The James Webb Space Telescope, decades in the making, is designed to travel nearly 1 million miles to reach a very particular spot to take up orbit. For comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope is about 340 miles from Earth. Shatner…
Continue ReadingBezos’ Blue Origin sends Strahan, five others to space
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin sent another crew to space on Saturday (12/11/21), the company’s third human spaceflight and the first with a full contingent of six people. The launch capped a historic year for space exploration and marked the 13th…
Continue ReadingRare Einstein manuscript sold for over $13M in auction
Albert Einstein typically threw out drafts of his paradigm-shifting work. But thanks to the Nobel Prize-winning scientist’s friend and collaborator, a rare, working manuscript “almost miraculously” survived to the present – and it sold for a hammer price of nearly…
Continue ReadingPig to Human Transplants
Scientists temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work, a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Surgeons attached the pig kidney to a pair…
Continue ReadingBioengineering to Enable Muscle-Powered Electromechanical Therapies
Researchers at the National Institute of Health’s (NIH’s) National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have developed materials that create electrical pulses when compressed by muscles in the body. “Piezoelectric materials such as ceramics and crystals have a special…
Continue ReadingSharing a rare bond with a sea creature
A unique story of connection,” is how South African filmmaker and naturalist Craig Foster refers to his underwater adventures with a wild common octopus documented in the film “My Octopus Teacher.” The Netflix film shows the bond that develops between…
Continue ReadingGiant Panda gave birth to two female twin cubs
PARIS A giant panda on loan to France from China gave birth to two female twin cubs early Monday (Aug 2, 2021), a French zoo announced, declaring “they are very lively, pink and plump.” The Beauval Zoo, south of Paris, said…
Continue ReadingDubai is paying scientists to make it rain
Facing a hotter future, dwindling water sources and an exploding population, scientists in one Middle East country are making it rain. United Arab Emirates meteorological officials released a video this week of cars driving through a downpour in Ras al…
Continue ReadingFirst Spacewalk by Chinese Astronauts
BEIJING Two astronauts on Sunday made the first spacewalk outside China’s new orbital station to set up cameras and other equipment using a 50-foot-long robotic arm. Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo were shown by state TV climbing out of the airlock…
Continue ReadingOffshore Windfarms Potential
The Department of Interior announced it will study the potential for offshore windfarms in the Gulf of Mexico to generate clean energy. The announcement comes just weeks after the Biden Administration approved the $2.8 billion “Vineyard Wind” farms off the…
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