NASA says its plan to bring Mars samples back to Earth is safe, but some people are worried
Since September, the Perseverance rover has been picking along an ancient river delta on Mars, its robotic arms reaching out with whirling steel drill bits to core rocks, scoop soil and suck small amounts of the red planet's atmosphere into titanium tubes.
NASA explains the mission to bring samples of Mars soil, rock and atmosphere back to Earth
NASA's Mars Sample Return Mission aims to bring 30 samples of rock, soil and atmosphere now being collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth sometime in the early 2030s. The goal is to look for signs of past life and also to find out more about the Red Planet before humans visit it.
Scaling the cost of government programs using a cost-per-person price tag improves comprehension by the general public
Government policies often are presented with hefty price tags, but people often zone out as more zeros are added to the total cost. A new study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that rescaling the cost of programs can increase a person's understanding of funding choices, which may improve how people participate in the policy debate. The results are available in the July issue of the journal...
Spain, Portugal dryness 'unprecedented' in 1,200 years
Parts of Portugal and Spain are the driest they have been in a thousand years due to an atmospheric high-pressure system driven by climate change, according to research published Monday, warning of severe implications for wine and olive production.
Study explores coevolution of mammals and their lice
According to a new study, the first louse to take up residence on a mammalian host likely started out as a parasite of birds. That host-jumping event tens of millions of years ago began the long association between mammals and lice, setting the stage for their coevolution and offering more opportunities for the lice to spread to other mammals.
Largest genetic atlas for zebrafish 'breakthrough' for biomedical research
Medical and life science researchers will benefit from the most comprehensive atlas yet of genetic data on zebrafish, newly published research suggests.
The Higgs boson, ten years after its discovery
Ten years ago, on July 4 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced the discovery of a new particle with features consistent with those of the Higgs boson predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. The discovery was a landmark in the history of science and captured the world's attention. One year later it won François Englert and Peter Higgs the...
NASA satellite breaks from orbit around Earth, heads to moon
A satellite the size of a microwave oven successfully broke free from its orbit around Earth on Monday and is headed toward the moon, the latest step in NASA's plan to land astronauts on the lunar surface again.
New screening technique could accelerate and improve mRNA therapies
Therapeutics based on messenger RNA, or mRNA, can potentially treat a wide range of maladies, including cancer, genetic diseases, and as the world has learned in recent years, deadly viruses.
ATLAS and CMS release results of most comprehensive studies yet of Higgs boson's properties
Today, exactly ten years after announcing the discovery of the Higgs boson, the international ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) report the results of their most comprehensive studies yet of the properties of this unique particle. The independent studies, described in two papers published today in Nature, show that the particle's properties are remarkably consistent...
'One of the botanical wonders of the world': Giant waterlily grown at Kew Gardens named new to science
A new paper, published today in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, outlines a new botanical discovery in the genus Victoria, the famous giant waterlily genus named after Britain's Queen Victoria in 1852. Until now, there have only been two known species of giant waterlily, the new species makes it three. Specimens of the new species, Victoria boliviana, have been sitting in Kew's Herbarium...
Thousands evacuate from 'dangerous' Sydney floods
Rapidly rising rivers swamped swathes of rain-lashed Sydney on Monday, forcing thousands to flee "dangerous" floods as the city's largest dam spilled torrents of water.
Large Hadron Collider revs up to unprecedented energy level
Ten years after it discovered the Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider is about to start smashing protons together at unprecedented energy levels in its quest to reveal more secrets about how the universe works.
Male dogs four times more likely to develop contagious cancer on nose or mouth than females
A new study has found that male dogs are four to five times more likely than female dogs to be infected with the oro-nasal form of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor.
Knowing the Earth's energy imbalance is critical in preventing global warming, study finds
The imbalance of energy on Earth is the most important metric in order to gauge the size and effects of climate change, according to a new study published today in the first issue of Environmental Research: Climate.