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The US Military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is attempting to develop and grow large-scale “biomechanical” structures in space. ADVERTISEMENT DARPA, known for its somewhat quirky development projects, has put out a call for the development of large structures that can be “grown” in space.  “Given recent advances in metabolic engineering for rapid growth, […]

A team of scientists has innovated a brainwave reader that uses the power of thought to allow people to communicate yes or no, even when they can’t blink. The reader uses affordable parts and a novel artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that’s being made available without copyright in the hope that it can help patients being […]

A new-to-science species of titanosaur has been described by a team of palaeontologists working in the Anacleto Formation near northern Patagonia. The long-necked dinosaur has been named Chadititan calvoi, meaning “titan of the salt”. ADVERTISEMENT It may be salty by name, but Chadititan was not salty in nature, described as a “gentle giant” with a […]

As the measles outbreak in Texas continues to grow, and with cases popping up in other states, a doctor has urged people not to hold so-called “measles parties”, warning that doing so comes with some serious risks. ADVERTISEMENT The idea of infectious disease “parties” has been around for a while – if you grew up […]

A remarkable collection of five pre-Hispanic clay puppets with rotating heads has been discovered in El Salvador. Aside from the expert craftsmanship that went into making the items, the ancient figurines are notable for the context in which they were found – atop the largest pyramid at the mysterious site of San Isidro. ADVERTISEMENT “They’re […]

The superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) of south-eastern Australia has been found to farm its habitat, changing the environment in ways that increase its food supply. Although examples of similar behavior from non-human animals have been found before, known examples are from invertebrates, or in very restricted locations. Lyrebirds instead farm an ecosystem that once covered much […]

For the first time in Canada, surgeons have successfully carried out the first stage of a procedure involving implanting a tooth into the eyes of people with a type of severe blindness in the hopes of restoring their vision. ADVERTISEMENT The operation o known as osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis, or “tooth-in-eye” surgery – was recently carried out at […]

Quantum computers hold the promise to revolutionize modeling and calculations. By employing the peculiar laws of quantum mechanics, they can perform calculations that would take even the fastest supercomputers billions of years to complete. Building and operating quantum computers has many challenges, and while these devices are still a long way off, some components are […]

Thousands of years before Stonehenge was completed – and thousands of kilometers from southern England – another culture built a strikingly similar ring of stones in another possible attempt to track the Sun’s movements and the changing seasons. ADVERTISEMENT Nabta Playa is an ancient site nestled within a basin of the Nubian Desert near Egypt’s […]

For the first time, a flat telescope lens has been produced that represents colors accurately, offering a way to make less bulky lenses that could be sent into space cheaply. ADVERTISEMENT The first telescopes used lenses, known as refracting telescopes. Small instruments – whether for amateur astronomers starting out or people keen to look at […]

How far would you go to prove you’re right? At the dawn of the 20th century, American scientist Jesse William Lazear made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of biomedical knowledge. He allowed an infected mosquito to bite him and succumbed to yellow fever within weeks. In his tragic death, he helped to establish that […]

A private mission on its way to deep space has encountered “massive issues” shortly after departing the Earth. ADVERTISEMENT On February 26, space firm AstroForge launched its new spacecraft, Odin, into space on board SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The plan for the spacecraft was ambitious: to send it further than any private craft has ever […]

There’s a giant clone hidden underneath the waves of the Baltic Sea. Yes, really – scientists have just discovered that some forests of what was thought to be a unique species of seaweed in this region is actually another species entirely, and one that may have spread to become the world’s largest clone. ADVERTISEMENT The […]

An international team of researchers from China, Japan, and the US has taken an important step in the 3D printing of organs, an intriguing but extremely challenging aspect of biomedical engineering. The organ of choice was the penis, part of which was reconstructed in the lab using a hydrogel showing realistic functionality. The artificial organ […]

While many new species are discovered in remote jungles or hidden in the depths of the sea, some are right under our noses. A research trip to the Alto Mayo area of Peru has revealed 27 new-to-science species – including a bronze salamander and an incredibly rare semi-aquatic mouse – in a region bustling with […]

Homo sapiens can seem like a bit of a mystery. It’s easy to think we stand apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, even from our closest primate relatives. In recent centuries, science has begun to piece together our long and winding evolutionary history, but many parts of the story remain missing and hazy. […]

Where the Earth’s core meets the mantle, there are two giant regions that have baffled geologists for fifty years. A new piece of the puzzle has now emerged with the discovery that they have different compositions from each other, challenging models that assumed they had similar origins. ADVERTISEMENT Most of what we know about the […]

According to our best current theories, the matter that makes stars, planets, and everything we see is just a small fraction of the total matter in the universe. Outweighing this regular matter five-to-one is dark matter, an invisible substance that doesn’t interact with light. We do not know what this dark matter is, but many […]

Getting a tattoo could increase your risk of developing skin cancers or lymphoma later in life, according to the results of a new study. Looking at pairs of twins, the researchers found that siblings with more ink tended to have higher rates of these illnesses. ADVERTISEMENT “The unique aspect of our approach is that we […]

NASA has released a new image showing the moment Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 jet broke the sound barrier without producing an audible sonic boom. ADVERTISEMENT Boom Supersonic, the company aiming to create commercial planes that can travel faster than the speed of sound, have successfully tested their XB-1 jet. According to the company and NASA, the […]