Astronomy

The long-standing question of how animals came to have an anus may have been solved by studies of which genes are active during development in various animals

In a first, physicists have directly seen Hofstadter’s butterfly—a long-sought-after fractal in the quantum realm

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For over a decade, ESA’s Gaia mission has mapped our galaxy with stunning precision—rewriting the story of the Milky Way. As its mission enters a new phase, we look back at its most groundbreaking discoveries.

When the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in December 2021, one of its primary purposes was to see the first galaxies in the Universe forming just a few million years after the Big Bang. In true JWST style though, it has surpassed all expectations and now, a team of astronomers think they have gone even further back, seeing one galaxy clearing the early fog that obscured the Universe! The image represents a point in time 330 million years after the Big Bang and reveals a bright hydrogen emission from the fog surrounding a galaxy. It was somewhat unexpected though as current models predict it would have been blown away long ago!

Here's everything you need to know to make the most of the partial solar eclipse on March 29, as the moon takes a 'bite' out of the sun.

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Data from 300,000 births reveal how essential biological measurements are altered by carrying and delivering a baby

A bioengineer highlights the potential of low-intensity ultrasound for multiple uses, from enhanced drug delivery to the brain to combating cancer

The outer planets remain somewhat of a mystery and Neptune is no exception. Voyager 2 has been the only probe that has visited the outermost planet but thankfully the James Webb Space Telescope is powerful enough to reveal it in all its glory. With its cameras regularly fixed on Neptune it has even picked up auroral activity in some of its latest images. The data was gathered back in 2023 using Webb’s Near-Infrared spectrograph which detected the tell tale sign of auroral activity, an emission line of trihydrogen cation. The element appears on other giant planets too when aurora are present.

Some researchers propose that countries should start to rack up a carbon debt once they exceed their carbon budget, obliging them to do more to draw down carbon dioxide, but the idea is unlikely to form part of international climate agreements

Some researchers propose that countries should start to rack up a carbon debt once they exceed their carbon budget, obliging them to do more to draw down carbon dioxide, but the idea is unlikely to form part of international climate agreements

By going after Social Security, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Education, Donald Trump is signaling his belief that having “good genes” means not having a disability

The first image from a new Italian Earth observation satellite mission was published today: a high-resolution image of a strip of the Italian peninsular showing the city of Rome at a resolution of 2.66 metres. This is three times higher than the resolution currently available for systematic acquisition over Italy.

Evidence of alien worlds goes back farther than you think

NASA and Boeing are still working on the thruster issues that Starliner experienced on its first crewed flight last year, so the capsule's next liftoff is a ways off yet.

We’re taking you inside MIT.nano, a clean laboratory facility that is critical to nanoscale research, from microelectronics to medical nanotechnology.

As fires burned in Los Angeles this year, newer toxin monitors found contaminants that aren’t measured by standard methods. Now scientists and officials are pushing for better detection

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures the striking landscape surrounding the Waza National Park in Cameroon.

Can the cosmic rays bombarding the lunar surface be used to identify subsurface water ice deposits? This is what a recent study and iposter presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hopes to address as a team of researchers developed a novel method called the Cosmic Ray Lunar Sounder (CoRaLS) capable of detecting subsurface lunar water ice deposits that are elusive to current radar systems. This study has the potential to help expand the human presence on the Moon since water ice deposits are currently being focused on the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon for the upcoming Artemis missions.

When researchers asked people to work on a computer with their phones 1.5 metres away, the amount of time they spent on their phone went down – but they just scrolled social media on their laptop instead