After Virgin Orbit’s failed mission, Commons committee hears complaints about regulator Britain’s failed attempt to send satellites into orbit was a “disaster” and MPs are being urged to redirect funding to hospitals, with the country now seen as “toxic” for future launches.Senior figures at the Welsh company Space Forge, which lost a satellite when Virgin Orbit’s Start Me Up mission...
Once-abundant giant lacewing was believed extinct in eastern US but mislabelled specimen hints at surviving populationsA giant Jurassic-era insect missing from eastern North America for at least half a century has been spotted clinging to the side of a Walmart big box in Arkansas.The identification of the giant lacewing – Polystoechotes punctata – in an urban area of Fayetteville, Arkansas,...
While tests existed, scientists could not track size of outbreak, leaving vulnerable people unprotectedUK politics live – latest news updatesIn the early days of the pandemic, ministers believed and told the public the UK was at the forefront of Covid testing. The government’s scientific advisers appeared to share the view and were perhaps even a factor in its widespread belief. At the first...
More than 60 US scientists, including James Hansen, renowned former Nasa climate researcher, sign open letterThe controversial concept of purposely deflecting the sun’s rays to cool down an overheating Earth should be further studied, according to a group of scientists headed by James Hansen, the renowned former Nasa climate researcher.An open letter from more than 60 scientists across the US,...
After losing his beloved father when he was 10, Ronald Mallett read HG Wells and Einstein. They inspired his eminent career as a theoretical physicist – and his lifelong ambition to build a time machineProf Ronald Mallett thinks he has cracked time travel. The secret, he says, is in twisting the fabric of space-time with a ring of rotating lasers to make a loop of time that would allow you to...
Researchers have secured £1m to refine method of scoring potential organs by comparing imagesArtificial intelligence could help NHS surgeons perform 300 more transplant operations every year, according to British researchers who have designed a new tool to boost the quality of donor organs.Currently, medical staff must rely on their own assessments of whether an organ may be suitable for...
Remains of earwig-like insects discovered near village of Chekarda, Russia, covered in pollenNearly 200m years before the mosquito in Jurassic Park became trapped in amber, hundreds of ancient insects were encased in sediment along the bank of the Sylva river that flows through the Urals.Now, scientists inspecting the flattened creatures have found a handful that appear to mark a moment in...