Two New Studies Just Outlined The Basics of Building an Interstellar Light Sail

For centuries, people have dreamed of being driven at speed across the vast oceans of space by winds of light. As whimsical as the idea sounds, nudging reflective sails slowly towards the speed of light using nothing more than the punch of photons might be our only plausible shot at reaching another star inside of … Read more

Lung cancer: Cheap blood test detects tumours at an early and treatable stage

Lung cancer screening has always been expensive, but a simple blood test that detects lipids associated with tumours may offer a cheaper alternative Health 2 February 2022 By Alice Klein Blood samples can now be used to search for early signs of lung cancer Medicimage/Alamy A blood test that can detect lung cancer before people … Read more

Super-Earths: Long-lasting radiation shields may make for life-friendly worlds

Life on Earth is made possible by our planet’s magnetosphere – an invisible radiation shield that protects the surface – now it turns out that super-Earths could have magnetospheres too Space 13 January 2022 By Alex Wilkins The laser system at the National Ignition Facility in California used to study iron’s properties Damien Jemison The … Read more

We May Have Seriously Underestimated How Hostile Conditions on Early Earth Were

Scientists have been doing some great work when it comes to peering back through billions of years to figure out what ancient Earth would have looked like, and a new study reveals that the earliest conditions on our planet were probably even more hostile than originally imagined.   In particular, researchers now think that we’ve … Read more