by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Astronomers in Canada have detected a mysterious volley of radio waves from far outside our galaxy, according to two studies published Wednesday in Nature. What corner of the universe these powerful waves come from and the forces that produced them remain unknown. The so-called repeating fast radio bursts were identified during the trial run last summer of a built-for-purpose telescope running at only a fraction […]
Tag: science
Permafrost thaw threatens 70 percent of Arctic infrastructure: study
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A warming climate is thawing permafrost and up to 70 percent of infrastructure in the Arctic region is at risk, including key oil and gas fields, a new study said Wednesday. Researchers used detailed information on infrastructure across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone to model with unprecedented detail just how many buildings, roads, railways and other construction could be at risk by 2050. “The magnitude of the threat was in a […]
Surviving bleached Barrier Reef coral ‘more resilient to heat’
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef that survived bleaching from rising sea temperatures were more resistant to another bout of hot conditions the following year, scientists said Tuesday, a “silver lining” for the embattled ecosystem. The 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long UNESCO World Heritage-listed reef off Australia’s northeastern coast was hit by back-to-back bleaching in 2016 and 2017. Bleaching occurs when abnormal environmental conditions, such as warmer sea temperatures, cause corals to expel […]
Silent plane with no moving parts makes ‘historic’ flight
by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The blue glowing jets of science fiction spacecraft came a step closer to reality on Wednesday as US physicists unveiled the world’s first solid-state aeroplane powered in flight by supercharged air molecules. More than a century on from the Wright brothers’ first artificial flight, scientists hailed the “historic” test of the new technology, which could eventually slash greenhouse-gas emissions from aviation. Ever since Orville and Wilbur […]
Benepisyo ng biotechnology, ilalahad ng DOST
Ni Belle Surara Eagle News Service (Eagle News) – Pangungunahan ng Department of Science and Technology (DOST) ang pagdiriwang ng National Biotechnology Week (NBW) sa taong ito. Layunin nito na mapalawak pa ang kaalaman ng mga mamamayan tungkol sa benepisyong idinudulot ng biotechnology sa buhay at pamumuhay ng tao. Ang tema nang naturang pagdiriwang ay “Pambansang Hamon, Pambansang Solusyon.” Ayon kay DOST Secretary Fortunato dela Peña, tatalakayin sa pagdiriwang ng NBW ang mga biotechnology product, […]
Breakthrough treatment helps paralysed patients walk
by Sara HUSSEIN Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A breakthrough treatment involving electrical stimulation of the spine has enabled paralyzed patients to walk again, apparently reactivating nerve connections and providing hope for people even years after accidents. A team including neurosurgeons and engineers used targeted electrical pulses to achieve the results, triggering individual muscles in a sequence, the way the brain would. The pulses are produced by an implant placed over the spine […]
Mars likely to have enough oxygen to support life: study
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Salty water just below the surface of Mars could hold enough oxygen to support the kind of microbial life that emerged and flourished on Earth billions of years ago, researchers reported Monday. In some locations, the amount of oxygen available could even keep alive a primitive, multicellular animal such as a sponge, they reported in the journal Nature Geosciences. “We discovered that brines” — water […]
Mercury mission to explore origin of Solar System
by Laurence COUSTAL Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Is Mercury’s core liquid or solid, and why — on the smallest planet in our solar system — is it so big? What can the planet closest to the Sun tell us about how our solar system came into being? An unmanned European-Japanese space mission, dubbed BepiColombo, blasted off early Saturday morning from French Guiana, to probe these and other mysteries. “BepiColombo is coming like […]
You look familiar: humans recognize 5,000 faces, study says
by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse From family and friends to strangers on the subway and public figures on 24-hour news cycles, humans recognize an astonishing 5,000 faces, scientists said Wednesday in the first study of its kind. Through most of history humans lived in small groups of a hundred or so individuals, a pattern that has changed drastically in recent centuries. A study by scientists at Britain’s University of York found that our facial recognition […]
Implant helps paralyzed man walk again
by Patrick Galey Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Five years after he was paralyzed in a snowmobile accident, a man in the US has learned to walk again aided by an electrical implant, in a potential breakthrough for spinal injury sufferers. A team of doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota say the man, using a front-wheeled walker, was able to cover the equivalent of the length of a football pitch, issuing […]
Microplastics may enter foodchain through mosquitoes
PARIS, France (AFP) — Mosquito larvae have been observed ingesting microplastics that can be passed up the food chain, researchers said Wednesday, potentially uncovering a new way that the polluting particles could damage the environment. Microplastics — tiny plastic shards broken down from man-made products such as synthetic clothing, car tyres and contact lenses — litter much of the world’s oceans. Hard to spot and harder to collect, they can seriously harm marine wildlife […]
The Ocean Cleanup project sails out to sweep Pacific plastic
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — A supply ship towing a long floating boom designed to corral ocean plastic has set sail from San Francisco for a test run ahead of a trip to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The ambitious project by The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit group, hopes to clean up half of the infamous garbage patch within five years when all systems are deployed. After five years of preparation and […]
