'Bionic' plants can detect explosives

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 6:53 PM
Image copyright Getty Images Scientists have transformed the humble spinach plant into a bomb detector. By embedding tiny tubes in the plants' leaves, they can be made to pick up chemicals called nitro-aromatics, which are found in landmines and buried munitions. Real-time information can then be wirelessly relayed to a handheld device. The MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) work is published in the journal Nature Materials. The scientists...

Technology

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 2:51 PM
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Tesla shows off solar roof tiles

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 2:51 PM
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The new tiles look better than existing solar roofs, Tesla says Roof tiles with built-in solar panels have been unveiled by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk. The tiles, made from glass, are intended to be a more attractive way to add solar panels to homes, compared with currently-used solar technology. The launch took place in Universal Studios, Los Angeles, on what used to be the set for the...

There's No Need To Fear Gene-Edited Food

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 1:37 PM
Not since Alice in Wonderland’s hookah-smoking caterpillar doled out his weird wisdom atop a ­psychedelic-looking mushroom has the lowly fungus so upstaged the action. At most dinner tables, mushrooms are ancillary characters. But this past spring, the food and agriculture worlds became obsessed with one mushroom in particular: Agaricus bisporus, known as the white button mushroom—that all-purpose fungus you jam by the fistful into a plastic bag at the market and abandon in the fridge, only to find it slimy and brown several days later. Science...

A Shattered Mars Lander, An Iridescent Leaf, And More

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 1:37 PM
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Could the smell of the sea help cool a warming planet?

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 4:49 AM
Image copyright Eyewire Image caption Tiny bubbles get lofted into the air by the churn of the sea Ah, the summertime sizzle of a shell-strewn beach, the bracing odour of the briny sea. There's nothing quite like it really. If you happen to be on a beautiful beach, do take a good, deep, invigorating sniff! What does it remind you of? Amid the saltiness, a hint of sulphur perhaps? A slight edge of boiled cabbage? Or something even...

Lewis Pugh: Swimmer has Ross Sea talks with Russia

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 4:49 AM
Image copyright Kelvin Trautman Image caption Lewis Pugh has made long-distance swims in every ocean of the world After completing some record-breaking swims in Antarctica, Lewis Pugh flew to Moscow to discuss ocean conservation. The UK athlete and campaigner wanted to meet the Russian Minster of Defence to discuss the creation of a new marine reserve around the Ross Sea. Sergey Shoygu is also the president of the Russian Geographical...

World's largest marine protected area declared in Antarctica

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 4:49 AM
Image copyright John B. Weller Image caption Conservationists are delighted __that the Ross Sea has been designated a marine protected area Delegates from 24 countries and the European Union have agreed __that the Ross Sea in Antarctica will become the world's largest marine protected area (MPA). Some 1.57m sq km (600,000 sq miles) of the Southern Ocean will gain protection from commercial fishing for 35 years. Environmentalists...

The Wall of Storms

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 6:37 PM
In creating the silkpunk world of his novels, sci-fi author Ken Liu envisioned entirely new approaches to energy and technology. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula prizes, Liu recently shared his insights on creativity and energy tech in an interview with Nexus Media. Below, you can read an excerpt from his most recent novel, The Wall of Storms. They worked at a lab located inside a giant coastal cave. This facility was the brainchild of the head of the Imperial laboratories, Kita Thu, one of the Haan pana méji who had participated in the Palace...

Watch The Best Science Vines One Last Time

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 6:37 PM
Twitter threw us all for a loop today when it announced it was shutting down its video sharing service Vine, about four years after it launched. The mobile app became popular for its short, 6-second clips, which were capable of being made with very little editing. Although users will be able to download all the videos they created, and the Vine website will stay online, the mobile app used to make Vines will be discontinued. We'll miss seeing all the explosions and cool science demonstrations. So we've compiled a list of our favorite science vines,...

Images reveal crashed Mars lander

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 11:49 AM
Image copyright NASA The European Space Agency has tried hard to avoid using the words "crash" or "failure" about its attempted Mars landing but the fate of the spacecraft is cruelly exposed in new pictures. The Schiaparelli lander is seen in greater detail than ever before, lying on the Martian surface. It is well within its intended landing zone but obviously unable to function. The images, gathered by Nasa, could provide important new clues...

World wildlife 'falls by 58% in 40 years'

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 6:48 PM
Image copyright Roger Leguen / WWF Image caption This report estimates __that wildlife populations have declined by nearly 60% since 1970 Global wildlife populations have fallen by 58% since 1970, a report says. The Living Planet assessment, by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, suggests __that if the trend continues that decline could reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020. The figures suggest that animals living...

When Things Go Wrong In The Kitchen

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 4:35 AM
Cooking isn’t rocket science -- it’s way more complicated. Rockets don’t ripen on the way to the moon. Before you turn on a burner or pick up a knife, your food is already in flux: sugar levels are ebbing and flowing in fruits and vegetables, protein scaffolding is disintegrating in cheese and meat, and oxygen is wreaking havoc on everything from the aroma of olive oil to the color of avocados. There is no Waze to map the shifting traffic of emulsified droplets in your hollandaise, so even the best chefs in the world are flying blind. No one is...

Prince of Wales joins soil boosting project

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 1:48 AM
Image copyright Getty Images The Prince of Wales is joining an Anglo-French government initiative to improve the condition of global soils. Ministers from both governments are meeting the prince to discuss how to improve soil health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming. Typically the focus of cutting greenhouse gases has fallen on transport and industry, but France says agriculture must play its part. Ministers will debate how to...

Fighting A Case Of Really Bad Gas

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 9:34 AM
If climate change were an action thriller, CO2 would have a starring role as the fallen hero. A judicious dose of the heat-trapping gas keeps our planet cozy. Over the last century, CO2 has grown in power and slipped towards the dark side — flooding cities, shriveling farmland and conjuring up über-powerful storms. In this story, CO2 has an irredeemable accomplice, HFC-134a, a less abundant — but far more powerful — greenhouse gas. Unlike CO2, HFC-134a was created in a lab. He has no role in preserving the long-term health of the climate. The fight...

The environmental costs of Heathrow expansion

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 8:48 AM
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption There are environmental concerns about noise, air pollution and climate change Significant questions about the environmental impacts of Heathrow's new runway remain unanswered in the wake of the government's announcement. Opponents say __that the expansion will make air quality and noise pollution much worse. It makes a complete mockery of the government's commitments on cutting carbon emissions,...

CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 3:48 PM
Image copyright NASA Image caption A depiction of the global sources of CO2 which are dominated by the US, China and Europe Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have surged past an important threshold and may not dip below it for "many generations". The 400 parts per million benchmark was broken globally for the first time in recorded history in 2015. But according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2016 will likely be the...

Neanderthals May Have Given Us Genital Warts

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 6:32 AM
At some point in our evolutionary history, our Homo sapiens ancestors had sex with Neanderthals. Those cross-species trysts are the reason why almost everyone has a little bit of Neanderthal DNA in them today. Now, a new study published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution suggests __that in addition to genetic material, the ancient hominids may have given us a common sexually-transmitted infection: A version of the human papillomavirus (HPV) __that also causes cervical and oral cancers. When humans and Neanderthals split into two species,...

Schiaparelli: Mars probe 'crash site identified'

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 8:46 PM
Image copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Image caption The dark patch and white spot magnified on the right are likely the impact site and parachute The gouge in the ground likely made by Europe's Schiaparelli probe as it hit the surface of Mars on Wednesday has been imaged by an American satellite. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has identified a large dark patch in the robot's targeted landing zone consistent with a high-velocity...

The Death Of A Mars Lander And A Camera-Focused Smartphone

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 12:31 PM
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Snow leopards: Numbers decline due to 'retaliation'

Posted by Dien Nguyen on 4:45 AM
Image copyright David Lawson Image caption Human wildlife conflict has been responsible for the greater number of snow leopards poached in recent years Hundreds of snow leopards are being killed by poachers every year across the high mountain ranges of Asia, according to a new report. It's estimated there are just 4,000 of these elegant but elusive creatures now surviving in the wild. Around four a week are being poached say experts,...
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