~cosmos-magazine | Bookmarks (523)

Tensions among astrophysicists continue to mount over Edwin Hubble’s 100-year old calculations about the speed which the universe is expanding. “The tension now turns into a crisis,” says Dan Scolnic, an associate professor of physics at Duke University in the US. Scolnic is part of a team who have measured the rate of expansion of the […]

A prototype wind turbine is about to be installed just south of Adelaide. At a mere 6kW, it’s not going to make any difference to our energy grid – yet. But its shape means that it could end up making big changes. Instead of the windmill-style horizontal turbine, it rotates vertically. According to the researchers […]

Almost exactly 100 years ago, Edwin Hubble made a claim which changed the way we view the universe – and our place in it – forever. On December 30, 1924, Hubble announced the discovery of a spiral nebula outside our galaxy. His breakthrough proved for the first time that our Milky Way galaxy didn’t make […]

A new species of large carnivorous dinosaur found in what is now Egypt has been identified from fossils which no longer exist. The original fossil was destroyed 80 years ago during World War II. Palaeontologists discovered the new species by looking at photographs of the skeleton taken before 1944. Tameryraptor markgrafi lived 95 million years […]

The H5N1 bird flu strain circulating in the USA is good at mutating to infect new hosts, according to a genetic study – but it’s still vulnerable to antivirals. The current H5N1 flu strain, which started spreading on US dairy farms in March 2024, has been transmitted to a handful of people working with infected […]

Octopus arms are a marvel of nature. Their 8 appendages can move with a near infinite degree of freedom and are packed with hundreds of suckers, which can change shape independently, and taste and smell the things they touch. So, how do octopuses control all that complexity? Inside each octopus arm is a massive nervous […]

A study of thousands of hours of flight calls suggests that songbirds may be forming social connections with other species as they migrate, possibly even exchanging information about the journey. It’s time to rethink songbird migration through a social lens, says Benjamin Van Doren, assistant professor at the University of Illinois and lead author of […]

Australia’s natural environment is changing rapidly as the world warms, and many species are struggling to keep up. The pace of change is staggering, with 2024 declared Earth’s hottest year, shattering the previous record set in 2023. Conservation managers recognise the need for new ways to help species and ecosystems adapt to climate change. But […]

Researchers have replicated the pattern of chain mail and created a new polymer which could be used to improve body armour. The material is made of X-shaped monomers which interlock to form a sheet somewhat resembling chainmail. A monomer is a molecule that reacts with other monomer molecules to form a larger polymer chain. This […]

Astronomers have found a trio of exoplanets which contradict our understanding of how these planets form. The planets, which orbit around the star WASP-132, consist of a “hot Jupiter,” an inner “super-Earth,” and a huge planet much further out. Hot Jupiters – gas giants with orbits super-close to their suns – were once thought to […]

Just past 2 a.m. eastern US time on Jan. 16, 2025, a new rocket blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. By reaching orbit, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch has marked a milestone for a commercial space company that has big ambitions. As a space policy expert, I see New […]

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are a familiar, squawking, presence across much of Australia and Melanesia. But according to a genetic study, they are actually 2 separate species. And while one of those species is so abundant it’s winning the war against wheelie bins, the other could be in deep danger. The study, published in Molecular Biology and […]

Homo erectus may have been more adaptable and resilient than it’s often given credit for – new research provides evidence it adapted to live in desert-like conditions 1.2 million years ago. Archaeologists have published findings in Nature Communications Earth & Environment based on data about the early human ancestors who lived in Engaji Nanyori in […]

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has confirmed a type of planet exists unlike anything in the solar system. They’re dubbed a “Super-Venus” world, and one of these exoplanets – a planet which orbits another star from our Sun – is described in a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Many of the more than […]

Stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere will be treated to both a comet, and a gathering of almost all the planets, in the night sky over the next week. Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is glowing after its close encounter with the Sun, and will be best spotted at sunset over the next few days. Meanwhile, the […]

Whether it’s the screen on your expensive device shattering from a mere tap, or a rubbish dump rapidly running out of room in your council, it’s clear to most of us that our one-way, waste-generating economy is bad for us as well as the environment. “People are getting sick of products that short have short […]

Not simply Roman propaganda, new research has found that women were at the centre of social networks in Celtic communities and may have been influential in many spheres of Iron Age life. “When the Romans arrived [in Britain], they were astonished to find women occupying positions of power,” says archaeologist Dr Miles Russell. “Two of […]

Ancient artefacts unearthed from a Bronze Age city in modern-day Iraq could help shed light on the history of Mesopotamia. The objects date to about 1800 BCE and include a game board, large structural remains and clay tablets with cuneiform writing unlike anything found in the region. They are described in fieldwork summary published on […]

Before New Zealand’s giant flightless birds, moa, went extinct about 600 years ago, they played a critical role in the archipelago’s ecosystem. Their loss may have flow on effects for other species. The ecological role that moa played is still not fully understood. New research, published in Biology Letters, sheds light on the relationship between […]

A transient object has been detected by Australian radio astronomers which has the longest rotation of any such object yet discovered. It may help astronomers work out what makes these enigmatic long-period radio transient objects. Long-period radio transient objects are relatively new to science, having been first observed in about the past 10 years. They […]

People requesting abortions in England and Wales have been using less reliable contraception methods in the past decade, according to a new study. The report also shows a large increase in those using no contraception. The research, published in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, finds that fewer abortion patients are using reliable hormonal contraceptive methods, […]

The way clinicians diagnose obesity is set to change with new guidelines acknowledging that some obese people are perfectly healthy, while others live with chronic disease. “Obesity is a spectrum,” says Professor Francesco Rubino from the UK, who chaired the Commission that developed the guidelines. “You can have people who have excess body fat but […]

Engineers have come up with a way that the famous thought experiment, “Schrödinger’s cat”, could be used to detect errors in quantum computers. The thought experiment was derived by Austrian-Irish physicist Erwin Schrödinger. In 1925, he came up with the Schrödinger equation which describes how particles behave in quantum mechanics. Just 10 years later, Schrödinger […]

Researchers perusing a Vietnamese seafood market have discovered a new species of crustacean that can weigh more than a kilogram. The discovery of the new supergiant isopod species, which can reach about 30cm, highlights how little is known of the deep-sea ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Supergiant isopods in the genus Bathynomus, also called sea bugs […]