Category: Science

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore ahead of the first crewed flight test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. | Photo Credit: PTI/File photo NASA has affirmed a plan it set last year to work with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in returning two astronauts from the International Space Station, saying it will do so “as soon as practical,”…

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The return capsule containing a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is seen shortly after touching down in the desert at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway, U.S., September 24, 2023. | Photo Credit: NASA/Reuters Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from…

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You’ve seen these crown bottle caps, haven’t you? A type of bottle cap that has almost become indispensable and are found in bottles across the globe, the crown bottle cap, though small, played a big role in revolutionising the bottling industry. American inventor William Painter was the head behind these crowns.  William Painter | Photo…

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Prevalence of underweight children was more rural schools, while obese children were from urban schools A genetic study of childhood obesity in about 6,400 school-going children aged 9-18 years has found that socioeconomic status significantly modulates the inherent genetic susceptibility to obesity. Unlike in the case of adult obesity, genetic studies to understand obesity in…

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Traditional approaches to prostate cancer screening involve blood tests, MRI, and biopsies. However, in addition to being uncomfortable, some of these procedures result in overdiagnosis of low-grade cancers. In a new study, researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center have clinically validated a previously developed urine test, which can potentially bypass these invasive procedures among…

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A worker fumigating a private building surroundings to control mosquitoes and to prevent spread of dengue, in Bengaluru A study that looked at dengue deaths and meteorological conditions in Pune during the period 2004 to 2015 using both statistical tools and machine learning methods found that temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity were associated with increased…

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Unlike land mammals, dolphins and other marine mammals have limited olfactory capabilities — their sense of smell is largely nonfunctional in aquatic environments. Researchers have therefore speculated that dolphins have other ways of sensing their surroundings and detecting food. A recent study has discovered that juvenile bottlenose dolphins have specialised receptors for detecting the fatty…

Read More “What sensory system do dolphins use to get mother’s milk?” »