Science

Europe’s experiment in using technology to fight coronavirus has achieved some early successes: millions of people have downloaded smartphone tracker apps and hundreds have uploaded the results of positive COVID-19 tests. Yet most European countries so far lack solid evidence that their apps – which identify close contacts via Bluetooth connections with nearby users –

More than 20 countries and territories in Europe have launched or plan smartphone apps that seek to break the chain of coronavirus infection by tracking encounters between people and issuing a warning should one of them test positive. Most countries in the region have opted to use Bluetooth short-range radio to monitor close encounters that

SpaceX’s crewed capsule isn’t called Dragon for nothing. The two NASA astronauts brought back to Earth on Sunday said they felt they were inside the belly of a beast as it careened into the atmosphere at 17,500 mph. “It came alive,” said mission commander Bob Behnkhen at a virtual press conference held Tuesday in Houston,

SpaceX on Tuesday successfully completed a flight of less than a minute of the largest prototype ever tested of the future rocket Starship, which the company hopes to use one day to colonise Mars. “Mars is looking real,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted in response to a fan. The current Starship prototype is fairly crude:

Singapore researchers have developed “electronic skin” capable of recreating a sense of touch, an innovation they hope will allow people with prosthetic limbs to detect objects, as well as feel texture, or even temperature and pain. The device, dubbed ACES, or Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin, is made up of 100 small sensors and is about

US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after a two-month voyage that was NASA’s first crewed mission from home soil in nine years. Behnken and Hurley, tallying 64 days in space, undocked from the

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft shoved off from the International Space Station on Saturday with two US astronauts on board, beginning their journey back to Earth despite a storm threatening Florida. NASA footage showed the capsule drifting slowly away from the ISS in the darkness of space, ending a two month stay for the first

The two NASA astronauts who rode to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon are due to return on Sunday after a nearly four-month voyage that marked NASA’s first crewed mission from home soil in nine years. US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who launched to the space station in May, are

Mars 2020, the spaceship carrying NASA’s new rover Perseverance to the Red Planet, is experiencing technical difficulties and is running on essential systems only, the agency said Thursday. “Data indicate the spacecraft had entered a state known as safe mode, likely because a part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected while Mars

NASA’s next-generation Mars rover Perseverance blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Thursday atop an Atlas 5 rocket on a $2.4 billion (roughly Rs. 17,974 crores) mission to search for traces of potential past life on Earth’s planetary neighbor. The next-generation robotic rover – a car-sized six-wheeled scientific vehicle – also is scheduled to deploy

US tech firm International Business Machines on Thursday launched a research partnership with Japanese industry to accelerate advances in quantum computing, deepening ties between the two countries in an emerging and sensitive field. Members of the new group, which includes Toshiba and Hitachi, will gain cloud-based access to IBM’s US quantum computers. The group will

Pepper’s skill set includes making phone calls, identifying missing items in the kitchen and occasional aerobics instruction. Now, after a surge in loneliness among vulnerable groups during the coronavirus pandemic, this robot’s potential as a companion have earned her a role in a Scottish university’s assisted living experiment with artificial intelligence. Scientists at Heriot-Watt University

NASA’s latest Mars rover Perseverance launches Thursday on an astrobiology mission to look for signs of ancient microbial life — and to fly a helicopter-drone on another world for the first time. Take-off is scheduled for 7:50 am (5:20 pm IST) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. If

China’s first Mars probe has beamed back a photo of the Earth and the Moon as it heads toward its destination, the country’s space agency said Tuesday. The image, which shows the two celestial bodies as small crescents in the empty darkness of space, was taken 1.2 million km away from Earth three days after

Scientists have successfully revived microbes that had lain dormant at the bottom of the sea since the age of the dinosaurs, allowing the organisms to eat and even multiply after eons in the deep. Their research sheds light on the remarkable survival power of some of Earth’s most primitive species, which can exist for tens

Passengers flying Virgin Galactic on suborbital trips into space will be able to see themselves floating weightless against the backdrop of the Earth below while 16 cameras document the adventures, the company said Tuesday. Highly detailed amenities to enhance the customer flight experience were shown in an online event revealing the cabin of the company’s