421 articles from THURSDAY 4.3.2021

Will climate change outpace species adaptation?

Many species might be left vulnerable in the face of climate change, unable to adapt their physiologies to respond to rapid global warming. According to a team of international researchers, species evolve heat tolerance more slowly than cold tolerance, and the level of heat they can adapt to has limits.

Woolly mammoths may have shared the landscape with first humans in New England

Woolly mammoths may have walked the landscape at the same time as the earliest humans in what is now New England, according to a Dartmouth study published in Boreas. Through the radiocarbon dating of a rib fragment from the Mount Holly mammoth from Mount Holly, Vt., the researchers learned that this mammoth existed approximately 12,800 years ago. This date may overlap with the arrival of the first...

WOX9: A jack of all trades

Researchers at CSHL used CRISPR, a genome-editing tool, to figure out the hidden roles of a developmental gene called WOX9. It usually induces flower branching in tomatoes and influences embryo growth in a plant related to broccoli. By tweaking the DNA in the gene's nearby promoter region, the researchers found WOX9 could induce flower branching in other species. These types of genetic...

SpaceX: Mars ship prototype explodes after first intact landing

Elon Musk’s last two prototypes reached similarly high altitude, but crash-landed in fireballsSpaceX’s futuristic Starship looked like it aced a touchdown Wednesday, but then exploded on the landing pad with so much force that it was hurled into the air.The failure occurred just minutes after SpaceX declared success. Two previous test flights crash-landed in fireballs. Continue...

SpaceX's Starship SN10 rocket launches, lands, sits there, blows up – video

Elon Musks’s Starship rocket has made its first test launch, flight and intact landing – before suddenly exploding minutes later. After a delay to the initial flight, SN10 lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, reaching an altitude of 10 kilometres, before descending and landing upright, albeit apparently on fire at its base. Three minutes after touchdown and soon after the SpaceX live stream was...

Starship has finally stuck the landing

On March 3, SpaceX’s Starship pulled off a successful high-altitude flight—its third in a row. Unlike in the first two missions, the spacecraft stuck the landing. Then, as in the last two, the spacecraft blew up. What happened: At around 5:14 p.m. US Central Time, the 10th Starship prototype (SN10) was launched from SpaceX’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas, flying about 10 kilometers...