Science

The data confirmed the white-dwarf companion and detected gamma-ray emission associated with the pulsar. More significantly, they uncovered a second companion: a subgiant star with a mass roughly comparable to that of the Sun. Image Courtesy: AAS Nova/Kerry Hensley; background image from Thilina Alagiyawanna Some stars live fast, some burn quietly for billions of years,…

Representative Image (AI-generated) What do rabbits have to do with saving a rare seabird? On a small island off the coast of New South Wales, their presence was damaging the very habitat Gould’s petrels needed to survive. Getting rid of them became an important part of a much larger conservation effort. In 1997, conservationists successfully…

In Bronze Age communities of present-day Serbia, boys and girls did not have the same burial treatments as adult men and women. Even children who died at a young age received different burial treatment, with rules that distinguished males from females, with the direction of their heads and position of their bodies following different traditions….

The planetarium was included in Wright’s original plans for the Polk Science Building, which was constructed between 1954 and 1958. A planetarium designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright has reopened to the public in Florida, more than two decades after its projection system stopped working. Located at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, the restored…

A shipwreck found off the Croatian island of Vis has revealed an extraordinary collection of ancient pottery, personal belongings and surviving wooden remains inside a merchant vessel that once sailed the Adriatic Sea. The 2,300-year-old wreck has brought to light objects that offer a glimpse into the lives of sailors during the Hellenistic period. The…

PC:  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Scientists exploring the deep sea have discovered unusual patterns of holes in seafloor sediment, but their origin remains unknown despite closer examination and sediment sampling. NOAA’s Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition observed the formations at depths of about 2,540 metres, with further sightings between 1,440 and 1,500 metres….

The large marsh grasshopper has returned to Norfolk after 86 years, following a conservation project to restore the rare insect’s population in the region’s wetlands. The species has now hatched in the wild in the Broads for the first time since 1939. The return follows the Hop of Hope project, led by Citizen Zoo, in…

PC: University of Glasgow Chemists and engineers have developed a £20 prototype device that uses ultrasound, water and air to produce nitrate, an important nutrient for plant growth. The technology could eventually allow farmers in remote areas to make fertiliser on demand, reducing their reliance on large industrial production facilities. According to a study by…

Saba Firouznia, research associate at the University of Bristol’s Soft Robotics Lab, holds the robotic butterfly powered by a tiny liquid-metal pump. (Image credit: Saba Firouznia) Engineers at the University of Bristol have developed a miniature liquid-metal pump weighing just 0.2 grams that could help soft robots move without bulky pumping systems. With a volume…

Image: Left/ncse/Right/Pumpkin Person Every person alive today carries a mitochondrial genome that came from their mother, who received it from hers, and so on back through hundreds of thousands of years. Follow that chain far enough, and every line meets in one woman who lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Scientists call her Mitochondrial…