Science

A powerful burst of solar activity briefly caught attention this week, arriving just days before one of the most closely watched space missions in recent years. The Sun released an X1.4-class solar flare, strong enough to disrupt radio signals across parts of Asia and Australia and trigger concern about possible risks to astronauts. For a…

Margaret Hamilton, standing tall with her back to the camera and proudly facing the mountain of Apollo code she had developed, is not only a historic picture, but it is also a representation of the human spirit, precision, and ingenuity. Indeed, the code developed by Margaret Hamilton played a very important role in 1969 in…

As there are only a few days left before the launch of the Artemis II mission by NASA, the world is looking forward to this mission not only because of the historic voyage of the spacecraft to the Moon, but also because of the weather conditions that are going to accompany the launch. According to…

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, a tall, slender palm known as Socratea exorrhiza has sparked one of nature’s most intriguing myths. Often described as a “walking tree”, it is said to slowly shift its position over time, moving a few centimetres each year in search of sunlight. The claim has been widely repeated in travel…

Synthetic fuels demonstration plant in the Laboratory What if fuel could be made not from oil wells, but from the air around us? That idea moved closer to reality when Japan’s energy giant ENEOS Corporation successfully produced synthetic fuel using captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen at its Yokohama demonstration plant. The project showed that it…

Space, as most of us think of it, is a quiet and peaceful place, but for those living and working on the International Space Station (ISS), it can also be a place of physiological surprises. A recent occurrence, where a veteran NASA astronaut, Michael Fincke, told the Associated Press that he apparently lost his ability…

When NASA launches Artemis II, the spacecraft will carry far more than a crew of four astronauts. Alongside critical systems and experiments, it will also transport a digital archive containing the names of over 5.6 million people from around the world. Collected through NASA’s “Send Your Name to the Moon” campaign, these names represent a…

PC: National Endowment for the Humanities Before smartphones, spreadsheets, or even written alphabets as we know them, the Inca appear to have managed information in a way that still feels surprisingly advanced. Their system, known as quipu, used knotted cords and colour-coded strings to store records across a vast empire. It was long thought to…

If all systems are go and barring force majeure , four astronauts will in two days lift off towards the Moon on a giant rocket, becoming the first humans to head in that direction in over 50 years, since Nasa’s Apollo programme ended in 1972. After technical delays in Feb and March, Nasa is now…

Space travel is not as easy as it looks, though. The human body is not designed to function properly outside the gravitational pull of Earth. Muscles atrophy, bones become less dense, and walking becomes an exercise. Space travel is not an easy feat, especially when planning to travel to Mars. One thing that scientists are…