Happy Christmas Eve!! It’s no wonder Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is the most famous member of Santa’s reindeers – on top of being a skilled flyer, as his name suggests, his nose glows bright red. This unusual variation on the normal reindeer is said to have all kinds of benefits, the most important of which […]
The crew on-board the ISS have been busy with a series of space walks to fix a cooling error on the ISS. The first space walk took place today (22/12) and finished at about 12:30 BST. The next space walk will take place on Monday (at roughly 7:10am EDT) and will also be aired live […]
The discovery of DNA in a 400,000 year old human thigh bone will open up a new frontier into the study of our ancestors. This verdict was cast by human evolution experts in the science journal, Nature. The femur comes from the well known “Pit of Bones” site in Spain. This site gave the remains […]
Last night Comet ISON’s 4 billion year life nearly came to a swift end! The giant ball of ice and dust was initially declared dead by SOHO scientists when the comet failed to reemerge from behind the star after the expected time. The scientists could only see a dull smudge in space telescope images, this […]
NASA has released a spectacular new picture of the planet Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft in July. The image was produced as part of The Day The Earth Smiled Project, led by Dr Carolyn Porco. The image was taken during a routine imaging sequence during an event that was anything but routine! Four months […]
Scientists are looking for 100,000 volunteers who are prepared to have their DNA sequenced and published online for anyone to look at. However although the participants will receive a full analysis of their DNA, anonymity isn’t guaranteed. The UK Personal Genome Project, who are running this are expecting that this will give a deeper understanding […]
A celestial object, with a similar mass and density to Earth has been found orbiting a star roughly 400 light years away. The observations that have taken place suggest that the planet, named Kepler 78b is composed mostly of rock and iron, similar to Earth. However the star is orbiting it’s ‘Sun’ extremely close, in […]
Where will you be in the early morning of the 1st December? If you are in the right place at the right time then there is a chance, just a chance that you may see one of the wonders of the night skies, a great comet with a trail stretching out from it. Comet ISON […]
Researchers have found that the brain uses sleep to clear away the toxins left in the brain after a hard day thinking or at work. The US research team believe that this is one of our fundamental reasons for sleep. Their study, published in Journal Science suggests that the brain cells (probably the glial cells) […]
Professor Higgs, who doesn’t actually own a mobile said a former neighbour had pulled up in her car as she was coming home from lunch in Edinburgh. He added, “She congratulated me on the news and I said ‘oh, what news?’” He also said that : “I heard more about it obviously when I got […]
The Cassini probe which is examining the components of Saturn’s moon, Titan has spotted propene or propylene. On Earth this molecule consists of six hydrogen atoms and three carbon atoms which is part of many commonly used plastics. This is the first definitive detection of any plastic molecule outside of Earth and it was made […]
According to Mars’ Curiosity Rover there is a surprising amount of water within the soil of Mars. When the Curiosity Rover heated a small quantity of of the soil, the most abundant vapour that the Rover detected was water. Researchers have told the Science Magazine that Mars’ dusty red covering contains about 2% by weight […]
An international team of Scientists have made this claim in the ‘Nature’ magazine. Researchers have said that elements in three billion year old samples show evidence for oxidative weathering. Geological data shows that this occurred some 700 million years before the Great Oxidation Event. This event was where geological data shows a dramatic increase in […]
HIV infects some 34 million people worldwide, and is transferred due to the exchange of bodily fluids, through things like having a blood transfusion or sexual intercourse. Although this is a comparatively small problem in the UK, it can be a problem in developing countries. But still, particularly in many wealthy countries, there are many […]
NASA’s Voyager 1, which left Earth on 5th September 1977 reached the news yesterday as the first man made object to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space, although scientists believe it actually left our solar system in August 2012! In mid 2012 NASA knew something was up. They had noticed that Voyager’s instruments […]
London’s skyline has had a new addition recently, the ‘Walkie Scorchie’, which sits on 20 Fenchurch Street. The ‘Walkie Scorchie’ had previously been known as the ‘Walkie Talkie’ because of its resemblance to an enormous two way radio. However the 37 storey building which will be completed next year has gained a rather bad reputation, […]
Scientists have grown miniature human brains in test tubes (which are known to scientists as “cerebal organoids”). This has created a “tool” for scientists to understand more how the brain develops from the embryo, through its life and to increase their understanding of mental and neurological problems. This could then lead to advances in the […]
Earlier this month we spent the nights peering at the night sky hoping for cloudless nights which near the center of town and in England is a rare occasion scanning the sky for the Perseids (shooting stars) which wasn’t too successful this year! This only reminded me about how living near a town can seriously impair stargazer’s view of the […]
Some recommended apps that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store: Solar Walk, described below. 1.TED This app is a video library of talks given by some of the world’s most fascinating people, free to download and watch. The official TED app has all the talks that can be found on […]
Researchers from Japan have for the first time created a ‘marshmallow-like’ superhydrophobic aerogel that acts effectively as a sponge to soak up hydrocarbons and can then be ‘wrung out’ and reused. Previous materials of this type have been created with varying success due to shortcomings that would affect large-scale clean up (for example, on the […]
The hairs in the ear that detect sounds (auditory hair cells) have been grown in mice whose hair cells had been damaged. The mice did not have their full hearing restored, but an increase in their measured hearing threshold was recorded. Rows of the auditory hair cells in the ear: Deafness due to hair cell […]
On Saturday the search for life beneath the ice in the Antarctic ran into a complication with the main boiler used to heat the water that powers the drill by melting through the thick ice. A circuit controlling the primary burner – required to start the boiler and so begin drilling – failed to start […]
The Voyager spacecraft have been on a trajectory towards the edge of the solar system for 35 years, since they completed their first mission to tour the outer planets. Voyager 1 is currently the most distant man-made object from Earth and is close to becoming the first to enter interstellar space, the region outside of […]
Passengers can to fly to Australia in four hours (instead of around 23 hours) with the help of a new engine cooling system invented by British scientists to revolutionise space flight. The new ‘Sabre’ (Synergistic Air-breathing Rocket Engine) cycle air-cooling system engine is capable of cooling the air entering it from 1,000°C to -150°C […]
Over 17 000 delegates are expected to fly into Doha, Qatar, for talks on climate change over the next two weeks. Some commentators are confident that the talks could make real progress towards cuts in carbon emissions. Others are sceptical. We can’t help cringeing at the irony of all those air miles, the factt hat […]