Mars helicopter Ingenuity aces 21st Red Planet flight

The Ingenuity helicopter’s Red Planet flight tally is up to 21. The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) NASA chopper just aced another Mars sortie, agency officials announced today (March 11). “#MarsHelicopter can’t be stopped! Ingenuity successfully completed its 21st flight on the Red Planet. The small rotorcraft traveled 370 meters [1,214 feet] at a speed of 3.85 … Read more

Don’t Miss: A new book exploring how AI can help us speak whale

Visit True Crime meets research at this New Scientist event featuring writer Val McDermid, psychologist Mark Freestone and forensic investigator Niamh Nic Daeid. At London’s Conway Hall from 6.30pm on 16 March. Read How to Speak Whale is a question that has intrigued humans for centuries. Now that AI is helping us decode animal languages, … Read more

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey review: An emotive exploration of memory

Samuel L. Jackson’s streaming debut is touching, yet somewhat lacking in mystery and suspense Humans 9 March 2022 By Jon O’Brien Ptolemy Grey (Samuel L. Jackson) has advanced dementia, but a new drug changes everything Hopper Stone/Apple TV+ The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey Walter Mosley Apple TV+ “I GOT to set things right,” says … Read more

Beautiful images illustrate the dawn of modern botany

These delicately detailed representations of plants by a founding figure of modern botany are given a new lease of life in the book Leonhart Fuchs: The New Herbal Life 9 March 2022 By Gege Li Leonhart Fuchs Illustrator Leonhart Fuchs THESE delicately detailed representations of medicinal plants are the work of Leonhart Fuchs, a 16th-century … Read more

Creatures living in our cities are evolving in some surprising ways

From mosquitoes and rats to foxes and birds, the urban environment is transforming animals that live among us – but which new species should we expect next? Life 9 March 2022 By Rob Dunn Pigeons, as well as crows, jays and owls, are thriving in the urban jungle Bjorn Grotting/Alamy TO THE naturalist in me, … Read more

Ukraine invasion: Why hasn’t Russia waged an all-out cyberwar on Ukraine?

Is Russia holding off on cyberwarfare while it has troops in Ukraine, or are cyberattacks failing to land thanks to vast international efforts to protect the country? Technology 10 March 2022 By Matthew Sparkes People leaving the city of Irpin, Ukraine, on 10 March AFP As Russian forces built up near the Ukraine border at … Read more

Fix the Planet newsletter: Carbon capture power stations are back

Will gas power stations equipped with carbon capture and storage be the future of power plants in the UK? Environment 11 March 2022 By Adam Vaughan Keadby 2 gas-fired power station David Soulsby / Alamy This is Fix the Planet, the weekly climate change newsletter that reminds you there are reasons for hope in science … Read more

Toads: Amphibians surprise biologists by climbing trees

Citizen surveys have revealed that common toads often climb trees to hide in hollows or in nest boxes Life 11 March 2022 By Michael Le Page The European common toad (Bufo bufo) Henry Andrews The common toad is a rather rotund animal with short legs and an ungainly gait. It certainly doesn’t look like a … Read more

Drones and AI help find pebble-sized meteorite that landed in 2021

Locating meteorites on Earth’s surface is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but using AI to analyse images captured by drones pinpointed a tiny space rock in just four days Technology 11 March 2022 By Chen Ly The meteorite as seen by the drone and algorithm: the yellow box is 100 square centimetres … Read more

Covid-19: Iceland’s plans for herd immunity

Many countries have scaled back their coronavirus restrictions, but Iceland is going further with a plan to let infections spread Health 11 March 2022 By Clare Wilson A person cycles in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 3 September 2020 REUTERS / Alamy Like some other countries, Iceland has scrapped its remaining covid-19 restrictions. Unlike other nations, however, … Read more