Science

Egypt is famous for its gargantuan pyramids and the ancient mummies that are buried there. The ancient process of mummification to preserve a body has long fascinated people all over the world. Researchers have now been able to reconstruct the faces of three men who lived in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. Based on

Astronomy enthusiasts are celebrating World Space Week from October 4 to October 10. To make this event memorable for young girls and encourage them to consider a career in space research and STEM, the European Space Agency (ESA) has put a special Barbie doll — modelled after European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti — in zero-gravity at

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 crew carried out medical research during their space mission, talked to their family back on Earth, and enjoyed the company of a xenomorph, like those seen in Aliens. But they also took time out to capture the breathtaking views of the Earth through the huge glass dome named “cupola” on the SpaceX Dragon

A gigantic comet — one of the largest ever seen — is heading toward the solar system. The comet, named Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB), was discovered earlier this year and will reach its closest approach to the Sun in 10 years from now, around 2031. However, the comet poses no threat to the Earth. It is likely

ISRO’s commercial arm, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) on Friday announced its first “demand-driven” communication satellite mission as part of Space reforms announced by the Government in June last year. NSIL, incorporated in March 2019, got mandated to undertake operational satellite missions on a “demand-driven” model, wherein it has the responsibility to build, launch, own and

During monsoon, or even otherwise, there have been innumerable times that have we stepped out of our homes without an umbrella only to find the rain surprising us. To add to our troubles, on days even the weather forecasts have been bad at predicting the chances of rain and have let us down miserably. Now,

It appears the long-running feud between Elon Musk and fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos has surpassed the lower Earth orbit and gone extra-terrestrial. After Bezos’s Blue Origin challenged a NASA contract to Musk’s SpaceX for developing a lander to take astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, Musk called out Bezos on social

Wood is a bad conductor of electricity. But scientists in Switzerland have found a way to generate electricity using wood and it is said to be safe and not give a shock. They have developed a new type of wooden flooring that generates power when a person walks on it. As surprising as it may

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has given new insights into Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Researchers have noticed that the speed of the winds in the massive planetary storm has increased over the last decade. This observation came after the analysis of Hubble’s regular “storm reports”. The average speed of the winds near the boundary has increased by

Dinosaurs roamed Earth millions of years ago but little was known about them outside the scientific community till the early 90s. Interesting details about these prehistoric reptiles are now being discovered after studying dinosaur fossils. One of these fossils has revealed that a strange dinosaur with spiky, armored skin lived around 150 million years ago.

Astronomers at NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered at least six early galaxies, massive in size, which were “dead” when the universe was about 3 billion years old. These galaxies had run out of cold hydrogen, something necessary for the formation of stars. With no fuel to form

NASA is developing an augmented reality (AR) application for astronauts to enable them to inspect and maintain equipment on the International Space Station (ISS) without needing assistance from ground control. This, the agency hopes, will reduce the impact of communication delays between the ISS crew and NASA mission control in Houston, Texas, US. While the

William Shatner, 90, is reportedly going to become the oldest person to fly into space on board Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket. Shatner, who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in the popular Star Trek franchise, is set to be part of the second crew to fly into space in the New Shepard capsule in July.

Engineers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, US, have designed electronic microchips that can fly. These flying microchips, or microfliers, are the size of a sand grain and can fly without any motor or engine, much like a maple leaf or air-borne seeds of plants. These are the smallest-ever human-made flying structures. The microflier’s aerodynamics

Google accused India’s antitrust regulator in court on Friday of being a “habitual offender” by leaking confidential information of cases it was examining, an accusation the watchdog rejected. The Times of India and Reuters reported on Saturday that an investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had found that Alphabet’s Google abused the dominant

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-led Team CoStar is set to participate in the Subterranean Challenge finals that are scheduled to be held this week. The challenge involves a demonstration of multi-robot autonomy in a series of tests in extreme environments. According to NASA JPL, Team CoSTAR will be among the eight teams that will be

Infosys on Wednesday announced a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop quantum computing capabilities and use cases. Infosys will use Amazon Braket to explore and build multiple use cases in quantum computing as part of Infosys Cobalt cloud offerings. Amazon Braket is a fully managed quantum computing service that helps scientists and developers get

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk delivered what no previous human missions to outer space could. The company took four civilian crew members to outer space in a spacecraft with no professional astronauts on board and returned them safely to Earth after three days. While the successful mission was an encouragement to others attempting something similar, the

There is a renewed focus on space, which has turned into a new frontier for humanity to conquer. While several nations are sending missions to outer space – as far as Mars – colonising either the Moon or Mars is understandably difficult. Besides logistical issues, there are practical problems. For example, transporting one brick to Mars can

A recent finding at a beach in southern Spain suggests that the region may have been a nursery for an extinct species of elephant thousands of years ago. Fossilised footprints of ancient straight-tusked elephants have been found in the coastal site of Huelva, a region that the scientists call the Matalascanas Trampled Surface. Footprints and

NASA on Monday announced it would land an ice-seeking rover on a region of the Moon’s south pole called the Nobile Crater in 2023. The space agency hopes the robot will confirm the presence of water ice just below the surface, which could one day be converted into rocket fuel for missions to Mars and

COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent stay-at-home scenario forced people to renew focus on themselves and choose healthy options over a sedentary lifestyle. Some people achieved great success in losing that extra flab but others were a little less successful. What could be the reason behind this discrepancy? While there could be several variables — including

The Department of Space (DoS) has entered into a Framework MoU with aerospace startup Agnikul Cosmos for access to ISRO facilities and expertise towards the development and testing of subsystems/systems of space launch vehicles. The MoU will enable the company to undertake multiple tests and access facilities at various ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) centres

Three days into SpaceX’s all-civilian Inspiration4 mission, the crew has appeared in videos and images having a great time aboard the Dragon capsule. Apart from doing research while going around Earth, the crew members have live-streamed their zero-gravity ukulele performance and phone call with their colleagues back home. However, it seems they have an “extraordinary”

The first space tourism mission by Elon Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Florida on Wednesday and the four crew members — a billionaire and three other Americans — have already seen more than 25 sunsets and sunrises. SpaceX has released few details about their adventure since they reached an orbit which is more distant than

Three Chinese astronauts returned to earth on Friday after a 90-day visit to an unfinished space station in the country’s first crewed mission since 2016. In a small return capsule, the three men – Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo – landed safely in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia in the north of

SpaceX’s all-civilian Inspiration4 crew spent their first day in orbit conducting scientific research and talking to children at a pediatric cancer hospital, after blasting off on their pioneering mission from Cape Canaveral the night before. St Jude tweeted its patients got to speak with the four American space tourists, “asking the questions we all want

Australia’s two most populous states are trialling facial recognition software that lets police check people are home during COVID-19 quarantine, expanding trials that have sparked controversy to the vast majority of the country’s population. Little-known tech firm Genvis said on a website for its software that New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, home to Sydney,

Blood tests are vital for diagnosis and monitoring a number of diseases. In many rural areas, people have to travel a significant distance to reach the nearest health care facility to get their blood samples tested. Sometimes, this results in a delay in detecting serious diseases. But if two Indian researchers have their way, this

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 is scheduled for launch on September 15 at 8:02pm EDT (5:32am IST on September 16). Netflix will livestream the lift-off of the all-civilian mission starting 7pm EDT (4:30am IST on September 16). The livestream will be shown via Netflix’s YouTube channel. SpaceX will take four people onboard its spacecraft and will orbit the

A new discovery in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) takes inspiration from one of the simplest marine creatures in the world — the sea slug. AI is in a constant state of growth, trying to improve and be more efficient. A simple sea slug has helped researchers break new grounds. Researchers from Purdue University,

For decades, people across the world have wondered if there was a possibility to bring back the hundreds of species lost to extinction. Now, a group of scientists and entrepreneurs has come together to create a company that will work on technology to achieve this. Software entrepreneur Ben Lamm, who is known for his penchant

SpaceX is set to launch four people into space Wednesday on a three-day mission that is the first to orbit the Earth with exclusively private citizens on board, as Elon Musk’s company enters the space tourism fray. The Inspiration4 mission caps a summer that saw billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos cross the final frontier, on