220 articles from FRIDAY 16.4.2021
What are the new Covid variants and what do they mean for the pandemic?
From Doug to Nelly and Eeek, we look at how mutations are affecting the battle against the virusCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageFrom the moment public health officials started to track new variants of coronavirus, it became clear that the same mutations were cropping up time and again and making the virus more troublesome. What are these mutations, what do they do,...
NASA chooses SpaceX to take humans back to Moon
NASA has selected SpaceX to land the first astronauts on the surface of the Moon since 1972, the agency said Friday, in a huge victory for Elon Musk's company.
NASA has selected SpaceX’s Starship as the lander to take astronauts to the moon
Later this decade, NASA astronauts are expected to touch down on the lunar surface for the first time in decades. When they do, according to an announcement made by the agency, they’ll be riding inside SpaceX’s Starship vehicle.
NASA’s award of a $2.9 billion contract to build Starship, first reported by the Washington Post on April 16 and later confirmed by NASA, is a huge achievement...
New blast at St. Vincent volcano; cruise ship helps evacuees
La Soufriere volcano shot out another explosive burst of gas and ash on Friday as a cruise ship arrived to evacuate some of the foreigners who had been stuck on a St. Vincent island coated in ash from a week of violent eruptions.
'Godzilla' shark discovered in New Mexico gets formal name
The 300-million-year-old shark's teeth were the first sign that it might be a distinct species.
SpaceX's next crew arrives in Florida for Earth Day launch
SpaceX's most international crew of astronauts yet arrived at their launch site Friday.
Tarantula's ubiquity traced back to the cretaceous
Tarantulas are among the most notorious spiders, due in part to their size, vibrant colors and prevalence throughout the world. But one thing most people don't know is that tarantulas are homebodies. Females and their young rarely leave their burrows and only mature males will wander to seek out a mate. How then did such a sedentary spider come to inhabit six out of seven continents?
SpaceX wins $2.9B contract for NASA moon lander
NASA said on Friday it has awarded billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to fly astronauts to the moon, picking it over Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics...
On the pulse of pulsars and polar light
Faced with the tragic loss of the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico and the often prohibitive cost of satellite missions, astronomers are searching for savvy alternatives to continue answering fundamental questions in physics.
Simulations reveal how dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain binds to host, succumbs to antibodies
Large-scale supercomputer simulations at the atomic level show that the dominant G form variant of the COVID-19-causing virus is more infectious partly because of its greater ability to readily bind to its target host receptor in the body, compared to other variants. These research results from a Los Alamos National Laboratory-led team illuminate the mechanism of both infection by the G form and...
Unconventional takes on pandemics and nuclear defense could protect humanity from catastrophic failure
From engineered pandemics to city-toppling cyber attacks to nuclear annihilation, life on Earth could radically change, and soon. Scientists will forecast the fate of the planet at a press conference during the 2021 APS April Meeting.
Scientists may detect signs of extraterrestrial life in the next 5 to 10 years
Research shows that a new telescope could detect a potential signature of life on other planets in as little as 60 hours.
The future of particle accelerators is here
When the Electron Ion Collider received the go-ahead in January 2020, it became the only new major accelerator in the works anywhere in the world.
New analysis finds Spotted Owls harmed by post-fire logging, not fire
Are forest fires a threat to the imperiled Spotted Owl? For years, different groups of scientists assumed so, but a new study turns this assumption on its head. Researchers from the John Muir Project, Pennsylvania State University, and Wild Nature Institute found that these previous studies consistently had a serious methodological flaw: they failed to take into account the impact of post-fire...
Wearable sensors that detect gas leaks
- ScienceDaily
- 21/4/16 21:50
A research team has developed wearable gas sensors that display an instantaneous visual holographic alarm.
The future of particle accelerators is here
- ScienceDaily
- 21/4/16 21:50
A new accelerator and detector will serve as a kind of camera, taking 3D images and movies of electrons colliding with polarized protons and ions. Like a CT scanner for atoms, the EIC will let scientists see how force-carrying gluon particles hold together quarks, the internal components of protons and neutrons. It will also offer insights into the spin of fundamental particles. Cutting-edge...
Tarantula's ubiquity traced back to the cretaceous
- ScienceDaily
- 21/4/16 21:50
Tarantulas are among the most notorious spiders, due in part to their size, vibrant colors and prevalence throughout the world. But one thing most people don't know is that tarantulas are homebodies. Females and their young rarely leave their burrows and only mature males will wander to seek out a mate. How then did such a sedentary spider come to inhabit six out of seven continents?
On the pulse of pulsars and polar light
- ScienceDaily
- 21/4/16 21:50
Faced with the tragic loss of the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico and the often prohibitive cost of satellite missions, astronomers are searching for savvy alternatives to continue answering fundamental questions in physics.
Neural plasticity depends on this long noncoding RNA's journey from nucleus to synapse
- ScienceDaily
- 21/4/16 21:50
A synaptically localized long noncoding RNA proves to be an important regulator of neural plasticity.