Science

An astronaut caring for plants inside the Veggie growth chamber, part of NASA’s long-running research into producing fresh food during extended space missions. Growing fresh vegetables aboard the International Space Station has become a familiar part of NASA‘s efforts to support astronauts on long-duration missions. Now, researchers believe those same plants could take on a…

For centuries, honey bees introduced from Europe quietly became part of life across the Americas, pollinating crops and producing honey without drawing much attention beyond farms and gardens. That picture shifted during the second half of the twentieth century after an agricultural breeding project in Brazil took an unexpected turn. What began as an attempt…

A vial containing magnetic adsorbent material designed to remove microplastics, nanoplastics, some PFAS and other contaminants from wastewater. Scientists at RMIT University in Australia have built a reusable magnetic material that removed more than 95% of micro- and nanoplastics from water within one hour and showed early promise against some PFAS.The new water treatment technology…

Superworms, the larvae of Zophobas morio, are often used as animal feed Scientists tested pet-store ‘superworms’ on animal specimens and found the beetle larvae can clean skeletons for museums without harsh chemicals or bone damage.A common insect larva found in local pet shops is offering museums a safe, cheap, and gentle way to clean animal…

Empty seashells became new habitats 470 million years ago An international study led by scientists at the University of Tartu shows that about 470 million years ago, a major ecological change took place in the world’s oceans. For the first time, the hollow interiors of empty mollusc shells began serving as homes for small sea…

Nasa’s NISAR satellite has captured an unusual view of Antarctica, revealing a frozen landscape that appears to form the shape of a hummingbird from space. The striking pattern is not a feature simply carved by nature, but the result of a mountain interrupting the slow movement of glacier ice around it. Using advanced radar technology,…

Coffee is brewed billions of times every year, leaving behind mountains of damp grounds that are usually treated as little more than rubbish. Some find a second life in compost or gardening, but the overwhelming share is either burned or buried despite still containing a considerable amount of stored energy. The problem has never really…

Today, Mars is a cold, dry planet covered in dust, but scientists believe it looked very different billions of years ago, with a much thicker atmosphere, flowing rivers and lakes, and possibly even conditions that could have supported life. Over time, Mars lost most of that protective atmosphere, the planet cooled, and its water either…

Scientists working on Alpine glacier (AI-generated image) Scientists drilled 33 feet into ice and recovered a 2,000-year climate record, a frozen capsule that can reveal how the atmosphere breathed long before modern measurements.High on the Weißseespitze glacier in the eastern Alps, an international research team extracted an ice core barely 33 feet long that preserves…

Since the first planet beyond our solar system was confirmed in the 1990s, astronomers have gone on to catalogue more than 6,000 exoplanets, yet not a single moon orbiting any of them has ever been confirmed. That long, frustrating gap in the search for exomoons may have just gotten stranger rather than simpler. While studying…