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SpaceX wants to send a Red Dragon to Mars as early as 2018

All aboard the hype train!

CERN just released 300 TB of LHC data online

For the amateur physicists out there, I have some great news: CERN just made the biggest data dump in the history of particle physics, sharing 300 TB of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data online. It’s completely free, and it’s high quality data too, from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC. Anyone can access it, and […]

Driverless trucks are coming - and they're going to automate millions of jobs

Six convoys of semi-automated, smart trucks drove across Europe, arriving at Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

Venezuela orders 2-day work week in desperate attempt to stave off power crisis

Venezuela's public workers will only work on Mondays and Tuesdays as the country falls deeper into crisis.

England's doctors go on first-ever all-out strike after disgraceful government measures

Thousands of junior doctors (the rough equivalent of a resident in the US) walked out of hospitals and emergency wards to protest against borderline inhuman measures implemented by the government. It’s the first time in English history since an all-out strike was carried out. The NHS said “military level” contingency planning had been carried out […]

Suffering from anxiety? Breathe and watch this GIF - it'll help you

  The GIF was first posted by Dr. Christina Hibbert, a clinical psychologist and author of several books. I’m not sure if it helps with anxiety, but it’s quite satisfying to watch – over and over again. It starts out as a simple line, then blooms into a triangle, then a square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon and […]

Ikea resumes selling solar panels in the UK

Ikea made it much easier for British people to green their homes – for a while. Then, after the government reduced subsidies for renewable energy, the company quietly stopped selling the panels, and now they’ve resumed them again. Why Ikea selling solar panels matters When Ikea starts selling something, it’s safe to say it’s become mainstream. […]

Sea squirts: These cute "big-mouthed" underwater creatures digest their own organs

It's hard to believe that something so cute can lie at the bottom of the sea, but don't let the appearances fool you.

Scientists build a camera with "shark vision"

We now have shark vision.

Poachers kill three rangers, wound park manager in Congo

Sad news comes from African wildlife parks again: three rangers were killed in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Garamba wildlife park. Two others were wounded, including the park manager. Just yesterday we were writing that African park rangers risk their life on a day-to-day basis to protect animals in natural parks, and now this tragedy was reported […]

What Elon Musk's CV looks like -- all in one page

Elon Musk is one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the tech industry. Here's his one-page resume.

British Astronaut runs London Marathon from space

British astronaut Tim Peake ran the London Marathon on a treadmill aboard the International Space Station.

97% of Diesel Cars Don't Respect Official Pollution Limits

According to the most comprehensive set of data, almost no diesel cars respect pollution limits.

Hackers rob $80 million from a central bank because it had $10 routers and no firewall

Being a cheapskate can sometimes backfire spectacularly as a central Bank in Bangladesh just found out.

Scientists find 1,000-km-long coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon

It's a true "Wow!" moment.

Take me to Mars: NASA signs $67M contract for new solar electric propulsion engine

A company called Aerojet Rocketdyne has won a $67 million contract from NASA to design and develop an advanced electric propulsion system that could power complex missions to asteroids and even to Mars.

Australia plotted by every mapped stream and river... all 1.3 million of them

They say Australia is the Dry Continent, but you wouldn’t guess that based on this image: The image was created with QGIS using data for 1.3 million streams from Geoscience Australia GEODATA TOPO 250K vector datasets [GitHub code]. This is North-west Queensland: … and the North-east Murray-Darling Basin:   But there’s a catch: not all these rivers are permanent […]

Human limbs might have evolved from shark gills

Flap your hands like a shark.

Why it's illegal to own one guinea pig in Switzerland

At first, it sounds like one of the silliest laws ever: in Switzerland, you’re not allowed to own just one guinea pig or parrot. The reason for this is that they’re social species, and they are considered victims of abuse if they aren’t able to regularly interact with others of their species. If you’re an […]

Solar is cheaper than coal, Indian energy minister says

We may be reaching a historic moment.

British research vessel gets named "Boaty McBoatFace" following an online poll

The world has spoken and the vote has been cast: people want to name the new British Antarctic research ship “Boaty McBoatface”

Sarah Palin is not "as much a scientist" as Bill Nye

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin falsely claimed she is “as much a scientist” as Bill Nye. She's not.

This football stadium in Brazil is located exactly on the Equator

Each team is defending one hemisphere!

Scientists have figured out why bearcats smell like buttered popcorn

Hint: it's the urine.

WHO endorses first Dengue Fever vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially endorsed the world's first Dengue fever vaccine, a disease that infects 390 million people each year.

Growing inequality is a threat to democracy, experts warn

"That's not a capitalist market economy anymore," he warned. "That's a feudalist system and it scares … me."

NASA calls out climate change deniers on Facebook

It’s glorious and depressing at the same time: NASA used its official Facebook account to shut down one user who was misrepresenting climate science: It’s climate change denial 101: you take some random fact, gobble it up without even thinking about it, add in some buzzwords to make it look more scientific and spit it […]

Study: Pakistan's public school textbooks portray non-Muslim citizens as "religiously inferior, scheming and intolerant"

Religion should be promoting peace, not this...

The locks of a goddess and solidified glass lava: Pele's hair

Believe it or not, this is actually lava.

Celebrating Diversity: Stunning Villages Around Europe

If you don’t travel a lot it’s easy to forget just how big and diverse the world really is – and sure, everyone knows about Paris, London or New York, but villages were where humanity’s culture and spirit was preserved for centuries. Here are just a handful of villages and small towns which brilliantly exhibit the serenity […]

UC Davis wants to remove this picture from the internet

That's not how the internet should work...

Huge portion of Greenland starts to melt, surprises scientists

A massive portion of the Greenland ice sheet has started to melt, taking researchers by surprise. The vast region is experiencing a freakishly early spring thaw, with 12% of Greenland’s ice melting on Monday, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. “We had to check that our models were still working properly,”6 Peter Langen, climate scientist at […]

Wrongfully accused: replacing butter with vegetable oils doesn't cut health risk

No matter who you ask, they’ll tell you the same thing: butter isn’t good for you, just use vegetable oil. But while butter may not be the healthiest of foods, new research has found that replacing it with vegetable oils does not decrease risk of heart disease. The main culprit is linoleic acid – a polyunsaturated […]

A Loch Ness monster was found on the bottom of the lake - but not the one you think of

Some 600 feet deep, at the bottom of the Loch Ness lake in Scotland, researchers have found the much famed monster... but it's not the monster you're thinking of. It's only a prop from the 1970 movie The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

Primordial black holes locked in a strange, synchronized dance

Deep radio imaging from researchers working in South Africa have revealed that supermassive black holes in a region of the distant universe are all spinning out radio jets in the same direction. The results show, for the first time, an alignment of the jets of galaxies over a large volume of space. Astronomers believe this is due […]

90-day weather predictions are crap, no matter what Accuweather claims

Weather forecasts have gotten significantly better in recent years – not because we have a much better understanding of weather has gotten much better, but rather because advanced computers allow us to develop more complex models. You can generally predict weather for 2-3 days, and in some cases of up to 7-10 days. Anything that goes […]

Plans for the first even interstellar mission have been revealed

A Russian billionaire wants to fund the first ever interstellar probe – and he wants to do it in the span of a generation. If this comes to fruition, it will be by far the most ambitious space endeavor ever attempted by mankind. Space is incredibly vast, we all know that, but sometimes it can […]

Navy's futuristic destroyer will sail with reflectors because it's too stealthy

This huge destroyer is apparently too stealthy for its own good – at least at peace. The U.S. Navy’s new Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer (DDG 1000) is so hard to detect that its crew plans to sail with giant reflectors just to make sure other ships can see it. The USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is the lead ship of the Zumwalt […]

The difference between silicon and silicone

It’s one of the most common confusions in the English language. In short, silicon is the chemical element Si, while silicone is a synthetic polymer. Although it appears like the words are synonyms and can be used interchangeably, they’re not and they designate completely different things. Let’s detail a bit on what each of them are, […]

New software allows researchers to control what politicians are saying

Don’t believe your eyes – nothing you see is real, and everything can be manipulated. Many people have a long-standing belief that images are easy to forge, while videos are authentic because they’re impossible to tamper with. Well… that’s not really true. Several companies are making millions by tweaking how actors look on film, and […]

Five big oil companies spent $114m obstructing climate news, report claims

Exxon, Shell and three trade associations spent US$114 million in 2015 alone to manipulate lawmakers and public discourse on climate change, a report by British NGO Influence Map claims.

Hubble snaps brilliant picture of 'Red Rectangle' nebula

We don’t give it a lot of through, but things in space are generally round. Not the Red Rectangle though – this nebula is… well, rectangular. According to NASA, this is actually a binary star system. The stars at its center are similar to the Sun, but they are reaching the end of its lifetime […]

Scientists published the 50 most incorrectly used terms in science

There's no "gene for" anything, and there is no "gold standard" or "scientific method" - you're using all those terms wrong.

Scientists want you to look at photos of penguins. Yes, really

Antarctic researchers are in need of help - specifically, they need people to study photos of penguins to help them understand how the birds are dealing with climate change.

Acetaminophen affects the ability to detect errors

Acetaminophen, commonly sold as Tylenol or Paracetamol may affect our ability to solve errors, a new study has found. The impairment is minor, but noticeable.

HIV took one of our best attempts at killing it, survived and became stronger in the process

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and unfortunately, that seems to be the case for HIV viruses.

Graphene solar panels could create energy even when it's raining

A new solar cell prototype developed by Chinese researchers may change the way we use solar panels.

Over 50% of Scotland's electricity in 2015 came from renewables

Scotland has met and overcome its objective for green energy in 2015

NASA just made 3 million Earth images available at no cost

The first Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite called Terra (previously AM-1) was launched on December 18, 1999. ASTER data contributes to a wide array of global change-related application areas including vegetation and ecosystem dynamics, hazard monitoring, geology and soils, hydrology, and land cover change. It’s also perfect background material for your home PC. But it’s not […]

The new Rembrandt: Computer creates new "Rembrandt painting"

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is one of the most talented and famous artists in human history. It's been almost four centuries since he created his unique masterpieces. Now, a team of artists, researchers and programmers wanted to see if they can create a new Rembrandt painting - through a computer algorithm.