Science News

Australia confirms first case of H5N1 bird flu as virus reaches every continent

Australia was previously the only continent where the H5N1 bird flu strain had not yet been found.

How do flocking birds and schools of fish move?

Zenzizenzizenzic

Zenzizenzizenzic is an obsolete mathematical term coined by 16th-century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde to denote…

Faecal transplant makes the brains of old mice act young again

Older mice that received a faecal microbiome transplant from younger animals went on to have improved brain plasticity,…

We've found a mysterious substance on Titan and Pluto

Something is absorbing light on the surfaces of Pluto and Saturn’s moon Titan, and figuring out what it is could be…

Amateur may have cracked Linear A, a 120-year-old puzzle

Tom Di Mino, a self-taught AI engineer and amateur linguist, claims to have deciphered Linear A, a 3,000-year-old Minoan…

Rocket Report: Rebuild begins at Blue Origin launch pad; Relativity targets Mars

A French launch startup is scrapping the name of its rocket, apparently due to a trademark issue.

Gas from Uranus reveals it has an icy centre

Carbon monoxide in Uranus's deep atmosphere indicates that the planet contains more ice than rock, suggesting it formed…

As global warming threatens corals, scientists search for reefs that can take the heat

Researchers say these coral strongholds may help repopulate more degraded reefs.

Can prebiotics, probiotics or postbiotics help your ageing microbiome?

The disruption of your gut microbiome is a major consequence, and possible cause, of ageing.

DARPA Heavy Life Challenge

DARPA's Lift Challenge seeks innovative drone designs capable of carrying payloads more than four times their own…

Ice Water Drowning Survival After 147-Minute Submersion and Hypothermic Arrest

A Figure-Eight in Deep Space: Hubble Image Shows Gravity Warping Distant Galaxies

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured MACS0329-0211, a massive galaxy cluster whose gravity bends distant light…

A bold satellite rescue mission came together in record time, but will it work?

"I consider this a success already, just from the fact that we're even going to try this."

Update on Ocean Observatories Initiative

The NSF has reversed its plan to scale back the Ocean Observatories Initiative, announcing it will halt further…

FDA advisors unanimously vote to approve Moderna's mRNA after agency drama

In February, a Trump official refused to review the vaccine.

NASA asks Northrop Grumman to stop working on lunar HALO module

"We are reassigning most affected employees across existing opportunities and programs."

Remarkable fossils rewrite the story of how animals conquered the land

Palaeontologists have found new evidence that the early ancestors of amphibians, reptiles and mammals did not have a…

Almost the whole of Japan moved eastward after 2011 earthquake

An extremely unusual tectonic movement took place 15 minutes after the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, causing almost the…

Waves reflecting off Earth's core shifted Japan after 2011 earthquake

An extremely unusual tectonic movement took place 15 minutes after the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, causing almost the…

Hunter-gatherers in Siberia died of a plague outbreak 5,500 years ago

We can't blame the Neolithic Transition for the plague anymore.

Cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyaev, 56, is first former ISS crew member to die

Two expeditions, two spacewalks, 322 days in space.

How Alberta Eradicated Rats

Alberta, Canada has remained rat-free for over 70 years—the largest rat-free area on Earth after Antarctica—by acting…

Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is still supremely relevant today

Beautifully written, this guide to distinguishing between truth, misinformation and lies, first published in 1995,…

Complex life on Earth may last 500 million years longer than expected

As the sun expands over the coming billions of years, Earth will become inhospitable to any life more complex than a…

Hospitals and universities repurposing drugs at 90% lower cost

Hospitals and universities are conducting late-stage clinical trials to repurpose existing drugs at costs up to 90%…

Seven Perfect Shuffles Randomize a Deck of Cards. But How Many Sloppy Ones?

Mathematicians have extended a decades-old proof about card shuffling to show that a "cutoff phenomenon" occurs even…

NASA picks Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for Mars mission, setting up a race with SpaceX

Relativity Space—a rocket maker acquired by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt last year after stumbling on the…

Bird flu kills more than 75% of baby seals on remote Australian island, study finds

Scientists say 13,000 southern elephant seal pups on Heard Island have died of the H5N1 strain.