Science

Science • Jun 25

What Happens When You Throw a Paper Plane From Space? These Physicists Found Out

What would happen if you threw a paper airplane from the International Space Station? It's just the sort of idea that might emerge from a curious child — or...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

The universe should look the same in all directions at large scales, but DESI data suggest otherwise

Earlier this year, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed observations that mapped 47 million galaxies across 11 billion light-years,...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Rhythm and timing in laughter reveal that human vocal plasticity falls on a hominid continuum | Communications Biology

Laughter is an important, universal form of human non-linguistic vocal expression and, being shared by all extant great apes, offers a valuable proxy for...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Scientists Turn Ordinary Sunlight Into UV Light in Major Energy Breakthrough

Sunlight just got an upgrade: Scientists have developed a material that converts ordinary sunshine into UV light, opening new possibilities for...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

NASA’s Swift Boost mission readies for launch

An airplane began its journey across the Pacific on Thursday, June 18, with a rocket strapped to its belly. Inside that rocket was a rescue mission — a...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

How Virginia powered a 1st-of-its kind space telescope rescue mission

NASA mission to rescue its Swift Observatory from the brink has relied on Virginia, with Northrop Grumman supplying the rocket and Wallops for where the...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Scientists studied the laughter of apes – and discovered something incredibly human-like

Sound doesn't leave a fossil record behind, making it difficult to trace the origins of song, speech and language – but researchers have found a way.

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimps, And Bonobos All Laugh Just Like Humans. That Means We’ve Been Chuckling This Way For 15 Million Years

Ever wondered what it's like to tickle an ape? Turns out, they bloody love it, and lose their minds laughing just like we do.

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

To Reveal the Rhythmic Roots of Laughter, Just Tickle an Ape

A study of chimps, gorillas and other great apes, including human children, sheds light on how laughter has evolved.

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Apes and humans have been sharing a laugh for 15 million years

Great apes may have been laughing with a similar rhythm to modern humans for at least 15 million years, a University of Warwick study reveals.

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

'F9' took a car into space, but 5 years on, just how ridiculous was the scene? We asked the experts

Even Universal Pictures thought it was silly when Fast & Furious took a car into space in 2021. Pump the brakes on the jokes, though, as the experts reveal...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

What really controls water chemistry in nanoscale spaces

Water is the most studied molecule on Earth, yet a surprisingly basic question has gone unanswered for decades: When water is squeezed into gaps just a few...

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Every Homo naledi we know of is female, and the implications are fascinating

There is no natural explanation," says paleoanthropologist John Hawks.

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Tiny water droplets transmutate aniline into pyridine in ambient and catalyst-free conditions

Water microdroplets convert aniline into pyridine at the air–water interface under ambient conditions, without added catalysts, oxidants, or extra reagents.

5 0 0

Science • Jun 25

How an ancestral shift to eating more meat changed the course of human history — for the better

Our prehistoric ancestors experienced a rapid growth spurt between 2 and 2.5 million years ago, coinciding with increased meat consumption and more...

5 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Astronomers find 2 gigantic planets lighter than cotton candy: "Comparable to a nice blob of shaving foam"

The featherweight pair — orbiting a star 1110 light-years away — are the biggest exoplanets found to have less density than cotton candy.

5 0 0

Science • Jun 25

The dark side of living on the moon

NASA has published its latest plans for a moon base, but do they have too much gravity? Will Wiles looks for more delight in the details.

4 0 0

Science • Jun 25

A thermodynamic approach to gravity could explain cosmic acceleration without dark energy

Gravity, the force that attracts objects toward each other, is currently framed by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

5 0 0

Science • Jun 25

NASA to save Swift spacecraft from plunging back to Earth

NASA plans to save the Swift spacecraft with a rescue mission that will boost the spacecraft higher into orbit. Currently, its orbit is decaying quickly.

6 0 0

Science • Jun 25

Canceled NASA exploration projects suffered billions of dollars in overruns

Four NASA exploration projects that the agency stopped earlier this year as part of Artemis changes suffered overruns that saw their costs more than double.

7 0 0