Science

Physical exercise offers a wide range of benefits for the human body. Scientists might now be closer to figuring out how to deliver the benefits of exercise in just a single pill. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have identified a molecule produced after an intense regimen of physical exercise, which is responsible for reducing

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has just come across a “shiny bit of foil” stuck in the rock crevices of the Red Planet. The rover, which was sent to the planet to discover signs of past life, has served us with a photo of the mysterious object. The Perseverance team believes it knows what this material

Elon Musk pitched a vision Thursday to Twitter staff of a one-billion-user platform, but was hazy on potential layoffs, free speech limits and what’s next in his chaotic buyout bid. The Tesla chief talked of letting people say pretty much whatever they want on Twitter while at the same time keeping it a friendly place

Scientists have discovered the fastest-growing black hole in the last 9 billion years. The black hole, which sends multi-wavelength light blazing across the universe, shines 7,000 times brighter than the entire Milky Way galaxy. Due to this, it is also known as a quasar. For those who don’t know, quasars are one of the brightest

In a rare cosmic observation, a sun-like star destroyed its planetary system while dying, leaving behind a white dwarf star. The dead star is now consuming both icy and rocky-metallic material which forms the planets. The discovery was made by analysing archival data from NASA’s Hubble Telescope and other observatories of the American space agency.

Astronomers and researchers have been in constant search for finding life on other celestial bodies. A team of scientists earlier pointed at the possibility of the existence of life in the clouds of Venus. In 2020, scientists revealed that they had found phosphine gas in the cloud of Venus, sparking speculation about the possibility of

Plants too can make “secret decisions.” Surprised to hear that? Well, researchers have found in a new study that plants have an unforeseen set of processes that they use to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere during photosynthesis. The discovery was made while studying a classic plant model organism called thale

Our human brain performs a variety of activities and functions throughout the day. The temperature of human brain keeps changing throughout out the day. Now, according to new research, the normal temperature of the human brain swings significantly more than previously assumed, and this could be an indication of good brain function. The study states that

Analyzing light from some distant objects in space, a team of astronomers have presented a clearer picture of one of the key events in the formation of our universe. It turned out that the cosmic dawn ended a lot later than the astronomers had thought. After the Big Bang explosion set the stage for the

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU Singapore) have discovered a way to make biocement from trash, making it a greener and more sustainable alternative to ordinary cement. Biocement is a type of renewable cement that binds soil into a solid block by using bacteria to induce a hardening reaction. Biocement has now been

Jupiter is usually acknowledged as the solar system’s oldest planet. Scientists, however, want to know how long it took to create. A new study states that the planet’s metal concentration and distribution suggest that Jupiter ate a lot of rocky planetesimals when it was young. Since the Juno spacecraft reached Jupiter in July 2016 and

In the latest and fascinating find, astronomers have detected a rare kind of cosmic object in the Milky Way galaxy. The object named MAXI J1816-195 is found to be emanating X-ray light that was first detected on June 7. It was captured using the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) of the Japanese Space Agency.

Scientists have good news with regards to Antarctica. A secret ecosystem has been thriving under the icy surface and the discovery was recently made. Researchers have found this “hidden world” beneath the Larsen Ice Shelf. Footage reveals a dark cavern-like space filled with swarms of tiny, shrimp-like creatures. The Larsen Ice Shelf is a massive

In what could mark a major step toward solving the problem of freshwater scarcity, scientists have developed a device that filters saltwater a thousand times faster than conventionally used devices. On the industrial scale, seawater is made fit for drinking through the desalination process. It includes removing salt to produce fresh water that is further

Contradicting a previously accepted theory, scientists have concluded that the inner core of the Earth oscillates and results in variations in the length of the day. With the Earth’s structure divided into layers, the inner core is found at the centre followed by the outer core, lower mantle, upper mantle crust, and then atmosphere. It

The Sun is riddled with mystery. People on Earth are about 150 million kilometres away from the Sun and only have a limited view of the star. Add to that the fact that the Sun’s surface is scorching hot, and it’s constantly ejecting particles at a speed of around 1 million miles per hour. So,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the headquarters of the Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), set up to promote private investment and innovation in the space sector. The government has initiated reforms in the space sector and opened it up for private sector, Modi said, speaking at the inaugural event in Ahmedabad.

The detection of a new and strange fast radio burst originating from a galaxy located 3 billion light-years away has left astronomers puzzled. Fast Radio Burst or FRB are bursts of radio waves in space that are milliseconds long. Usually, these radio bursts occur and don’t repeat. However, in the latest observation, the radio burst

NASA is a step ahead to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Scientists are certain that the icy moon has a vast ocean under the frozen outer shell. To explore the possibilities on this moon, NASA is launching the Europa Clipper Mission. Recently, the team delivered a major component of this mission. The main body of

According to a study, devices made of commonly available oxide and carbon-based materials can manufacture pure hydrogen from water for weeks. The discovery could aid in overcoming one of the major challenges in solar fuel production: present earth-abundant light-absorbing materials are limited in terms of performance or stability. The move to full decarbonisation and the

Astronomers have detected two big, unexplained objects erupting from the universe’s brightest black hole. The supermassive black hole 3C 273 was discovered in a 1959 survey of cosmic radio-wave sources as a quasar (quasi-stellar object). The light emitted by these black holes is brilliant enough to be mistaken for starlight. Scientists have spent decades studying

A 190-feet wide asteroid is going to approach Earth soon and NASA has already announced its approach. To give you some perspective, the asteroid is larger than the Colosseum (157 feet) situated in Rome. According to the space agency, the asteroid will make its closest approach to our planet on Wednesday, June 8. It isn’t

For the first time, scientists have constructed simulations that directly mimic the whole life cycle of some of the greatest collections of galaxies discovered 11 billion years ago in the distant universe. Cosmological simulations are essential for understanding how the universe came to be the way it is today, but many of them do not

A new study based on asteroids that collided with Earth has given some of the turmoil a chronological frame. Astronomers believe asteroids have remained virtually unchanged since their genesis billions of years ago in the early solar system. However, not all asteroids stayed intact. Repeated collisions gradually robbed the insulating mantles of their iron cores,

Alzheimer’s disease has long been a challenge for scientists to figure out its causes. But a new study has offered some hope. The study, conducted on mice, suggests that “poisonous flowers” bulging with the cellular debris could be the main cause of this disease. The study challenges the long-standing idea that the build-up of a

With an upgraded supercomputer and strategic modelling program, a team of geologists have successfully forecasted a volcanic eruption in the Sierra Negra volcano five months before it took place. The volcano forecasting modelling program was set up in 2017 by geology professor Patricia Gregg and her team. They installed the program on the Blue Water

NASA is set to launch a probe to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 10 that will monitor climate change on Earth. Named Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), this probe will study the composition of mineral dust from Earth’s arid regions and how the desert dust carried through the atmosphere affects the

In a step that may help achieve better network connectivity in the near future, scientists have developed a beam-steering antenna that enhances data transmission beyond 5G standards. This will give access to a range of frequencies for mobile communications that were earlier out of reach. With the size of an iPhone, the beam-steering antenna has

A team of international researchers from the US and the UK have received a grant of $750,000 to develop portable, rapid biosensors capable of detecting noroviruses and mycotoxins in foods and agricultural products. The researchers say noroviruses are the leading cause of foodborne illness globally and are highly contagious. They cause a pandemic every few

Making use of artificial intelligence, a team of scientists from the Boston College have shed light on the differences in the behaviour of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and its link with neuroanatomy. Autism or ASD is a complicated condition that is characterised by difficulties with communication and behaviour including problems with social interaction,

Researchers have achieved something that is simply out of a science fiction movie. For the first time, they have linked isolated groups of particles — known as time crystals — into a single, evolving system that could be incredibly useful in quantum computing. A team of physicists, working together under Lancaster University’s Samuli Autti, have

Online travel firm MakeMyTrip on Thursday said it has partnered with Climes, a climate-tech startup backed by Sequoia, to introduce carbon neutralisation options when booking a flight through its platform. Flyers who booked tickets through MakeMyTrip will find an option to neutralise carbon emissions via a link on their e-ticket from June 5 — World Environment

In the early 2000s, a new set of data brought down the chemical abundances on the solar surface. It was in contradiction to the numbers predicted by the traditional models used by astrophysicists. While these new abundances were frequently contested, they survived the scrutiny for several years. Though doubts lingered, these data appeared to be