Science

The most comprehensive genetic assessment to date of the vaquita, the world’s rarest marine mammal, is offering a glimmer of hope that this small tropical porpoise native to Mexico’s Gulf of California may avoid extinction despite its population dwindling to about 10. Researchers said on Thursday genome data from 20 vaquitas showed that while the

The third long-duration astronaut team launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS) safely returned to Earth early on Friday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida to end months of orbital research ranging from space-grown chilies to robots. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying three US NASA astronauts and a European

The universe is full of enigma and mysteries. Millions of objects move around undetected. In fact, there’s no dearth of such objects lurking in our very own Milky Way galaxy. We know very little of them, yet they continue to impact our lives in a number of ways. While the effort to study these objects

The human brain is said to be the most complex biological structure ever to have existed. And while science doesn’t fully understand the brain yet, researchers in the expanding field of neuroscience have been making progress. Neuroscientists have made substantial inroads towards mapping the complex functions of the brain’s 85 billion or so neurons and

Autism, a development disorder, can end up impairing a person’s ability to communicate and interact. It affects the nervous system and affects cognitive, social, emotional and physical well-being of an individual. To understand the symptoms disorder in detail, a team of researchers studied lab-grown brains developed from human cells and uncovered changes in neurological structure that

After sending missions to the Moon and Mars, the ISRO is now readying a spacecraft to orbit Venus to study what lies below the surface of the solar system’s hottest planet, and also unravel the mysteries under the Sulfuric Acid clouds enveloping it. Addressing a day-long meeting on Venusian science, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Black holes are intriguing and mysterious objects. They are dreaded, too, because their gravitational pull is so strong that they do not allow anything to pass through them, not even light, except on the rare occasions when they feed. When a black hole pulls in gas and dust from an orbiting star, it sends out

Google said on Monday it had recently fired a senior engineering manager after colleagues, whose landmark research on artificial intelligence software he had been trying to discredit, accused him of harassing behaviour. The dispute, which stems from efforts to automate chip design, threatens to undermine the reputation of Google’s research in the academic community. It

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, the first probe to ever fly on another planet, has captured images of the landing gear that helped it and its companion, the Perseverance rover, land on Mars in February 2021. NASA has shared the images, saying the copter snapped at the wreckage during its 26th flight on the Red Planet. The

The May celestial calendar for looks exciting for skygazers. The month begins and ends with a couple of great planet-spotting opportunities and NASA has shared a full list of those events as part of its monthly, “What’s Up” series. The agency called on all moon gazers to mark their calendars for the month’s highlight: the

The United Arab Emirates has purchased a seat on a SpaceX rocket for an Emirati astronaut to journey to the International Space Station for a six-month stay, officials said Friday, the oil-rich federation’s first long-term mission as it advances its ambitions in space. The UAE purchased the seat on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket through

Since he closed the deal to buy Twitter a few days ago, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk appears to have been bombarded with requests to fix other products of public use. Though he must be enjoying the attention, he also appears to be frustrated by these requests. The Tesla founder has a reputation of making startling

India’s newest space PSU NSIL’s first demand-driven communication satellite for Tata Sky will be launched by Arianespace on June 22, the France-based satellite launch service providers said. The Ku-Band four-tonne GSAT-24, developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), will provide high-quality television, telecommunications, and broadcasting services over India. “The

Days after a SpaceX Dragon capsule crewed by wealthy adventurers splashed down off Florida’s coast, another launched Wednesday, this time for a NASA mission to the International Space Station. The Crew-4 mission blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 am (0752 GMT, or 1:22pm IST), carrying Americans Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica

Three days before Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter, the world’s richest man tweeted a photo of Bill Gates and used a crude sexual term to make fun of his belly. Playful, aggressive and often juvenile, Musk’s past tweets show how he has used social media to craft his public image as a brash billionaire

In its more than 30 years of service, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made over 1.3 million observations of intriguing cosmic events and bodies. It once captured a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147, using its prime working camera – the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The “Hubble Classic” image has been