Science

Scientists at Radboud University report that over the last 27 years, flying insect biomass has plummeted by 75 percent in Germany. The findings serve as a wakeup call given the current climate of accelerating decline in insect populations reported all over the world. Insects play a crucial role in ecosystem functioning, pollinating 80 percent of wild plants and providing a …

ANCIENT Egypt may have collapsed due to “social stress” caused by climate change and volcanic eruptions, a new study has claimed. The study shows that the ancient civilisations – ruled by the pharaohs for thousands of years – was plagued by droughts and other natural disasters. Around 70% of the current world lives in regions that similarly rely on monsoons …

Scientists from Concordia University Research Chair in Nanoelectronics and Quantum Materials have made a breakthrough that could help your electronic devices get even smarter. Andrew McRae, the paper’s lead author, explains the research. “Our study sheds light on problems engineers face when building molecular nanoelectronics, and how they might be able to overcome them by harnessing the quantum nature of …

If you’ve ever wondered which toothy predator would come out victorious in an alligator versus shark face-off, you can consider your curiosity satisfied. A recent research published in the journal Southeastern Naturalist documented the stomach contents of more than 500 alligators taken over a period of 10 years. The study was conducted by Kansas State University’s James Nifong and his …

When it comes to planning missions to Mars and other distant locations in the Solar System, the threat posed by radiation has become something of an elephant in the room. Whether it is NASA’s proposed “Journey to Mars“, SpaceX’s plans to conduct regular flights to Mars, or any other plan to send crewed missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), long-term …

Penn State astronomers has been instrumental in the confirmation of a scientific theory that gamma ray bursts are caused by the merging and explosion of two neutron stars. On Aug. 17, astronomers in charge of Mission Control for NASA’s Swift satellite received a message that LIGO — the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory — had detected a possible event: that of …

Whale and dolphin societies are rich, complex and remarkably “human-like,” scientists argue in a new paper published this week in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. The study was a collaboration between scientists at The University of Manchester, The University of British Columbia, Canada, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Stanford University, United States.

Only two Adélie penguin chicks out of a colony of 40,000 in Antarctica survived what researchers are calling a “catastrophic breeding event.” WWF is demanding greater protections of the waters off East Antarctica next week at a crucial international meeting in Hobart, Australia where proposals for a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) will be considered. Surviving mostly on a diet …

Researchers studying the massive supervolcano under Yellowstone Park have bad news: It could erupt much faster—and sooner—than they previously realized. The supervolcano last erupted around 630,000 years ago, and scientists believe such eruptions were triggered by the influx of new magma into its large chamber. However, where previously scientists thought that process took place over thousands of years, new evidence …

NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have announced a new partnership for human exploration of the moon and deep space. In other words, NASA is most likely going back to the moon, and probably going to Mars, all with the help of the Russians. Or so the two outfits claim. The move to partner with Russia on manned missions …

Carrying almost three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted Russian Progress 68 cargo spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Russian Federal Space Agency’s (Roscosmos) automated Progress 68 resupply ship lifted off atop a Soyuz rocket at 4:46 a.m. EDT (0846 GMT), beginning a weekend chase of the space …