Science

A new research reveals that outdoor air pollution may cause more than 3 million premature deaths per year worldwide. About 75 percent of those deaths occur in Asia, according to scientists, and the biggest killers are fires that people use for heating their homes and cooking. In the US, traffic pollution made the biggest contribution to global death rates while …

Since May 2015, the bodies of 30 whales have washed up on the shores of B.C. and Alaska, prompting marine biologists to unravel the mysterious die-offs. One B.C. researcher says climate change may be the link. Andrew Trites, a University of British Columbia professor studying the whale deaths, says the algae contains a neurotoxin has been contaminating the krill and …

NASA Video Shows What a Total Lunar Eclipse Looks Like From The Moon. The total eclipse of the moon this month isn’t the average moon-entering-Earth’s-shadow event. It’s the first time in more than three decades that a lunar eclipse coincides with a super moon.

Birds form relationships not unlike humans do: choosing a partner not based purely on objective aesthetic and performance standards, but on attraction and compatibility. In a study published in PLOS Biology today, Malika Ihle, Bart Kempenaers, and Wolfgang Forstmeier from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology described their speed-dating experiment with the bird most commonly found across central Australia. They …

Pew Research Center developed a general science quiz to test the pulse of Americans in areas they should remember from school and areas that have been in the news. Each question comes with multiple choice answers, so that helps. They conducted a study involving a 12-question quiz that tests common knowledge of science, covering topics like physics, geology and medicine. …

A decision about whether to list American eels, which spawn in Cape Ann streams, under the Endangered Species Act is expected from federal authorities by the end of the month. The California-based Council For Endangered Species Act Reliability wants the federal government to list the eels as threatened. A spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the decision …

The Sierra Nevada snowpack that is a critical water source for California fell to a 500-year low last winter – far worse than scientists had estimated and underlining the severity of the current drought, according to new research. For the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers compared the snowpack on April 1 with estimates from the last …

The first massive binary star, epsilon Lupi, in which both stars have magnetic fields has been discovered by a PhD candidate. A binary star is a star system consisting of two or more stars, orbiting around their common center of mass. Around 1/3 of stars in our Galaxy are thought to be in binary systems, where two or more stars …

Canadian teams have dominated the second edition of the biggest European competition for Mars rovers that took place on Sept. 5-6 at the Regional Science-Technology Centre in Podzamcze, Poland.

University of Michigan researchers announced that they have developed a method of keeping solar cells constantly turned towards the sun without the need for energy-heavy motors. The U Michigan engineers consulted with Matthew Shlian, a paper artist who also lectures at the university’s School of Art and Design. He showed them a kirigami pattern that would suite their purposes, which …

A rare juvenile dinosaur skeleton is going under the hammer in Sussex. The Allosaurus is the first predatory dinosaur skeleton and the first relatively complete juvenile Allosaurus skeleton to be sold in the UK. It was found in a quarry in Wyoming, and is in great condition. Getting the bones out of the ground was no easy task. Errol Fuller, …