METABLOKS / SCIENCE

Science - The Verge

House budget bill denies major increases for NASA to fund ambitious Moon program

An artistic rendering of astronauts on the Moon, mining resources. | Image: NASA House appropriators don't intend to substantially increase NASA's budget, potentially jeopardizing the agency's plans of sending astronauts back to the Moon by 2024. Today, the House Appropriations Committee released ...

12 minutes ago

Science - The Verge

House budget bill denies major increases for NASA to fund ambitious Moon program

Yahoo Science

Esa and Nasa line up satellites to measure Antarctic sea-ice

Aligning polar satellites will enable the first ever reliable maps of Antarctic sea-ice thickness.

36 minutes ago

Yahoo Science

Esa and Nasa line up satellites to measure Antarctic sea-ice

Yahoo Science

USA TODAY Interview: History-making astronauts aboard the International Space Station discuss return to Earth

After a stay that could last up to four months, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will depart the International Space Station and splash down in the ocean.

37 minutes ago

Yahoo Science

USA TODAY Interview: History-making astronauts aboard the International Space Station discuss return to Earth

Science - The Verge

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro at the Planalto Palace in Brasília, Brazil, on June 30, 2020. | Photo by Andre Borges/NurPhoto via Getty Images Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for COVID-19, he announced today. He is 65 years old. Over the weekend, he attended a US Independence ...

2 hours ago

Science - The Verge

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19

Science Daily

Our animal inheritance: Humans perk up their ears, too, when they hear interesting sounds

Many animals move their ears to better focus their attention on a novel sound. That humans also have this capability was not known until now. A research team now has demonstrated that we make minute, unconscious movements of our ears that are directed towards the sound want to focus our attention on. ...

2 hours ago

Science Daily

Our animal inheritance: Humans perk up their ears, too, when they hear interesting sounds

Science Daily

1.5 billion people will depend on water from mountains

Global water consumption has increased almost fourfold in the past 100 years, and many regions can only meet their water demand thanks to essential contributions from mountain regions. In 30 years, almost a quarter of the world's lowland population will strongly depend on runoff from the mountains. Only ...

2 hours ago

Science Daily

1.5 billion people will depend on water from mountains

Science Daily

Agriculture - a climate villain? Maybe not!

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims that agriculture is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases, and is thus by many observers considered as a climate villain.

2 hours ago

Science Daily

Agriculture - a climate villain? Maybe not!

Science Daily

Dopamine neurons mull over your options

Researchers have found that dopamine neurons in the brain can represent the decision-making process when making economic choices. As monkeys contemplated whether or not to choose an item, a subset of dopamine neurons transitioned from indicating the item's value to indicating the monkey's ultimate decision. ...

2 hours ago

Science Daily

Dopamine neurons mull over your options

Science Daily

Excitation of robust materials

So-called topological materials have special electronic properties, which are very robust against external perturbations. In tungsten ditelluride such a topologically protected state can be ''broken up'' using special laser pulses within picoseconds and thus change its properties. This could be a key ...

2 hours ago

Science Daily

Excitation of robust materials

Science Daily

Women's egg quality dependent on metabolic factors

Increasing the levels of a chemical found in all human cells could boost a woman's fertility and help select the best eggs for IVF.

2 hours ago

Science Daily

Women's egg quality dependent on metabolic factors

Science - The Verge

There's no quick fix for climate change

Illustration by Ana Kova It could take decades before cuts to greenhouse gases actually affect global temperatures, according to a new study. 2035 is probably the earliest that scientists could see a statistically significant change in temperature " and that's only if humans take dramatic action ...

2 hours ago

Science - The Verge

There's no quick fix for climate change

Singularity HUB

How Fake Viruses Can Help Us Make the Best Possible Vaccines

Roughly 15 years ago, in a seeming prank, a pair of smiley faces graced the cover of Nature, one of the world's preeminent science journals. Flash forward to today, and those smiley faces may be key to saving us from the Covid-19 pandemic?or other viral foes lurking in our future. The smiley faces were ...

3 hours ago

Singularity HUB

How Fake Viruses Can Help Us Make the Best Possible Vaccines

Science - The Verge

Tracing the link between your phone and the next pandemic

When humans cut their way through forests to dig up gold and other minerals that go into phones, computers, and other devices, they run the risk of being a catalyst for a phenomenon called 'spillover." That's what happens when a virus makes the leap from one species to another. It's how two-thirds ...

3 hours ago

Science - The Verge

Tracing the link between your phone and the next pandemic

Yahoo Science

Thousands of dead fish found floating in the Hudson River. Experts say they suffocated.

Atlantic menhaden are suffocating, Riverkeeper officials say, as heated up water and sewage drain oxygen from the Hudson estuary.

4 hours ago

Yahoo Science

Thousands of dead fish found floating in the Hudson River. Experts say they suffocated.

Science - The Verge

Sports bubbles are good places to study COVID-19

Practice courts inside the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida. | Photo by Joe Murphy / NBAE via Getty Images Sports are coming back in the United States, and as they do, professional leagues are creating conditions that researchers say are tailor-made to study COVID-19. They offer sizable groups of ...

4 hours ago

Science - The Verge

Sports bubbles are good places to study COVID-19

Science - The Verge

Uber launches on-demand grocery delivery in Latin America and Canada

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber is launching an on-demand grocery delivery service in Latin America and Canada, the company announced on Tuesday. It's Uber's first major move into the competitive world of online grocery shopping since acquiring Cornershop, a leading online grocery ...

5 hours ago

Science - The Verge

Uber launches on-demand grocery delivery in Latin America and Canada

Yahoo Science

Dinosaur ancestors 'may have been tiny'

Dinosaurs are thought of as giant creatures, but new work adds to evidence they started out small.

7 hours ago

Yahoo Science

Dinosaur ancestors 'may have been tiny'

New York Times Science

Could You Make a Snowball of Neutrinos?

You"ll need more than a few " say, 300 decillion. And good luck trying to throw it.

11 hours ago

New York Times Science

Could You Make a Snowball of Neutrinos?

Yahoo Science

Street traders losing 'right to shade' under trees

Traders in India are being denied the "right to shade" under trees, threatening food security.

18 hours ago

Yahoo Science

Street traders losing 'right to shade' under trees

New York Times Science

365 Elephants Died in Botswana. The Cause Is a Mystery

Some conservationists say the recent die-off in Botswana could be natural, but others expressed more concern.

23 hours ago

New York Times Science

365 Elephants Died in Botswana. The Cause Is a Mystery

New York Times Science

Spirit Bears' Hair Helps Reveal New Genetic Secrets

First Nations peoples along British Columbia's Central Coast led research to help preserve the area's white-furred Spirit bears.

1 day ago

New York Times Science

Spirit Bears' Hair Helps Reveal New Genetic Secrets

New York Times Science

DNA Linked to Covid-19 Was Inherited From Neanderthals, Study Finds

The stretch of six genes seems to increase the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus.

1 day ago

New York Times Science

DNA Linked to Covid-19 Was Inherited From Neanderthals, Study Finds

Singularity HUB

AI Behaving Badly: New Model Could Help AI Make More Ethical Choices

The ethics of AI is a hot topic at the minute, particularly with the ongoing controversies around facial recognition software. Now mathematicians have developed a model that can help businesses spot when commercial AI systems might make shady choices in the pursuit of profits. Modern AI is great at optimizing?finding ...

1 day ago

Singularity HUB

AI Behaving Badly: New Model Could Help AI Make More Ethical Choices

WIRED Science

The Epic Siberian Journey to Solve a Mass Extinction Mystery

A quarter-billion years ago, huge volcanic eruptions burned coal, leading to the worst extinction in Earth's history. Here's how scientists hunted down the evidence.

1 day ago

WIRED Science

The Epic Siberian Journey to Solve a Mass Extinction Mystery

WIRED Science

The UAE's First Mars Mission Is a Robo-Meteorologist

The United Arab Emirates is preparing to launch its first Martian satellite, Hope, which will search for clues to the Red Planet's atmospheric mysteries.

1 day ago

WIRED Science

The UAE's First Mars Mission Is a Robo-Meteorologist

Yahoo Science

DNA Linked to COVID-19 Was Inherited From Neanderthals, Study Finds

A stretch of DNA linked to COVID-19 was passed down from Neanderthals 60,000 years ago, according to a new study.Scientists don't yet know why this particular segment increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus. But the new findings, which were posted online Friday and have not yet been ...

2 days ago

Yahoo Science

DNA Linked to COVID-19 Was Inherited From Neanderthals, Study Finds

New York Times Science

The Pandemic's Big Mystery: How Deadly Is the Coronavirus?

Even with more than 500,000 dead worldwide, scientists are struggling to learn how often the virus kills. Here's why.

2 days ago

New York Times Science

The Pandemic's Big Mystery: How Deadly Is the Coronavirus?

Singularity HUB

TuSimple's Robot Big Rigs Will Automate Freight Coast to Coast

In 2016, an 18-wheeler jam-packed with cans of Budweiser made a beer run from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs?with no driver at the wheel. It was one small 120-mile jaunt for a robot big rig (and its maker, Otto), one giant leap for beer delivery. Four years on, TuSimple, another self-driving truck ...

2 days ago

Singularity HUB

TuSimple's Robot Big Rigs Will Automate Freight Coast to Coast

WIRED Science

Astronomers Are Uncovering the Magnetic Soul of the Universe

Researchers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a cosmological mystery.

2 days ago

WIRED Science

Astronomers Are Uncovering the Magnetic Soul of the Universe