[ad_1] The Moon visible from Duisburg, Germany in January 2020.Photo: Marcel Kusch / DPA / AFP (Getty Images) The Moon makes fun of us. It is very far away, which has historically protected it from the innate desire of the human species to desecrate it. Fortunately, NASA announced Thursday it …
Read More »Astronomers confirm that the mysterious object is NASA’s lost rocket missile from the 1960s
[ad_1] A second Centaur stage during assembly in 1962.Image: NASA An incoming object spotted by astronomers last August was confirmed as the upper stage of a Centaur rocket, which NASA launched in 1966 during an ill-fated mission to the moon. It’s a nice result, but it took some time to …
Read More »How hackers can trick unwitting scientists into producing dangerous genes
[ad_1] Photo: Juan Mabromata (Getty Images) In a new letter to the editor taken from the prestigious scientific journal Nature, a team of Israeli researchers asks a frankly absurd question: Could a computer hack lead a scientist to be tricked into creating a piece of genetic code that is harmful …
Read More »Neanderthals didn’t use their thumbs like modern humans do
[ad_1] Reconstructions of a Neanderthal man and woman. Photo: Martin Meissner (AP) An analysis of Neanderthal hand bones suggests that these extinct humans possessed the thumbs best suited for power take-offs, as opposed to precision grips, which could mean they used their hands differently to us. Researchers found fundamental physical …
Read More »Here’s what we know about the second “Minimoon” detected by Earth
[ad_1] The minimaon, as illustrated on February 15, 2020.Image: Catalina Sky Survey Spotted earlier this year, asteroid 2020 CD3 is only the second temporary natural satellite, or minimaon, ever detected around Earth. It didn’t last very long, but we learned some interesting things about our temporary mate and why a …
Read More »The asteroid Apophis has little chance of hitting us in 2068. Scientists are making plans
[ad_1] It is comforting to imagine that with space and ground-based telescopes pointed at the cosmos, we would be able to spot any dangerously sized asteroid heading towards us a mile away, with plenty of time to paint them white or detonate them. But for every asteroid we see coming …
Read More »Uber is reportedly looking to sell its self-driving division
[ad_1] Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images) Uber is in talks to sell its scandal–ridden the self-driving vehicle branch, Advanced Technologies Group, according to a Friday TechCrunch relationship. And it looks like Aurora Innovation, a startup founded by veterans of the self-driving vehicle industry, is the first in line to collect …
Read More »A wind chime-based dark matter detector seems odd enough to work
[ad_1] Illustration: Jim Cooke Dark matter physicists may have one of the most frustrating jobs in science. Their work deals with something that, according to almost all models of the universe, must exist. But we have never found any direct evidence for dark matter. Where other scientists can capture their …
Read More »Eli Lilly Covid-19 antibody drug granted FDA emergency clearance
[ad_1] Photo: Joe Raedle / Staff (Getty Images) A drug that has been shown to help prevent hospitalizations in high-risk patients already suffering from Covid-19 will soon be widely available, thanks to an FDA emergency clearance issued Monday evening for an antibody therapy manufactured by Eli Lilly & Co. . …
Read More »The second cable fails in Arecibo, causing even more damage to the famous SETI dish
[ad_1] Damage to the dish due to the August cable failure. Image: UCF today Another cable fell on the reflective dish of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, another frustrating setback for this beloved facility. The main support cable of the Arecibo Observatory failed and fell on the dish below …
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