Travel through wormholes is possible, but slow
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA HARVARD physicist has shown that wormholes can exist: tunnels in curved space-time, connecting two distant places, through which travel is possible. But don’t pack your bags for a trip to other side of the galaxy yet; although it’s theoretically possible, it’s not useful for humans to travel through, said the author of the study, […]
Formation of the moon brought water to Earth
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHE Earth is unique in our solar system: It is the only terrestrial planet with a large amount of water and a relatively large moon, which stabilises the Earth’s axis. Both were essential for Earth to develop life. Planetologists at the University of Münster (Germany) have now been able to show, for the first time, […]
Big energy savings for tiny machines
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIN a ground-breaking study, a team led by SFU physics professor David Sivak demonstrated for the first time a strategy for manipulating these machines to maximise efficiency and conserve energy. The breakthrough could have ramifications across a number of fields, including creating more efficient computer chips and solar cells for energy generation.
Exotic matter in the sun’s atmosphere
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSCIENTISTS from Ireland and France have announced a major new finding about how matter behaves in the extreme conditions of the Sun’s atmosphere. The scientists used large radio telescopes and ultraviolet cameras on a NASA spacecraft to better understand the exotic but poorly understood “fourth state of matter.” Known as plasma, this matter could hold […]
Fossil teeth from Kenya solve ancient monkey mystery
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHE teeth of a new fossil monkey, unearthed in the badlands of northwest Kenya, help fill a 6-million-year void in Old World monkey evolution, according to a study by U.S. and Kenyan scientists published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery of 22-millionyear-old fossilised monkey teeth — described as belonging to […]
Shrinking Moon may be generating moonquakes
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHE Moon is shrinking as its interior cools, getting more than about 150 feet (50 meters) skinnier over the last several hundred million years. Just as a grape wrinkles as it shrinks down to a raisin, the Moon gets wrinkles as it shrinks. Unlike the flexible skin on a grape, the Moon’s surface crust is […]
Aluminum found around young star
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRESEARCH from University of Tokyo/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency using ALMA data discovered an aluminum-bearing molecule for the first time around a young star. Aluminum rich inclusions found in meteorites are some of the oldest solid objects formed in the Solar System. The discovery of aluminum oxide around a young star provides a crucial chance to […]
Breastmilk sugars differ in pregnant women on probiotics
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHE complex sugars found in human breastmilk, long believed to be fixed in their composition, may change in women who are taking probiotics, according to new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). The finding, published in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics, upends what scientists thought of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) —the […]
Release of Wolbachia infused mozzies help in war against dengue
Reading Time: 2 minutesMALAYSIA’S long standing battle against the dengue health menace is showing some initial sign of victory – with the release of Aedes mosquitoes infused with the Wolbachia bacteria into the environment. According to local media reports, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes is seeing a downward trend in infection rates […]
HIV eliminated from the genomes of living animals
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIN a major collaborative effort, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) have for the first time eliminated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA — the virus responsible for AIDS from the genomes of living animals. The study, reported online July 2 in the journal Nature […]