Science

Most major archaeological discoveries begin with years of fieldwork, expensive expeditions and painstaking excavation. The discovery of Valeriana, a vast ancient Maya city hidden beneath the forests of southern Mexico, began very differently. Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane University, was searching online when he came across an obscure LiDAR dataset buried deep in…

Smoke detectors sit quietly on ceilings, usually ignored until something goes wrong. Most people only notice them when the test button is pressed or when a faint chirp signals a fading battery in the middle of the night. Yet these small plastic discs have become a standard fixture in homes and public buildings, shaped by…

For weeks, a young humpback whale named Timmy became the focus of one of Europe’s most unusual wildlife dramas. After entering the Baltic Sea, an area where humpback whales are rarely seen, the animal repeatedly stranded on shallow sandbanks along Germany’s coast. His struggle triggered an emotional public response, divided marine experts and ultimately led…

The problem of how life evolved on Earth has intrigued the minds of many great scientists for centuries. Now, according to an exciting study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists from Harvard University may be a step closer to figuring out how life on Earth was formed. Using their…

Bengaluru: South Korean space AI company TelePIX has signed an MoU with Bengaluru-based space propulsion firm Bellatrix Aerospace to jointly develop a next-generation Earth observation (EO) satellite designed to operate in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), with a technology demonstration mission targeted for launch in 2028.The partnership will combine TelePIX’s high-resolution optical payload, Chouette, with…

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”Whether those words belong to the Dalai Lama, an ancient African proverb or simply to every exhausted human who has ever lain wide awake at 2 AM listening to that infamous high-pitched whine, the debate over its authorship continues. What…

What appears to be an ordinary cemetery in upstate New York has turned out to be home to one of the most remarkable pollinator discoveries in recent years. Researchers from Cornell University have found an estimated 5.5 million mining bees living beneath East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, New York. The vast underground aggregation of native…

PC: Manchester Museum, BBC The landscape around Wilmslow appears unremarkable at first glance. Commuter trains pass nearby, housing estates edge ever closer to open ground, and modern Cheshire carries on with little hint of the distant past beneath its feet. Yet hidden within this corner of north-west England lies a place that has repeatedly produced…

Scientists have achieved a remarkable feat by enabling mouse eyes to perform part of the photosynthetic process using specially designed eye drops derived from spinach leaves. The experimental treatment, developed by researchers at the National University of Singapore, was created to combat dry eye disease, a condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Rather than…

Ask almost anyone to name the highest point on Earth and the answer will likely be Mount Everest. Towering above the Himalayas at 8,848 metres (29,029 feet), Everest has long been celebrated as the world’s tallest mountain. Climbers dream of reaching its summit and geography textbooks have cemented its place in popular imagination.Yet there is…