304 articles from THURSDAY 30.4.2020

Nasa picks Bezos's Blue Origin and Musk's SpaceX to build new lunar landers

Alabama company Dynetics also chosen for moon landing project, as three firms prepare to competeNasa has selected three private space companies to lead the development of lunar landers for its forthcoming moon landings.The three companies are Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos; Elon Musk’s SpaceX; and Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama, Nasa announced on Thursday. Continue...

NASA puts Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX on the list for lunar lander development program

NASA has selected teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to develop lunar landing systems capable of putting astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024. "We want to be able to go to the moon, but we want to be a customer," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters today during a teleconference. "We want to drive down the costs, we want to increase the access, we want...

Musk, Bezos win NASA contracts for Moon lander

NASA on Thursday awarded almost $1 billion in contracts to three space companies including those owned by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to develop lunar landers as the United States seeks to return human beings to the Moon.

Climate-smart agricultural practices increase maize yield in Malawi

Climate change creates extreme weather patterns that are especially challenging for people in developing countries and can severely impact agricultural yield and food security. International aid organizations have invested billions of dollars in promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, but the effects of those programs are rarely documented.

Water is key in catalytic conversion of methane to methanol

Scientists reveal new details that explain how a highly selective catalyst converts methane, the main component of natural gas, to methanol, an easy-to-transport liquid fuel and feedstock for making plastics, paints, and other commodity products. The findings could aid the design of even more efficient/selective catalysts to make methane conversion an economically viable and environmentally...

Gravitational waves could prove the existence of the quark-gluon plasma

According to modern particle physics, matter produced when neutron stars merge is so dense that it could exist in a state of dissolved elementary particles. This state of matter, called quark-gluon plasma, might produce a specific signature in gravitational waves. Physicists have now calculated this process using supercomputers.

Better understanding of nature's nanomachines may help in design of future drugs

Many of the drugs and medicines that we rely on today are natural products taken from microbes like bacteria and fungi. Within these microbes, the drugs are made by tiny natural machines known as nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). A research team has gained a better understanding of the structures of NRPSs and the processes by which they work. This improved understanding of NRPSs could...