Category: Science

A new measurement of dark matter in the Milky Way has revealed there is half as much of the mysterious substance as previously thought. Australian astronomers used a method developed almost 100 years ago to discover that the weight of dark matter in our own galaxy is 800,000,000,000 times the mass of the Sun. “Stars,…

Earth is one of some 40 billion potentially habitable worlds in the galaxy — with about one new life-friendly planet forming every year, a study has revealed, adding that our Milky Way may be home to some 3,000 extra-terrestrial civilisations. However, what makes its difficult to reach out to them are vast distances. “We are…

With researchers maintaining that keeping astronauts in deep sleep is possible, the space explorers may very well be put in hibernation to significantly cut the cost of a manned expedition to Mars. The deep sleep – called torpor – would reduce the astronauts’ metabolic functions with existing medical procedures, Discovery News reported. “Therapeutic torpor has…

A significant fraction of our solar system’s water is older than the Sun – indicating that abundant, organic-rich interstellar ices should probably be found in all young planetary systems, says pioneering research. New work from a team including Conel Alexander from Carnegie Mellon University found that much of our solar system’s water likely originated as…

Although their immune system works very differently from that of adults, babies may be able to mount a stronger immune defence than previously thought, a study suggests. Contrary to what was previously thought, newborn immune T-cells may have the ability to trigger an inflammatory response to bacteria, the findings showed. “We found that babies have…

A protein therapy may soon offer a safe and effective alternative to chemotherapy that doctors today apply to try to slow or stop cancer from spreading. The experimental therapy has been shown to stop spread of breast and ovarian cancers in mice. The protein therapy disrupts the process that causes cancer cells to break away…

In Isaac Newton’s time, the terms “acceleration” and “second derivative” did not exist, so he could not have deduced F=ma, the second law of motion. This has been unscientifically credited to Newton, says a research paper. The paper “Isaac Newton, Leonhard Euler and F=ma” was written by Ajay Sharma, assistant director for education with the…

Humanity is at an evolutionary paradox — neither able to keep pace with man-made changes to the environment nor able to control constantly evolving pests and diseases, a leading paedetrician and scientist of New Zealand said Friday. “On the one hand some pathogens, cancers and pests are evolving faster than our ability to treat or…

The discovery of a new fossil of dolphin species belonging to an extinct family of dolphins has shed light on the history of the endangered Ganges and Indus river dolphins living today. It belongs to the rare squalodelphinids, small to medium-sized dolphins — until now found only in a few localities in Argentina, France, Italy…

The elusive Higgs boson, also called the “God particle” and discovered by scientists in 2012, has the potential to destroy the universe, eminent scientist Stephen Hawking has warned. The ‘boson’ is a sub-atomic particle named after the late Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. At very high energy levels, the Higgs boson could cause space and…

Do you often dream about extraterrestrial life beyond earth? NASA scientists are engaged in proving your dreams to be true. In a panel discussion held at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, experts outlined NASA’s road map to the search for life in the universe, an ongoing journey that involves a number of current and future…