Tag: science

World’s record-breaking temperature streak extends through April

May 8, 2024 admin

The world just experienced its hottest April on record. File (Image used for representation purpose only) | Photo Credit: Reuters The world just experienced its hottest April on record, extending an 11-month streak in which every month set a temperature record, the European Union’s climate change monitoring service said on May 8. Each month since…

World

Pfizer reports patient death in Duchenne gene therapy study

May 8, 2024 admin

Pfizer’s gene therapy trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy resulted in a young patient’s death. File | Photo Credit: Reuters A young patient died due to cardiac arrest after receiving Pfizer’s experimental gene therapy being tested in a mid-stage trial for a muscle-wasting disorder called Duchenne muscular dystrophy(DMD), the drugmaker told Reuters on May 7. “A…

Science

Why NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future

May 1, 2024 admin

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this decade to 2040. The mission would be the first to try to return rock samples…

Science

Understanding of Earth’s flowering plants blossoms in genome study

April 25, 2024 admin

Flowering plants – from corn, wheat, rice and potatoes to maple, oak, apple and cherry trees as well as roses, tulips, daisies and dandelions and even the corpse flower and voodoo lily – are cornerstones of Earth’s ecosystems and essential for humankind. | Photo Credit: Reuters Flowering plants – from corn, wheat, rice and potatoes…

Science

Huge energetic flare from magnetic neutron star detected

April 25, 2024 admin

An artist’s impression of a type of neutron star called a magnetar. Magnetars are the cosmic objects with the strongest magnetic fields ever measured in the universe. | Photo Credit: Reuters Magnetars are among the universe’s most extreme objects – a class of the compact stellar remnants called neutron stars that possess immensely strong magnetic…

Science

Astronomers unravel the mystery of the ‘Dragon’s Egg’ nebula

April 12, 2024 admin

The nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg, a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a pair of stars called HD 148937, is seen in this undated handout image taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Cerro Paranal, Chile. | Photo Credit: Reuters Two large…

Science

Chilling out instead of blowing off steam better to manage anger, review of 154 studies says

March 27, 2024 admin

Anger is a common emotion with potentially destructive consequences. From physical confrontations to road rage incidents, anger is widely seen as a problem and an emotion that people should try to rein in. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Some commonly recommended tactics for managing anger, including hitting a punching bag, jogging and cycling, aren’t effective at…

Science

Could tardigrades have colonised the Moon?

March 12, 2024 admin

Just over five years ago, on 22 February 2019, an unmanned space probe was placed in orbit around the Moon. Named Beresheet and built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, it was intended to be the first private spacecraft to perform a soft landing. Among the probe’s payload were tardigrades, renowed for their ability to survive…

Science

What is a GPU? An expert explains the chips powering the AI boom, and why they’re worth trillions

March 12, 2024 admin

As the world rushes to make use of the latest wave of AI technologies, one piece of high-tech hardware has become a surprisingly hot commodity: the graphics processing unit, or GPU. A top-of-the-line GPU can sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and leading manufacturer NVIDIA has seen its market valuation soar past US$2 trillion as demand for…

Science

Study of polyglots offers insight on brain’s language processing

March 12, 2024 admin

In a new study involving a group of polyglots, the brain activity of the participants was monitored using a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging as they listened to passages read in various languages. Image for Representation. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto While most people speak only one language or perhaps two, some are proficient…

Science