News: Science

Latest News

Joe Biden Adopts a Rescue Dog Named Major
Joe Biden Adopts a Rescue Dog Named Major

Biden took 10-month-old Major home on Saturday

Justice Sotomayor on Kavanaugh Coming to the Supreme Court: 'The Nine of Us Are Now a Family'
Justice Sotomayor on Kavanaugh Coming to the Supreme Court: 'The Nine of Us Are Now a Family'

Sotomayor said she is not letting personal politics get in the way of working together

California cities now have the worst air pollution on Earth as smoke blows into town
California cities now have the worst air pollution on Earth as smoke blows into town

Oakland, a Northern California city with a population of over 425,000, had the worst air quality in the world Saturday morning. Wildfire smoke wafting over from the still-growing Camp Fire - by far the deadliest wildfire in state history - had inundated many heavily-populated California cities and towns with small bits of pollution thinner than the width of a human hair, called Particulate Matter 2.5, or PM 2.5. Berkeley Earth, a scientific climate organization, keeps tabs on air pollution around the globe. As of Nov. 17 at 9:30 a.m. ET, Oakland topped the global list with particle concentrations of 167 μg/m3  (meaning micrograms per cubic meter) - which are levels deemed "Very...

Climate change protests block London bridges
Climate change protests block London bridges

Hundreds of climate change protesters blocked London bridges on Saturday demanding a dramatic new environmental policy. "We've basically got three demands," said Gail Bradbrook, one of the organisers. People think that climate change is something happening to somebody else at some other time, but it's coming home.

Excavators find tombs buried in Bolivia 500 years ago
Excavators find tombs buried in Bolivia 500 years ago

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Archaeologists say they found tombs at a Bolivian quarry containing remains from more than 500 years ago that give an insight into the interaction of various peoples with the expanding Inca empire.

At a Peculiar Summit in Papua New Guinea, America Is Still the Odd One Out
At a Peculiar Summit in Papua New Guinea, America Is Still the Odd One Out

APEC delegates attack Donald Trump's trade war and protectionist policies

Climate change protesters block off 5 London bridges
Climate change protesters block off 5 London bridges

Hundreds of protesters have turned out in central London and blocked off the capital's main bridges to demand the government take climate change seriously. Metropolitan Police said emergency vehicles were hampered from getting across London because of the "blockade" of five bridges. The force said it had asked all protesters to congregate at Westminster Bridge where officers can facilitate lawful protest.

Rural America Is the Real Prison in Showtime's Escape at Dannemora
Rural America Is the Real Prison in Showtime's Escape at Dannemora

The real protagonist of director Ben Stiller's seven-part miniseries based on the 2015 prison break is the fugitives' tailor shop supervisor Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell, who provided them with the contraband tools they used to carve a path to freedom.

Cygnus cargo ship launches to ISS
Cygnus cargo ship launches to ISS

Wallops Flight Facility (United States) (AFP) - An unmanned Cygnus cargo ship blasted off Saturday toward the International Space Station, marking the second supply mission in 24 hours destined to carry food and supplies to the astronauts living in space.

Sumatran elephant found dead with missing tusks in Indonesia
Sumatran elephant found dead with missing tusks in Indonesia

A Sumatran elephant has been found dead with its tusks removed in an apparent poaching case targeting the critically endangered animal, an Indonesian conservation official said Friday. The 10-year-old male's rotting corpse was found in Blang Awe village in Aceh province earlier this week. "His tusks were missing and there were traces of blood in the location where he was found," Aceh conservation centre head Sapto Aji Prabowo told AFP.

France braces for travel turmoil as
France braces for travel turmoil as 'yellow vests' take on Macron

French drivers seething over high fuel prices have vowed to snarl traffic across the country Saturday in a widely supported protest that could prove the trickiest so far for President Emmanuel Macron. Anger over fuel costs, blamed on taxes imposed by Macron to fight pollution, has been simmering for months, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas where public transport is patchy. "Nobody thinks about the people on the city fringes, in the provinces, in rural areas," said Priscillia Ludosky, a business manager in a Paris suburb who launched an online petition last May which now has more than 850,000 signatures.

Russian Soyuz blasts off for ISS in first launch since accident
Russian Soyuz blasts off for ISS in first launch since accident

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An unmanned rocket carrying cargo blasted off into space on Friday in the first launch of a Russian-made Soyuz-FG rocket from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome since a dramatic aborted launch in October.

26-year-old face transplant recipient:
26-year-old face transplant recipient: 'I see me': Part 1

When he was 24, Cameron Underwood says he was looking for a way out when he decided to try to take his own life.

Vale ordered to pay tribes $26.8 mn over river contamination
Vale ordered to pay tribes $26.8 mn over river contamination

Brasília (AFP) - A Brazil appeals court on Friday ordered mining giant Vale to pay two indigenous tribes $26.8 million over river contamination that harmed public health, the prosecutors' office said Friday. The Onca Puma nickel mine in Brazil's northern Para state, in operation for a decade, is blamed for contaminating the Catete river, which prosecutors said had a "severe" impact on the Xikrin and Kayapo tribes. In a statement, the prosecutors' office said the contamination affected food availability and the Xikrin tribe's drinking water.

Inmates Fighting California Wildfires Are More Likely to Get Hurt, Records Show
Inmates Fighting California Wildfires Are More Likely to Get Hurt, Records Show

Three inmates have died fighting fires in the last two years

Stacey Abrams Ends Challenge Against Republican Brian Kemp for Georgia Governor
Stacey Abrams Ends Challenge Against Republican Brian Kemp for Georgia Governor

Stacey Abrams Ends Challenge Against Republican Brian Kemp for Georgia Governor

Stacey Abrams Ends Challenge Against Republican Brian Kemp for Georgia Governor
Stacey Abrams Ends Challenge Against Republican Brian Kemp for Georgia Governor

Abrams had hoped to become the first black governor of the Deep South state

44 years after its first message to aliens, Arecibo Observatory calls for follow-up
44 years after its first message to aliens, Arecibo Observatory calls for follow-up

The Arecibo Observatory today kicked off a student-focused competition to design a new message to beam to extraterrestrials, 44 years to the day since the first deliberate message was sent out from Arecibo's 1,000-foot-wide radio telescope.. "Our society and our technology have changed a lot since 1974," Francisco Cordova, the observatory's director, said in a news release. "So if we were assembling our message today, what would it say? What would it look like? What one would need to learn to be able to design the right updated message from the earthlings? Those are the questions we are posing to… Read More

Why Architecture Education Needs to Embrace Evidence-Based Design, Now
Why Architecture Education Needs to Embrace Evidence-Based Design, Now

Two professors argue for the importance of neurological research in design

Fight over dinosaur fossils comes down to what
Fight over dinosaur fossils comes down to what's a mineral

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - About 66 million years after two dinosaurs died apparently locked in battle on the plains of modern-day Montana, an unusual fight over who owns the entangled fossils has become a multimillion-dollar issue that hinges on the legal definition of "mineral."

A mother
A mother's decision to donate son's face: How doctors approach, support families

Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, a renowned reconstructive surgeon at NYU Langone Health who performs face transplant surgeries, shares how 3-D printing of the donor's face is used to help the family cope.

'You Were Busy': Trump Marvels At Antonin Scalia's Large Brood At Medal Ceremony
'You Were Busy': Trump Marvels At Antonin Scalia's Large Brood At Medal Ceremony

Editor's Note: We'd like to remind readers that they are choosing to read this

Shocked Squirrel and Shy Owl Shine in Wildlife Comedy Photos

Animal subjects delivered comedy gold in photos that were recently honored by the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, and a very surprised-looking squirrel stood out, earning its photographer the title of Comedy Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018. Thousands of photographers submitted their amusing animal images to this year's contest, and the winners were announced yesterday (Nov. 15) on the competition's website. The photo "Shocked Squirrel," captured by American photographer Mary McGowan, received not only the top prize of best overall photo, but also nabbed the Affinity Photo People's Choice Award and Alex Walker's Serian Creatures of the Land Award, contest officials said in a...

President Trump Honored GOP Megadonor Miriam Adelson
President Trump Honored GOP Megadonor Miriam Adelson

President Donald Trump will today present the nation's highest civilian honor to Miriam Adelson, one of the Republican Party's pre-eminent megadonors.

Amputee Sea Turtle Swims Again Thanks To New Prosthetic Fin
Amputee Sea Turtle Swims Again Thanks To New Prosthetic Fin

This is the heartwarming scene as a disabled sea turtle happily swam for the first time after being given a prosthetic flipper.

Is Nancy Pelosi's Fight to Become Speaker Again a Referendum on Gender?
Is Nancy Pelosi's Fight to Become Speaker Again a Referendum on Gender?

"Women are more likely to be victimized by this than men"

They Fled the Nazis as Children. Now They Want Their Adopted Homeland to Welcome Other Refugees Too
They Fled the Nazis as Children. Now They Want Their Adopted Homeland to Welcome Other Refugees Too

The "Kindertransport" saved the lives of some 10,000 Jewish children from Central Europe in 1938 and 1939

Russia
Russia's 'perfect' launch of cargo ship to space station clears way for crew's trip

Russia successfully launched an uncrewed Progress cargo spaceship today to the International Space Station, using a Soyuz rocket similar to the one that malfunctioned last month. No issues arose during the craft's ascent to orbit from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, boosting mission managers' confidence that the malfunction had been addressed and that a crewed Soyuz launch planned for next month could proceed. "A perfect 8-minute, 45-second flight on a brisk day over in Baikonur," NASA launch commentator Gary Jordan said after the 10:14 a.m. PT launch. The Soyuz rocket failure on Oct. 11 triggered an abort sequence that forced NASA astronaut… Read More

It's Going to Take More Than Background Checks and AR-15 Bans to Stop Mass Shootings
It's Going to Take More Than Background Checks and AR-15 Bans to Stop Mass Shootings

Terror cannot become hopelessness

New discovery shows glass made from exploding stars
New discovery shows glass made from exploding stars

An international team of scientists said Friday they had detected silica -- the main component of glass -- in the remnants of two distant supernovae billions of light years from Earth. Researchers used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to analyse the light emitted by the collapsing mega-cluster and obtain silica's "fingerprint" based on the specific wavelength of light the material is known to emit. A supernova occurs when a large star burns through its own fuel, causing a catastrophic collapse ending in an explosion of galactic proportions.

This Is Why Pluto Is Not a Planet
This Is Why Pluto Is Not a Planet

As Joni Mitchell pointed out, "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone." Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Solar System. Sure, day to day, most of us probably don't think much about the massive celestial bodies that share this corner of the universe with us. Pluto, once the smallest of the nine planets in the Solar System, was also the most recently discovered, spotted by 23-year-old astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.

Organized Crime Lurks Everywhere in My Brilliant Friend. Here's the Real Story of the Rise of the Naples Underworld
Organized Crime Lurks Everywhere in My Brilliant Friend. Here's the Real Story of the Rise of the Naples Underworld

The bestselling novels, now an HBO series, tell a story not only of friendship, but also of the influence of organized crime in Naples

Judge Orders White House to Reinstate Press Credentials for CNN
Judge Orders White House to Reinstate Press Credentials for CNN's Jim Acosta

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the White House press credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta.

How much does a kilogram weigh? Depends on your
How much does a kilogram weigh? Depends on your 'Planck constant'

Since 1889, a kilogram has been defined by a shiny lump of platinum-iridium kept in a special glass case and known as the International Prototype of the Kilogram. It is housed at the headquarters of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (whose French acronym is BIPM), just outside Paris. Members of the BIPM, which groups some 60 nations, agreed on Friday after a week-long meeting at the nearby Palace of Versailles to redefine a kilogram in terms of a tiny but unchanging value called the "Planck constant".

Volkswagen to spend 44 bn euros on
Volkswagen to spend 44 bn euros on 'electric offensive'

German auto giant Volkswagen said Friday it will invest 44 billion euros by 2023 in the smarter, greener cars of the future as it ramps up efforts to shake off the "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal. Over the coming five years, VW said it aims to spend "almost 44 billion euros" ($50 billion) on electric, self-driving and connected cars as well as mobility services like car sharing. The figure represents roughly a third of the group's planned expenditure between now and 2023, and the bulk of it will go on developing e-cars, VW said following a supervisory board meeting on future strategy.

Data storage needs drive CERN to Google
Data storage needs drive CERN to Google

This week Google announced that the company will be joining CERN openlab, a partnership that will lay the foundation of future research in cloud computing, machine learning, and quantum computing. The biggest scientific laboratory also produces the largest amount of data. Over the next couple years as the LHC evolves, the "computing capacity required would be around 50-100 times higher than today," which means data storage needs will be up to an order of magnitude more -- of exabytes -- an amount that Google enthusiastically stepped up to the plate to manage.

Scientists applaud and weep as cylinder that has been the world
Scientists applaud and weep as cylinder that has been the world's sole true kilo since 1889 is retired

In a historic vote, nations on Friday unanimously approved a ground-breaking overhaul to the international system of measurements that underpins global trade and other vital human endeavors, uniting behind new scientific definitions for the kilogram and other units in a way that they have failed to do on so many other issues. The redefinition of the kilogram, the globally approved unit of mass, was the mostly hotly anticipated change. For more than a century, the kilogram has been defined as the mass of a cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy kept in a high-security vault in France.

What to Know About Tanzania's Anti-LGBT Crackdown
What to Know About Tanzania's Anti-LGBT Crackdown

There has been an international outcry and the World Bank withdrew a $300 million loan to Tanzania on Thursday

See San Francisco Almost Disappear Behind Wildfire Smoke in These Viral Photos
See San Francisco Almost Disappear Behind Wildfire Smoke in These Viral Photos

Photos show that San Francisco is covered with a cloud of smoke from the Camp Fire

How to Make Friends as a Middle-Aged Man, Even if the Idea Makes You Feel Weird
How to Make Friends as a Middle-Aged Man, Even if the Idea Makes You Feel Weird

Actually usable advice, from a fellow middle-aged man

Netanyahu battles to save weakened ruling coalition
Netanyahu battles to save weakened ruling coalition

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party denied Friday that he had decided to call a snap election, as he battled to keep the government afloat after his defence minister quit over a Gaza ceasefire. Netanyahu's ruling coalition was left with a single seat majority in parliament after the walkout on Wednesday by Avigdor Lieberman and his hawkish Yisrael Beitenu party. Netanyahu held crunch talks on Friday with his other main right-wing rival, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, whose religious nationalist Jewish Home party has threatened also to quit unless he is given Lieberman's job.

The U.S. Military Had to Clean Up After the Jonestown Massacre 40 Years Ago. What the Crew Found Was 'Beyond Imagination'
The U.S. Military Had to Clean Up After the Jonestown Massacre 40 Years Ago. What the Crew Found Was 'Beyond Imagination'

On Nov. 18, 1978, followers of Pentecostal leader Jim Jones drank cyanide-laced punch. The U.S. military was left to deal with the aftermath

Newly Uncovered Greek City May Be Legendary Home of 'Trojan War' Prisoners
Newly Uncovered Greek City May Be Legendary Home of 'Trojan War' Prisoners

Archaeologists have uncovered portions of the ancient Greek city of Tenea, whose residents claimed they were prisoners of the Trojan War, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced this week.

The Latest: Landmark change to kilogram approved
The Latest: Landmark change to kilogram approved

The international system of measurements has been overhauled with new definitions for the kilogram and other key units. At a meeting in Versailles, France, countries have voted to approve the wide-ranging changes that underpin vital human activities like global trade and scientific innovation. Until now, it has been defined as the mass of a platinum-iridium lump, the so-called Grand K, that is kept in a secured vault on the outskirts of Paris.

Jair Bolsonaro's threat means we academics have to be overtly political
Jair Bolsonaro's threat means we academics have to be overtly political

How science can resist in times of Bolsonism.

Waste not: South Africa makes world
Waste not: South Africa makes world's first human urine brick

In one of the latest innovations in the search for eco-friendly building materials, South African university researchers have created bricks using human urine. The first of their kind in the world, the bio-bricks hold out the prospect of a sustainable alternative to standard clay and concrete bricks, they hope. With a grant from a government-run Water Research Council, the feasibility study was launched last year using synthetic urea.

UK supermarket
UK supermarket's viral orangutan ad slammed by palm oil giant

A British supermarket chain's viral commercial about an orangutan left homeless because of deforestation from palm oil planting was slammed as a cheap publicity stunt by a major industry body on Friday. The Christmas ad -- which features a cartoon orangutan telling a little girl that its jungle home had been destroyed -- has racked up millions of views on social media and sparked the trending hashtag #NoPalmOilChristmas on Twitter. The multi-billion-dollar palm oil industry was not impressed by the Iceland ad, dubbed "Rang-tan", which calls for consumers to be aware of the environmental impact of the world's most widely used vegetable oil.

Scientists
Scientists' Long Wait to Redefine the Kilogram Is Finally Over

For decades, scientists have known that the kilogram has a weight-loss problem. Other units, such as the meter, also drew on nature for their definition: the first meter was supposed to be one ten-millionth of the length from the North Pole to the equator but for practical purposes was defined in 1799 by a reference bar of metal kept in Paris.

Senators Introduce a Bill Seeking Answers to the Murder of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Senators Introduce a Bill Seeking Answers to the Murder of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

It calls for a "transparent, credible" investigation into the dissident journalist's murder

Cambodian Court Convicts Former Khmer Rouge Leaders of Genocide in Historic Ruling
Cambodian Court Convicts Former Khmer Rouge Leaders of Genocide in Historic Ruling

The court convicted Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan of atrocities including genocide

Top News: Science

© Copyright Daily Magazine
facebook
Hit "Like"
Don't miss any important news
Thanks, you don't need to show me this anymore.