Science

Image: University of Würzburg Getting stuck in sand has ended dreams of exploration before. On Mars, where loose dunes, soft soil and rocky terrain stretch for thousands of kilometres, a trapped rover can mean the loss of years of scientific work and millions in investment. Now, researchers in Germany have turned to an unlikely source…

The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has delivered one of the most detailed views ever captured of our galaxy’s crowded heart, revealing more than 60 million stars in a single extraordinary image. The observation offers astronomers an unprecedented look into the densely populated central regions of the Milky Way, a part of the galaxy…

Around three billion years ago, long before animals, forests, or even complex life existed, a large asteroid struck a young Earth. The collision happened at a time when the planet looked very different from today, with early continents still taking shape and geological processes operating in conditions that remain difficult to reconstruct. Much of the…

In the closing years of the 19th century, German chemistry was moving between lecture theatres, factory floors, and military laboratories with an ease that feels strange in hindsight. Fritz Haber entered that world as someone who never quite settled into a single direction, drifting between academic curiosity and industrial usefulness. His work would end up…

Interest in returning astronauts to the Moon has changed considerably over the past few years. What was once centred on individual landings is gradually becoming a much broader effort to establish a lasting human presence beyond Earth. NASA’s latest announcement reflects that shift. Instead of focusing only on the next mission, the agency is preparing…

When the Pacific Ocean carried the effects of a powerful earthquake away from Russia’s far eastern coast in late July, most attention focused on the tsunami warnings issued across the region. Less visible was an unusual scientific opportunity unfolding hundreds of kilometres above the waves. By chance, a satellite designed to monitor Earth’s water systems…

Thomas A. Edison (Image: Wikipedia) Most people know Thomas Edison as the inventor of the light bulb and the phonograph, not as a thinker about health. Yet more than a hundred years ago, he made a prediction about medicine that still sounds strikingly modern. The doctor of the future, he said, would give no medication,…

Niels Bohr, one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century, is remembered not only for his groundbreaking contributions to quantum theory but also for his insightful observations about learning and expertise. Among his most quoted remarks is: “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in…

Deep in the rainforests of far north Queensland, Australia, scientists have discovered a tiny spider with an extraordinary hunting strategy. Nicknamed the “ballista spider”, the newly described species uses a silk-powered trap that launches prey into its web with accelerations reaching up to 140 times the force of gravity. Researchers say the spider specifically targets…

People, pets and livestock have long been protected through vaccines, but scientists are now extending that approach to creatures once thought impossible to immunise. Researchers have already developed the world’s first vaccine for honeybees and are testing similar technology in shrimp, despite the fact that these animals lack the antibody-based immune systems that conventional vaccines…