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Virgin Galactic will organize private passenger trips to the space station for NASA

Richard Branson’s space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, will start coordinating private astronaut trips to the International Space Station for NASA — a new partnership aimed at increasing commercial use of the space agency’s orbiting outpost. Thanks to a new Space Act Agreement with NASA, Virgin Galactic is tasked with putting together a “new private orbital astronaut readiness program,” for the agency. That means finding companies or organizations with an interest in sending people to the space station — for ........

Moon may be much more metallic

The Moon might be more metallic than researchers thought. And that comes from no less a source than NASA. The scientists who operate the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft have found evidence about the distribution of iron and titanium oxides in the lunar subsurface which, they say, could aid in drawing a clearer connection between Earth and the Moon. Their findings are published in a paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Evidence points to the Moon as the product of a collision between a Mars-sized protopla........

The South Pole is warming at three times the global average, study says

The South Pole has been warming at more than three times the global average over the past 30 years, a new study has found. That could have huge implications for the melting of Antarctic ice sheets, marine life in the region and the rising of global sea levels. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday, sheds new light on the most remote region on Earth. While scientists have known for years that the outer regions of Antarctica is warming, they previously thought the South Pole, being located deep in its interior, was isolated from rising global temperatures. ........

Forget coronavirus, homoeopathy can’t cure anything. It’s a placebo, at best

A system of alternative medicine, homoeopathy courts deep popularity in India, so much so that many are known to believe that it’s an Indian system. According to the government, it’s the second most popular form of medicine in the country with as much as 10 per cent of the population relying on it. It claims to treat diseases for which allopathy, or Western medicine, currently offers no cure — from diabetes and psoriasis to polycystic ovary syndro........

Warming temperatures threaten hundreds of fish species the world relies on, study finds

As the planet's oceans and rivers warm, increased heat could pose a grave threat to the fish populations the world depends on by the end of this century. That's the alarming conclusion of a new study published Thursday in the journal Science. Among the species the authors said are at risk are some of the most commercially important species on Earth -- including grocery store staples like Atlantic cod, Alaska pollock and sockeye salmon, and sport fishing favorites like swordfish, barracuda and brown trout.........

You Can Spot These 5 Planets Along With the Moon on Sunday Without a Telescope

The universe in itself is perhaps the most magical place. On Sunday, July 19, 2020, one can spot Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn along with the moon in the sky. What is more interesting is the fact that you would not need any equipment to view this. All that you need to do is wake up at least an hour before the sunrise and watch the sky. According to a report published in Cnet, one may also be able to see this sight for a few subsequent days till July 25. ........

Rare Comet Neowise to be visible in India for 20 days | Check time and dates

A newly discovered comet C/2020 F3, also known as Neowise, which has been spotted from several parts of the world, will now be visible in India. Comet Neowise will be clearly visible in the north-western sky for Indian stargazers from Tuesday onwards, said Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium in Odisha. Neowise, the brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere in a quarter-centu........

Covid-19 lockdown cleared up the air, but harmful ozone levels increased. Here’s why

Around the world, Covid-19 lockdowns cleaned up the air as a plethora of economic activities were brought to a standstill. However, new research shows that while NO2 and PM2.5 levels plummeted during this period, pollution from ozone shot up. On Wednesday, the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said since the starting of the national lockdown on March 25, pollution from ozone in 22 mega and metropolitan cities in India “increased and even breached standards in several cities”. Ozone as a pollutant The highly reacti........

Explained: What are air shields that may protect passengers from infection on board flights?

A Seattle-based company Teague has come up with a device called an air shield that can fit on to existing air vents inside an airplane cabin, thereby reducing the risk of COVID-19 spreading inflight by regulating the air flows. As lockdowns are being lifted, international air travel is expected to resume slowly. In India, while domestic flights resumed on May 25, international flights will remain suspended till June 30. “T........

Astronomers unveil the magnetic field of the solar corona

While the world has been dealing with the corona virus pandemic, researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have been hard at work studying the solar corona, the outermost atmosphere of the Sun which expands into interplanetary space. This stream of charged particles radiating from the surface of the Sun is called the solar wind and expands to fill the entire solar system. The properties of the solar corona are a consequence of the Sun's complex magnetic f........

How Much Color Do We Really See?

An interesting new study from researchers Michael A. Cohen and Jordan Rubenstein suggests that our vision contains less color information than you’d think. Cohen and Rubenstein found that a large proportion of people failed to spot that an image contained major color distortions in their peripheral vision. The participants, all of whom had normal vision, were shown a series of images. Their task was to focus on the center o........

The History and Future of Telescopes on the Moon

If you are a Zinio, Nook, Kindle, Apple, or Google Play subscriber, you can enter your website access code to gain subscriber access. Your website access code is located in the upper right corner of the Table of Contents page of your digital edition. Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news Scientists have long eyed a solution: the farside of the moon. Because it always faces away from Eart........

Medical devices you ingest and forget

Medical devices can be inserted into the human gastrointestinal tract to treat, diagnose or monitor a range of disorders. The problem is you usually have to get them out again, which involves endoscopic surgery. US engineers may have a neat alternative, however. A team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it has come up with a way to make devices break down inside the body when exposed to light from an ingestible LED – and has tested it successfully in pigs.........

Scientist Shares How to Grow 5 Vegetables in a Single Pot & Save 90% Water

The luscious garden, that belongs to Dr Chandrashekhar Biradar, thrives with 50 types of natural fruits, flowers, and vegetables grown through multi-layer farming on his 50 square feet rooftop garden. It’s next to his kitchen. Some of the plants include tomatoes, cherries, Russian Persimmon, brinjals, peas, bananas, beans, chillies, okra, sweet potatoes, eggplant, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, gourds, cucumbers, spinach, salad greens, herbs, onions, peppers, radish, pumpkins, apples and so on.........

Devi Mahatmyam - An Ancient Hindu Text Encoding Profound And Futuristic Brain Science?

Neurologist explains what makes the ancient Hindu text Devi Mahatmyam an incredibly profound and futuristic work of philosophy and science. Neurosurgery, in many ways, can be considered the acme of Western science. In the fine operations performed on the microscopic structures of the brain, neurosurgery harnesses the Western mind’s aptitude for rigour, reproducibility, systematisation, and concreteness. Within neurosurgery, perhaps the most cutting-edge subfield is known as “functional” neurosurg........

How many satellites orbit Earth and why Space Traffic Mgmt is crucial

Have you ever wondered how many satellites orbit the Earth? According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which maintains a of active satellites in orbit, as of April 1, 2020, there were a total of 2,666 satellites in Space, of which 1,918 were in low Earth orbit (LEO). And this is only till April. Since then we have had many more launches. The busiest among the lot being SpaceX, which has been launching satellites at an av........

A new attempt to get water from the air

US and Korean researchers say they are a step closer to developing a practical way to extract drinkable water directly from the air, even in dry regions. The team unveiled the design for its solar-powered system in 2017 and updated it the following year, describing the work in a in the journal Nature Communications. It works, they say, by harnessing a temperature difference within the device to allow an adsorbent material – which collects l........

Indian-American teen wins $25,000 for her work on a potential COVID-19 treatment

A 14-year-old Indian-American girl has won a USD 25,000 young scientist challenge for a discovery that could provide a potential treatment for COVID-19. Anika Chebrolu, an eighth-grader from Frisco in Texas, won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, regarded as the US' premier middle school science competition, for her work using in-silico methodology for drug discovery to find a molecule that can selectively bind to the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 virus in an attempt to find a cure for the coronavirus pandemic, according to the 3M Cha........

India 'Very Inspiring', Its Research, Manufacturing Critical to Fighting COVID-19, Says Bill Gates

The research and manufacturing capabilities of India will be critical in the fight against COVID-19, said billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Monday. Addressing the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2020, Gates delved upon the difficulties in vaccine development and diagnostics of COVID-19. The American business magnate said India is “very inspiring” as it has made huge strides in improving the health of its people in the last two decades. “And now, India’s research and manufacturing will be critical to fighting C........

Indian Scientists Develop Synthetic Material That Opens Up Prospects Of Smart Materials For Energy And Biotech Sector

Indian scientists have developed a synthetic material that mimics the dynamic capability of living organisms to adapt to new environments by utilizing simple natural design principles to create complex networks. The new materials developed opens new avenues for smart materials because of their dynamic and adaptive nature. Hence, they would be useful as recyclable polymers for the energy and biotechnology sector, a Ministry of Science and Technology said on Saturday (17 October). Reduction–oxidation (redox) processes are central to many biological functions. Cellular functions like gr........