The night sky occasionally offers a reminder that the Solar System is far from empty. Bright comets appear with glowing tails, while reports of passing asteroids often make headlines. Although the two are frequently mentioned together, they are not the same kind of object. Both are remnants from the earliest stages of Solar System formation,…
Sixty metres beneath one of southern Africa’s driest landscapes lies a world that seems strangely detached from everything above it. The surface of the Kalahari Desert is defined by heat, sparse vegetation and long stretches of rocky ground, yet hidden underneath part of this vast region is a body of water so large that it…
Astronomers have catalogued more than five thousand planets orbiting distant stars, and a handful of them defy almost everything scientists thought they knew about how planets should look or behave. Using telescopes like Hubble, James Webb, and ground-based observatories such as Gemini South, researchers have found worlds so strange that they initially seemed implausible: a…
Every year, the dairy and tofu industries generate enormous quantities of protein-rich liquid waste that mostly gets thrown away. Scientists at ETH Zurich have now found a use for it that has nothing to do with food. Researchers led by materials scientist Raffaele Mezzenga extracted proteins from this waste stream, assembled them into tiny porous…
The Arctic does not often give up its secrets quickly. Ice, distance, and long stretches of darkness have a way of preserving stories that would disappear elsewhere. As reported by The New York Times, in 2007, one such story surfaced from the body of a bowhead whale harvested during a subsistence hunt in Alaska. Hidden…
Albert Szent-Györgyi (Image: Wikipedia) The word research usually brings a very specific image to mind. White coats, laboratories, journals filled with dense writing, long processes that feel far removed from everyday life. It feels structured, almost distant. Something formal that belongs in academic spaces rather than ordinary thinking.Albert Szent-Györgyi’s quote shifts that picture slightly. It…
A cargo ship crossing the North Pacific encountered a powerful storm that swept several shipping containers into the ocean. One of those containers carried 28,800 plastic bath toys consisting of yellow ducks, blue turtles, red beavers, and green frogs. What appeared to be a routine shipping accident soon turned into one of the most unusual…
David Eagleman (Image: Wikipedia) There is something slightly unsettling in the way David Eagleman puts this idea. It does not sound like a dramatic statement at first, more like a passing observation, but it stays in the mind longer than expected. The thought is simple enough on the surface. People do not just exist as…
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may one day become one of humanity’s most valuable destinations beyond Earth. A recent NASA-supported study led by planetary scientist Conor A. Nixon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center examined Titan’s vast resource potential and how it could support future human exploration. Drawing on decades of observations from missions such as…
For centuries, honey bees have fascinated scientists with their ability to travel long distances, locate food and return unerringly to their hives. Now, a new study has revealed an even more remarkable skill hidden in plain sight. Researchers from the University of Freiburg have discovered that individual honey bees follow their own highly consistent flight…
Isro chairman V Narayanan (Right) NEW DELHI: Isro chairman V Narayanan has revealed that the space agency is collaborating with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to develop an advanced artificial heating system for future lunar landers that can operate for up to 200 Earth days on the surface of the Moon.The announcement is important…
Climate change is often framed as a story of ecological loss, but scientists have uncovered an unexpected consequence unfolding nearly 2,500 metres beneath the Arctic Ocean. As glaciers in Greenland and parts of the Russian Arctic destabilise, increasing numbers of debris-laden icebergs are drifting through the Fram Strait before melting and releasing vast quantities of…
