Japanese automaker Nissan on Wednesday unveiled its 2018 Leaf, a fully electric car boasting autonomous features and an improved driving range. The Leaf’s unveiling brings only limited surprises, having already been partly revealed and detailed through the usual media leaks. But, importantly for EV fans – and perhaps for detractors, too – today’s flood of data confirms the numbers brought …

Look up tonight! A powerful solar storm is sending radiation towards Earth that could spark a stunning display of the Northern Lights. On Monday the sun blasted out a huge cloud of superheated plasma known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). This fast-moving CME is expected to slam into Earth overnight Wednesday, triggering strong geomagnetic storms. Such storms often supercharge …

An Edmonton man is mourning the tragic death of his wife after she drowned while the two celebrated their 30-year wedding anniversary in Hawaii in late August. After enjoying themselves so much in Maui during their 25th wedding anniversary, Pat L’Hirondelle and his wife Debbie decided to return to celebrate another milestone. On the third day of vacation, they rented …

A new research has found that a particular bacterium (Kingella kingae) in children’s throats could be the cause behind deadly bone and joint bacterial infections. Bone and joint bacterial infections in children can have devastating effects on long-term mobility and can cause death. Previously, most infections were thought to be caused by Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Haemophilus influenzae type b bacteria …

Nicaragua is fighting to save its endangered tapirs from hunting and habitat destruction caused by climate change. Baird’s tapir is the largest indigenous mammal in Central America. It is a primitive animal that resembles the ancestor of rhinos and horses, and has changed very little in the last 35 million years. Characterised by a long, fleshy nose, like a shortened …

In 1977, NASA launched the twin Voyager spacecraft to traverse the far reaches of the solar system and beyond. Voyager 2 left on August 20, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5. The US spacecrafts Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched 16 days apart in August and September of 1977. Both the missions took advantage of a once-in-175-year alignment …

An Iowa astronaut who has spent nearly 9 and half months in space made her journey back to Earth on Saturday. Record-breaking US astronaut Peggy Whitson and two other members of the International Space Station crew have returned to Earth. Mrs Whitson has spent 665 days off the planet – 288 on this mission alone – exceeding the time spent …

A man has died after running into flames at the Burning Man festival in the US. Aaron Joel Mitchell, 41, broke through a two-layer security fence as the wooden effigy was set alight marking the end of the event in the Nevada desert. Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen told media Aaron Joel Mitchell broke through a human chain security cordon …

Observed water loss from the newly-discovered TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets is helping scientists to focus their search for habitable conditions in space. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble telescope to estimate whether there might be water on the surface of the seven planets around TRAPPIST-1, the researchers found that although the innermost planets must have lost most – if not all – of their …

Madonna has started her “next chapter!” The 59-year-old entertainer announced on Instagram that she has moved to Lisbon, Portugal to work on her upcoming new movie and new music. The pop star has been making her transition into the European country throughout the summer (17), with Portuguese magazine Visao reporting last month (Aug17) she has obtained a tax identification number …

Researchers from a project co-founded by Stephen Hawking have detected mysterious radio signals coming from another galaxy around three billion light years away. Science boffins committed to finding alien civilisations have picked up 15 repeated fast radio bursts (FRBs) from a galaxy three billion light years away from Earth. It is unclear if the signals came from black holes or …