Science

Scientists at MIT have developed a new football-sized underwater robot that could soon help protect America’s ports. The robot can discreetly follow alongside a ship and perform ultrasound scans to search for smuggled contraband.

The world has lost 52 percent of its biodiversity since 1970, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced in a study released today on the state of our planet.

Professor Brian Cox has warned ‘human stupidity’ is the biggest threat to civilisation. The physicist, 46, said that the possibility of ‘catastrophic climate change’, ‘crop disease caused by a loss of biodiversity’ and ‘asteroid impact’ could wipe out mankind.

The evidence comes from a team of U.S. scientists who found remnants of a prehistoric clash in a slab of rock at the Chinle Formation in New Mexico. The battle, which occurred in the Triassic period about 210 million years ago, involved a semi-aquatic crocodile-like dinosaur called phytosaur and a large reptile called rauisuchid, and ended with the tooth of …

Mount Saint Helens is showing signs of reawakening as a preamble to erupting, reports the USGS ten years after the last sign of volcanic activity. Mount Saint Helens last erupted ten years ago, after recharging for about 19 years. Ewert says that’s a typical timeframe for a volcano to build itself back up. Some volcanoes, however, can sit quietly for …

Researchers have discovered a new bright orange dart frog species with a unique call in Donoso, Panama.

The Pacific Whale Watch Association says whale-watching boats have been reporting rare sightings of white-sided dolphins off the coast of Vancouver Island and the San Juan islands.

A new study claimed that the Stone Age people made their tools and weapons independently, instead of an earlier belief that migrating African tribes built them.

Federal EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says most of the conversation surrounding the proposed Clean Power Plan has been positive although the critics seem to be making a lot of noise.

But amid the gloom, one plucky species – the tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) – seems to have been bucking the trend. Now, scientists at the University of East Anglia appear to have worked out why.

Scores of people are presumed dead after 31 bodies were found by rescuers following the violent eruption of a Japanese volcano on Saturday. The hikers, which were discovered near the peak of Mount Ontake, were found in a state of “cardiopulmonary” arrest, according to police, while reports claim rescuers found them apparently not breathing with their hearts stopped.