An organism’s genome is a set of DNA instructions needed for its development, function and reproduction. The genome of a present-day organism contains information from its journey on an evolutionary path that starts with the “first universal common ancestor” of all life on Earth and culminates with that organism. Encoded within itself, an organism’s genome … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain For the first time since 1972, the United States is back on the moon. At 6:23 p.m. Eastern time Thursday Feb 22, Intuitive Machines Inc. landed a robotic spacecraft on the moon, becoming the first private firm to place a vehicle intact on the lunar surface. NASA, which paid nearly $118 … Read more
Space is already crowded with human-made objects and anti-satellite weapons can make the situation much worse. Credit: NASA ODPO In a week where national security has taken center stage in Washington, the White House confirmed on Thursday that it had evidence that Russia was developing a space-based nuclear anti satellite weapon. John Kirby, the National … Read more
Singapore. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain According to Singapore’s Meteorological Service, Singapore has been warming up twice as fast compared to the rest of the world. Due to the effects of global warming, rising urban heat, and El Niño, 2023 was the hottest recorded year in Singapore. Temperature increases can result in adverse climatic effects such … Read more
Credit: The Seismic Record (2024). DOI: 10.1785/0320230049 Strange seismic wave arrivals from a 2010 earthquake under Spain were the clues that led to an unexpected discovery beneath the western Mediterranean: a subducted oceanic slab that has completely overturned. The waveforms paint a picture of a slab that descended rapidly into the Earth’s mantle and flipped … Read more
On Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024 the Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander captures a wide field of view image of Schomberger crater on the Moon approximately 125 miles (200 km) uprange from the intended landing site, at approximately about 6 miles (10 km) altitude. Credit: Intuitive Machines via AP A private U.S. lunar lander tipped over … Read more
A handout picture released by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on February 23, 2024, shows the M/V Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, UK-owned bulk carrier leaking oil in the Gulf of Aden after taking significant damage after an attack Huthi rebels. A cargo ship abandoned in the Gulf of Aden after an attack by Yemeni rebels is … Read more
Subarctic grassland undergoing natural geothermal warming in Iceland. Credit: C: Christina Kaiser Warmer soils harbor a greater diversity of active microbes, according to a new study from researchers at the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) at the University of Vienna. The study, published in Science Advances, represents a significant shift in our … Read more
Blue Marble and climate model. The left globe shows the famous “Blue Marble” photo of Earth, taken in 1972. The globe on the right shows a visualization of data from a simulation with a one-kilometer grid for the atmosphere, land, and ocean. Credit: NASA, MPI-M, DKRZ, NVIDIA Understanding cloud patterns in our changing climate is … Read more
Artist impression of the quantum experiment. Credit: University of Southampton Scientists are a step closer to unraveling the mysterious forces of the universe after working out how to measure gravity on a microscopic level. Experts have never fully understood how the force that was discovered by Isaac Newton works in the tiny quantum world. Even … Read more
