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734 articles · page 1 of 16 · The Science front page
NASA has asked commercial space companies for information on servicing the Hubble Space Telescope, with options including boosting its orbit, enhancing its performance and resilience, or conducting a controlled reentry.
Astronomers have reported an unprecedented gamma-ray burst event, GRB 160425A, in which two distinct bursts, one short and one long, erupted just four minutes apart. Detected in 2016 by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the event is described in a paper published in Nature Astronomy and may require a rethink of how gamma-ray bursts are classified and how they originate.
A new three-dimensional map suggests the interstellar medium is more dynamic and unstable than long assumed, with researchers finding 41% of the ISM in the galactic neighbourhood in an intermediate state that contradicts leading theoretical models taught in textbooks.
A new global study has found that venomous snakebites could be killing between 274,000 and 513,000 people every year, a toll vastly higher than official statistics have reported. The research, which reviewed data from 79 countries and used a geostatistical model to account for widespread under-reporting, reveals a public health crisis that mostly affects poor rural communities.
New observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have thrown a leading theory of the early universe into question. An international research team, including astronomers from the University of Michigan, found that powerful winds generated by exploding stars can prevent ultraviolet radiation from escaping galaxies, the opposite of what a widely accepted theory had predicted. The discovery, published in Nature Astronomy, could change how scientists understand reionisation, the period about 13 billion years ago when the universe emerged from its cosmic fog.
A computer scientist has improved an algorithm for calculating shortest paths in large networks, extending a mathematical guarantee that had remained unchanged since 1996. Dr. Manoj Gupta of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar introduced a multi-scale sampling strategy that enables more reliable distance estimates for points close together, without slowing down the algorithm.
A physicist at the University of Birmingham has built a miniature universe from about 24,000 atoms cooled to billionths of a degree above absolute zero and shown that a form of time can emerge from changes inside the system without an external clock. The findings, published in Physical Review Research, offer experimental support for the idea that time may not be a fundamental feature of reality but something that arises from the relationships and changes within the universe itself.
A new clinical trial has found that a combined diet and exercise program can help younger adults with type 2 diabetes achieve remission. Researchers reported that 54% of participants who followed an intensive regimen achieved remission within six months, compared to only 4% of those receiving standard care.
Beavers are set to return to the waters around Loch Ness for the first time in 500 years, after conservation charities were given permission to release up to 15 beaver families into the area over the next three years. The first reintroduction could potentially take place in November.
With twice as many measles cases confirmed in the US this year compared to last, parents are increasingly opting to give their children the second dose of the MMR vaccine far earlier than the standard timeline, sometimes just weeks after the first.
The Sany Irootech Headquarters, a pair of skyscrapers in Guangzhou, China, has been named the Best Tall Building Worldwide for its exoskeletons, designed to respond to high winds and earthquakes. Its bracing uses clamped steel plates and friction material within its horizontal sections; in a big earthquake, the bracing slides and dissipates energy through friction and heat.
A barrier long thought to protect Earth's inner radiation zone from the most dangerous electrons was breached from within, according to a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters using data from Japan's Arase satellite during the May 2024 solar storm.
Cowboy Space, a startup, has revealed specifications for its Big Iron medium-lift launch vehicle, named after the classic country song, though Ars Technica's Rocket Report notes the company has little hardware to show and trails many other launch providers nearing the pad with medium-class rockets.
Britain's largest ever woodland survey of bats has recorded some of the country's rarest species, including the red-listed Barbastelle, in the south-west of England, in a project researchers say would not have been feasible without artificial intelligence.
A new report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) estimates that toxic smoke from wildfires killed 3,560 people in Indonesia in September, as air pollution-related deaths in the country surged 42% from the previous month.
India's space agency is set to launch the NVS-03 navigation satellite on Friday, October 30, aboard a GSLV-F18 rocket from Sriharikota, aiming to boost the country's NavIC navigation network.
From the start of November, the Police Service of Northern Ireland will stop carrying out concern-for-welfare checks unless there is a risk to life or harm, or a crime is involved, under a new policy called Right Care Right Person. The change, which has been in place among some forces in England and Wales since 2023, is intended to ensure individuals receive care from the most appropriate professional, but health and social care representatives have raised concerns about whether there are sufficient resources to implement it safely.
Australia faces an array of potential invasive species that could cause serious harm, according to a new column by Carol Booth, policy director at the Invasive Species Council. Writing for Halloween, Booth suggested that complacency may be the real monster, as she detailed threats including an alga known as rock snot, a tiny beetle carrying tree-killing fungus, and a fish that can wriggle across land.
One of the most ambitious nature recovery projects ever undertaken in England can go ahead after campaigners raised £30m to buy the Rothbury estate in Northumberland, a bid championed by David Attenborough.
MIT researchers have developed a nanoscale particle that could serve as a customizable delivery vehicle for personalized cancer vaccines, showing in a new study that a vaccine built on it made mice much less likely to develop colon tumors.
Artificial intelligence has jumped from 10th to fourth place among the biggest concerns of young Australians, while cost of living, housing and rental affordability, and mental health are the top three issues, according to the annual Gen Z Wellbeing Index released this week.
A golden eagle chick has become the first to fledge from a nest on a managed grouse moor in the south of Scotland, in what those running a project to boost golden eagle numbers in the region consider a hugely significant milestone. The bird, named Beaky Junior by local gamekeepers, hatched at a secret location in the Moffat Hills used for recreational gamebird shooting, and is seen as a symbol of co-operation between landowners, gamekeepers and the project to boost golden eagle numbers.
Using bacteria to bind loose sand grains into a solid, usable construction material, researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated a potential alternative to conventional cement.
The Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope have recently turned their attention to the Cat's Head Nebula, a small but visually striking part of the Carina Nebula about 7,500 light-years from Earth. The resulting images, captured in visible, near-infrared and mid-infrared light, give astronomers a detailed look at how massive stars shape their environment and influence the birth of new stars.
A phase 2 clinical trial led by a researcher at the Mayo Clinic found that camupepimut generated a strong immune response against mutated KRAS in nearly all patients with KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancer who received it. However, the study found no statistically significant difference in disease-free survival between the vaccine and control groups, and the vaccine’s benefits remain unclear.
A small company is promising a concentrated solar power system designed so a fossil-fuel backup shares most of the generating hardware, potentially helping avoid the need for a separate facility, according to a report by Ars Technica.
Virgin Galactic has unveiled Apeiron, the first of its next-generation Delta-class spaceships, at its factory in Mesa, Arizona. The company expects its first commercial flight in early Q2 2027, with a second ship to follow in late Q2 or early Q3.
A rose-colored meteorite found in the Sahara Desert in 2022 has been identified as one of the oldest Martian rocks ever discovered on Earth, formed more than 4.1 billion years ago and showing signs of interaction with ancient water, NASA-funded scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science.
Health officials from 45 African countries met on Wednesday to coordinate a continent-wide response to an Ebola outbreak that has killed nearly 5,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spread to Kenya and Nigeria, with an assessment presented at the meeting finding only three of 31 countries evaluated were adequately prepared to respond.
NASA has released its 2026 In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) State of Play, a 368-page document that the agency says has become the industry standard for understanding what ISAM hardware exists and where the field is heading.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug to directly treat Alexander disease, a rare genetic neurological disorder that affects fewer than one in a million people worldwide and is often fatal. The drug, zilganersen (brand name Zanvastro), developed by Ionis Pharmaceuticals, targets GFAP directly, reducing the amount the body produces.
Australian researchers have developed a four-second, non-invasive eye scan that detects coronary artery disease with 80 per cent accuracy. They plan further testing before trialling a portable version at local optometrists and GP clinics.
A father has credited an off-duty police officer with saving his life after he suffered a cardiac arrest and 'clinically died twice' in a shop in Cwmbran, south Wales.
A team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona says the unusual 'Cat's Tail' feature in the debris disk of the young star Beta Pictoris is thought to be the aftermath of a collision between large bodies, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image featuring a barred spiral galaxy and a gravitational lens, as part of preparations for the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
A study of more than 87,000 adults found that higher daytime light exposure was associated with a lower risk of developing dementia. It also found that getting less than 42 minutes of bright daylight daily was a stronger predictor of dementia than six established risk factors.
People who consume the highest amounts of low- and no-calorie sweeteners experience significantly faster declines in memory and thinking abilities than those who consume the least, according to a study published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The association was strongest among adults under 60 and those with diabetes.
New observations from NASA's Juno spacecraft have revealed that Jupiter's bow shock, the invisible boundary that helps deflect harmful particles from the Sun, is significantly more complex than Earth's, using multiple plasma wave frequencies and additional shock regions to slow and heat incoming solar particles.
A remarkably preserved elephant tooth dating back nearly 700,000 years has helped scientists reconstruct a lush prehistoric landscape in what is now northern Israel, where giant elephants and early human populations lived side by side in an environment with a dependable water supply.
Researchers have identified a weakened brain signal that may help explain several symptoms of schizophrenia, from perceptual difficulties to disorganized speech, according to a new study published in Science Advances.
A mathematical analysis published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A has identified what researchers describe as a fundamental instability in the standard model of the expanding universe, raising questions about whether dark energy is needed to explain cosmic acceleration.
A new study suggests that the Sun’s spicules, spike-like geysers of plasma, may not be individual jets but an optical illusion created by complex three-dimensional curtains of plasma, while also identifying giant plasma tornadoes that could help explain why the corona is much hotter than the surface.
Astronomers have spotted a dead star surrounded by a debris disk split into two distinct rings, a configuration they believe was shaped by two planetary bodies that partly survived the star’s violent transformation and a possible preview of the solar system’s fate billions of years from now.
A contested federal move to widen access to unproven peptides led the day's health news, joined by an Ebola case in Nigeria, a major CTE study and new research on targeted cancer therapy. The items span drug policy, outbreak response and biomedical science.
Ars Technica reports that Musk and Shotwell cleared a path for SpaceX to contracts at NASA and the US military.
Rare letters written by a scientist who perished on the ill-fated La Pérouse expedition have been discovered hidden in a book of engravings, offering a new and personal account of the voyage that Louis XVI reportedly asked about as he prepared for execution in 1793.
Estonia is set to become the first country in the world to invite citizens to screening programs based on genetic data. Starting next week, every 40-year-old woman in the country will receive an invitation for genetic testing to assess her individual risk of developing breast cancer, regardless of health insurance status. Smit said earlier screening, starting mammography at 40, would be justified for women whose risk is the same as that of women aged 50.
Hundreds of NHS GP practice websites in England and Wales have become unavailable after Silicon Practice, the tech company that ran their digital services, entered administration. The firm's parent company, Schappit Ltd, filed a notice of administration earlier this month following financial difficulties.