Malaria-preventing bed nets save children’s lives—with impacts that can last for decades | Science

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Since the 1990s, bed nets impregnated with insecticides have been an invaluable tool for malaria prevention. Babies and young children who sleep under them are far less likely to die of the disease. But some scientists have worried this might increase the risk of contracting malaria later in life by preventing development of the immunity … Read more

SpaceX launches classified spy satellite for US military, lands rocket

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SpaceX sent a U.S. spy satellite to orbit today (Feb. 2) in the second of three planned launches over a four-day stretch. A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) NROL-87 payload lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today at 3:27 p.m. EST (2027 GMT; 12:27 p.m. local … Read more

Botched construction project damaged important dinosaur track site in Utah, paleontologists say | Science

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Paleontologists were dismayed this week to learn that early Cretaceous dinosaur prints at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite near Moab, Utah, were damaged during efforts by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to repair a boardwalk there. A backhoe ran over some of the more than 200 tracks at the site, one of the richest … Read more

Earth Has a New Asteroid Companion, but Not for Long

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In 2020, astronomers thought they’d found something incredible: the second so-called Earth Trojan asteroid ever seen. Now, a new team of researchers has confirmed that it’s real. Trojan asteroids are small space rocks that share their orbit with a planet, circling whatever host star that planet does in a stable orbit. While we have spotted Trojan asteroids … Read more

Reconstructed human spines may honor Peru’s defiled dead | Science

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In 2012, archaeologists were excavating a series of large stone tombs in Peru’s Chincha Valley when they found something none of them had ever seen before: human vertebrae threaded onto a reed, almost like a spinal abacus. Over the next 10 years, researchers found nearly 200 such remains in the same valley. At first, they … Read more

NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission rocket faces new delays

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NASA’s first Artemis moon mission will have to wait to launch.  The rollout for the agency’s Artemis 1 mission, the first flight of its Artemis program that will ultimately return humans to the moon, has been pushed back. NASA announced Wednesday (Feb. 2) that the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion capsule won’t … Read more

This scientist accused the supplement industry of fraud. Now, his own work is under fire | Science

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In 2013, a team led by Steven Newmaster, a botanist at the University of Guelph (UG), took a hard look at popular herbal products such as echinacea, ginkgo biloba, and St. John’s wort. The team published a study that used DNA barcoding—a system to identify species using small, unique snippets of genetic material—to test whether … Read more

Biden’s ‘reignited’ Cancer Moonshot would develop blood tests to detect cancer and vaccines to prevent it | Science

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To scientists’ relief, the “reignited” Cancer Moonshot to be formally announced today by President Joe Biden will not offer an unrealistic deadline for wiping out cancer. It instead sets a long-term goal of gradually reducing cancer deaths. The plan would focus research in several areas, including preventive vaccines and blood tests that screen for multiple … Read more

Meteorite Fragment Reveals an Extreme Asteroid Impact Hidden in Mars’ Ancient Past

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Evidence for an intense asteroid impact on Mars has been found in a Martian meteorite, which could alter the timeline for when the red planet might have been habitable. In a famous meteorite named NWA 7034, or ‘Black Beauty’, scientists discovered a shocked crystal of the mineral zircon, showing a feature only seen on Earth … Read more