk in space, and an unfinished repair that will require another trip outside. Adenot and Nasa astronaut … Read more
There are moments when a simple disagreement quietly turns into something larger. A conversation stops, assumptions take over and a distance begins to grow between people who may once have understood each other well. Sometimes the separation is deliberate, created to protect a boundary or avoid conflict. At other times, it happens almost without anyone … Read more
Harmful algal blooms can turn freshwater ecosystems into dangerous environments, but researchers at Florida Atlantic University are developing a novel way to tackle one of the nutrients that helps drive them, excess phosphorus. Rather than removing algae after a bloom has already formed, the team is developing 3D-printed adsorbent structures designed to capture phosphate directly … Read more
On Ishigaki Island, cane toads have been living in conditions quite different from those faced by the populations from which they came. The island is warm, wet and separated from mainland habitats, and the animals introduced there in the late 1970s have now had several decades to establish themselves. When scientists compared these Japanese toads … Read more
This combo made with photos provided by NASA on Tuesday taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows before, left, and after images of a fresh crater on the moon created by a collision with a SpaceX rocket. Photo credit: AP A NASA spacecraft circling the moon is providing the sharpest views yet of the crater … Read more
NEW DELHI: People with no high BP, diabetes or smoking habit lived nearly 13 years longer without dementia than those with all three risk factors, a long-term US study has found. Those without any of the three lived an average 30 years without dementia from age 55, compared with 17.5 years among those with all … Read more
The gopher tortoise is a land-dwelling reptile native to the southeastern United States that digs deep burrows used by hundreds of other animals. More than two decades after two Mississippi landowners began restoring their land to help an endangered tortoise, their work has now created a new home for one of North America’s rarest amphibians. … Read more
In the sun-drenched hills of Andalusia, Spain, an unlikely team of firefighters is making headlines. They don’t carry hoses, wear helmets, or race to blazes in red trucks. Instead, they have four legs, long ears and a simple mission: eat grass. Meet the “firefighting donkeys” of Doñana National Park, a group of 18 rescued animals … Read more
Deep in the forests of Mozambique, finding a wild bee nest can begin with a sound. Yao honey hunters use a distinctive call to attract greater honeyguides, small birds capable of leading people towards bee colonies hidden inside trees. The relationship has been passed down for generations, but new research suggests the birds are not … Read more