We may finally be able to test one of Stephen Hawking’s most far-out ideas

We may soon be able to test one of Stephen Hawking’s most controversial theories, new research suggests. In the 1970s, Hawking proposed that dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most matter in the cosmos, may be made of black holes formed in the earliest moments of the Big Bang.  Now, three astronomers have … Read more

We May Finally Have The Basis of a Dog Allergy Vaccine

Scientists are working hard to make pet-related sneezes and sniffles a distant memory, and there’s promising news from researchers analyzing the potential for a vaccine against dog allergies.   In what’s being described as a first step in developing such a vaccine, a team in Japan has identified certain parts of molecules that may be … Read more

JWST: The James Webb Space Telescope is finally on its way into orbit

After numerous delays, the biggest space telescope ever has blasted off on Christmas Day, and will begin its science mission in mid 2022 Space 25 December 2021 By Leah Crane The James Webb Space Telescope sits atop an Ariane 5 rocket on the launchpad in French Guiana on 23 December P PIRON/ESA/CNES/Arianespa​ce The James Webb … Read more

30 years and $10 billion later, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally on the launch pad

NASA and the astronomy community have poured $10 billion and more than two decades into just one piece of machinery. Now they are facing the moment of truth. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, also known as Webb or JWST, is finally in French Guiana, perched atop its rocket, ready to bid farewell to Earth and … Read more

Crowds Can Cause Bridges to Sway Unnervingly, And We May Finally Know Why

You may have experienced an unsettling amount of swaying and wobbling if you’ve been on a bridge with large numbers of pedestrians traveling over it at the same time. Now, we have a fascinating new explanation for what causes this worrying movement in the structure.   Until now, the thinking went as follows: people fall … Read more

We Finally Have The First-Ever Analysis of Stardust Retrieved From The Ryugu Asteroid

It’s been over a year since the Hayabusa2 probe delivered its precious cargo of dust from an alien space rock, and we’re finally getting a more detailed glimpse of what makes up asteroid Ryugu.   In two papers published today, international teams of scientists have revealed that, in accordance with analyses conducted by the probe … Read more

We May Finally Know The Cause of ‘The Cow’, a Freakishly Exciting Space Explosion

The cause of a mysterious cosmic kaboom – so bright it led to the classification of a new type of space explosion – may have now been revealed. According to an analysis of the 2018 event, nicknamed “the Cow” (AT2018cow), it was likely an unusual kind of core-collapse supernova that led to the formation of … Read more

Methane’s climate impact was just one truth finally accepted at COP26

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque via Alamy One of the positives to come out of last month’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow was official recognition of the central role that climate science must play both in understanding and solving the problem. That might seem an odd thing to say – surely science has always been at the heart … Read more

We May Finally Know What Makes One of The World’s Largest Organisms So Tough

With massive webs of probing black tentacles extending for miles below the ground, the Armillaria group of fungi includes some of the largest known organisms on our planet.  An 8,500-year-old specimen of Armillaria ostoyae in Oregon covers 2,385 acres (3.7 square miles) with its mass of rhizomorph tentacles and is estimated to weigh roughly 7,500 … Read more