Science

Traditional solar panels have transformed renewable energy, but they come with one major limitation, they are rigid, heavy and designed to sit on flat surfaces such as rooftops or solar farms. That makes them difficult to install on curved buildings, lightweight structures or unconventional designs. Researchers in the United States are now working on a…

For decades, Charon was often viewed as the quieter half of the Pluto system, a frozen world marked by craters, fractures and vast plains. Yet the surface photographed by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has continued to reveal hints that its history was far more dynamic than once thought.A new study published in Nature Communications, titled…

PC: National History Museum For more than a century, amber has helped scientists reconstruct vanished worlds by preserving tiny fragments of life that would otherwise have disappeared. Insects trapped inside these golden fossilised resins have revealed details about ancient forests across several continents, but South America remained a missing piece in that record. That changed…

Air filters trap biological particles along with ordinary dust and pollution, allowing laboratory sequencing to reveal environmental DNA Every breath you take carries an invisible record of the living world, and scientists have discovered a way to read it using ordinary air filters.By studying the tiny particles trapped inside standard air-quality monitoring equipment, researchers can…

As climate change drives temperatures higher, farmers are facing a growing challenge: protecting crops from extreme heat without reducing the sunlight they need to grow. Conventional shade nets can lower temperatures, but they also block visible light, limiting photosynthesis and potentially affecting yields. Researchers and engineers in Japan believe they have found a better solution….

For much of the year, the Black Sea appears exactly as its name suggests, a broad, dark body of water stretching between Europe and Asia. Yet every spring and early summer, parts of the sea take on a very different appearance. Vast swirls of pale blue and turquoise begin to spread across the surface, creating…

This Lost City carbonate tower was imaged during the National Science Foundation-supported project Return to the Lost City 2018. (Picture source: NOAA) Scientists have uncovered new evidence that helps answer one of the biggest questions about the mysterious Lost City hydrothermal field, a unique underwater ecosystem deep in the Atlantic Ocean. By drilling more than…

Prey accessibility, not abundance, may shape predator behavior in penguins For nesting penguins in Antarctica, finding food is no longer just about how many fish or krill are in the ocean. It is also about how difficult those animals are to catch.Scientists who tracked more than 6,000 penguin dives beneath Antarctic sea ice found that…

Quote of the day by Neil deGrasse Tyson (AI-generated image) A student who cheats is usually judged entirely on the act itself, without much thought given to what actually pushed them there. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist, pointed the question in a different direction. “When students cheat on exams it’s because our school system values…

Buzz Aldrin used nothing but a felt-tip pen to fix a broken switch and rocket Apollo 11 home from the Moon An ordinary felt-tip pen that helped save two astronauts from being stranded on the Moon has been sold at auction for $857,600.During the historic Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, Buzz Aldrin used the…