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WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Katherine Johnson, a ground-breaking black NASA mathematician whose life was portrayed in the movie “Hidden Figures,” died on Monday aged 101, the space agency said. Johnson’s calculations helped put the first man on the Moon in 1969, but she was little known until the Oscar-nominated 2016 movie that told the stories of three black women who worked at NASA. “She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Mars is a constantly tremoring “living” body, researchers said Monday as they unveiled measurements of seismic activity on the red planet showing similar tremble rates to Earth or the Moon. For 15 months NASA’s InSight robot craft scoured the surface of Earth’s neighbour, and measured hundreds of so-called “Marsquakes”. These included several tremors that contained the same frequency patterns as tremors caused by the movement of Earth’s own tectonic plates. […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A helmet used by French soldiers in World War I provided better protection from overhead blasts than a modern American model, according to a US university study. Biomedical engineers from North Carolina’s Duke University tested the performance of several models of World War I helmet and the US Advanced Combat Helmet by subjecting them to shock waves. “While we found that all helmets provided a substantial amount of protection against […]
by Ivan Couronne Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — SpaceX announced a new partnership Tuesday to send four tourists deeper into orbit than any private citizen before them, in a mission that could take place by 2022 and easily cost more than $100 million. The company signed the deal with Space Adventures, which is based in Washington and served as an intermediary to send eight space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS) via […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Daredevil Vince Reffet has soared into the skies above Dubai in the latest “Jetman” stunt, taking off from the ground and climbing to 1,800metres (nearly 6,000 feet) in a feat reminiscent of Marvel’s “Iron Man” and hailed as a world first. Reffet and his collaborators, known as “Jetman”, have literally scaled new heights with the help of jetpacks and carbon-fiber wings, staging a series of aerial displays that send […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Astronomers have managed to take pictures of Betelgeuse showing that the star, one of the brightest in the Milky Way, has been losing luminosity over recent months, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said on Friday. The mysterious dimming of one of the most visible stars in the Orion constellation has astronomers scratching their heads, with some saying Betelgeuse could be about to explode while others point to passing conditions. “The stunning […]
by Damon WAKE Agence France Presse MUNICH, Germany (AFP) — Top US officials fired a fresh broadside at Huawei on Saturday, warning the Chinese tech giant posed a threat to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) if allies allowed it to build new 5G communications networks. Washington has been pressing European allies hard to ban Huawei, one of the world’s largest tech firms, from next-generation mobile data networks, saying it is a security risk. A day […]
HOUSTON, United States (AFP) — Wanted: The next generation of astronauts to walk on the Moon and journey to Mars. You’ll need a relevant Master’s degree, be prepared to live and work 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth on the International Space Station, and be a US citizen. NASA announced Tuesday it was seeking to boost its astronaut corps, which currently stands at 48 active personnel, as part of plans to dramatically expand its crewed […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A team of British scientists believe they have become the first to start animal testing of a vaccine for the new coronavirus that has killed more than 900 people. Researchers at Imperial College London said their ultimate goal was to have an effective and safe way of halting the SARS-like strain’s spread by the end of the year. “At the moment we have just put the vaccine that we’ve generated […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — The US-European Solar Orbiter probe launches Sunday night from Florida on a voyage to deepen our understanding of the Sun and how it shapes the space weather that impacts technology back on Earth. The mission, a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA, is set to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral at 11:03 pm (0403 GMT Monday) and could last up to nine […]
by Véronique DUPONT Agence France-Presse London, United Kingdom (AFP) — Jack Convery pops into a London branch of Italian eatery Coco di Mama to grab a cut-price lunch ordered on his smartphone’s food-sharing app Karma. The 27-year-old Amazon employee — with an eye for a bargain and for helping the environment — uses a mobile phone app that sells surplus food from hundreds of UK restaurants at discounted prices. “Anything I can do to help […]
by Catherine Lai Agence France Presse SINGAPORE (AFP) — Scientists from the United States to Australia are using new technology in an ambitious, multi-million-dollar drive to develop a vaccine in record time to tackle China’s coronavirus outbreak. The new virus has spread rapidly since emerging late last year in China, killing more than 800 people in the mainland and infecting over 37,000. Cases have been reported in two dozen other countries. Coming up with […]
