Seattle-based Xplore says space investor and philanthropist Dylan Taylor plans to reserve payload space on its first mission beyond Earth orbit, on behalf of a nonprofit group he founded. Taylor, the chairman and CEO of Colorado-based Voyager Space Holdings, said in a news release that Xplore's Xcraft multi-mission spacecraft "gives the flexibility needed to design the optimum payload and...

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This summer, for the first time, genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the U.S. On May 1, 2020, the company Oxitec received an experimental use permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to release millions of GM mosquitoes (labeled by Oxitec as OX5034) every week over the next two years in Florida and Texas. Females of this mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, transmit...

Waste heat is all around you. On a small scale, if your phone or laptop feels warm, that’s because some of the energy powering the device is being transformed into unwanted heat. On a larger scale, electric grids, such as high power lines, lose over 5% of their energy in the process of transmission. In an electric power industry that generated more than US$400 billion in 2018, that’s a...

If you’re an oyster lover, seeing a shaggy worm slither across your appetizer is revolting – even though such worms are harmless to people. An internet search using the keywords “oyster” and “worm” will bring up a large cache of images, each one less palatable than the next. As a biologist, I study invasive species including these mud blister worms. Despite their high gross-out factor,...

Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua' first captured our attention when it whizzed through our solar system more than two years ago. Apparently, it’s still not done making...

‘We are seeing the end of coal,’ says analyst as energy source with biggest impact on climate crisis falls for sixth year in a rowSolar, wind and other renewable sources have toppled coal in energy generation in the United States for the first time in over 130 years, with the coronavirus pandemic accelerating a decline in coal that has profound implications for the climate crisis.Not since...

Trump has a history of defying scientific findings but his actions during coronavirus have startled even his most vocal critics * Coronavirus – live US updates * Live global updatesThe early months of Donald Trump’s administration saw its approach to science routinely compared to George W Bush’s – both governments were highly sympathetic to large corporations, distrustful of anything to...