Social media sites can predict your behavior even if you don’t use them
Bad news for people trying to preserve their privacy by staying off social media -- a new study has found that your privacy is at risk even if you are not personally using social media sites. The findings show "privacy on social media is like second-hand smoke. It's controlled by the people around you."
DJ Marshmello performs legendary concert set, leads epic dance party in Fortnite
EDM star DJ Marshmello performed at a different sort of concert today: one held live in-game in Fortnite. The concert was held in Pleasant Park, where the usual football field was transformed into a stage and for once everyone came together to dance instead of finding creative ways to see each other off.
Boeing’s astronaut taxi is a go, will launch a test flight next month
Boeing had problems with the development of their spacecraft, the Starliner, when a propellant leak occurred during testing last year. But now the craft is ready for its first test flight, according to Boeing. Eventually the craft will ferry astronauts from Earth to the International Space Station.
Curiosity rover learns a new trick: Measuring the gravity of mountains
NASA's Curiosity rover has provided unexpected insight into the gravity on Mars by using its sensors as a makeshift gravimeter. Scientists realized that they could use the rover's accelerometers and gyroscopes to gather data on the mountain that Curiosity is currently exploring, called Mount Sharp.
Wrap up warmly on the moon — lunar nights are colder than expected
China's Chang'e 4 mission to the far side of the moon touched down a few weeks ago and has been investigating rarely-seen parts of the lunar surface since then. And it has released a surprising finding -- apparently the lunar nights are colder than expected, with temperatures of -310 degrees Fahrenheit.
Could space mice help us develop anti-aging treatments here on Earth?
The International Space Station will be playing host to a group of mice to see how a stint in microgravity affects the way they age. The experiment, called Rodent Research-8, uses mice to understand the physiological changes associated with aging that are caused by time spent in low gravity environments.
Flying observatory discovers role of stellar winds in star formation
Research using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) suggests the formation of stars can be regulated by stellar winds. Stellar winds blow away materials required to create new stars, preventing stars from being born close to other newborn stars in a process called feedback.
Where did Titan’s thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere come from?
There's a mystery about Titan, Saturn's largest moon, that has been puzzling astronomers - where did its thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere come from? Titan is the only moon in our Solar System to have such a thick atmosphere. A new study posits it is generated by the cooking of organic materials in the moon's core.
Finding the ‘blind spots’ in autonomous vehicle artificial intelligence
Researchers from MIT have been looking at the differences between how autonomous systems learn in training and the issues that arise in the real world. They have created a model of situations in which what an autonomous system has learned does not match actual events that occur on the road.
Windows 10 to eat even more disk space as ‘reserved storage’ for updates
The Windows 10 update circus continues, as Microsoft announces the next major update will change the way in which the operating system manages disk space by setting aside at least 7GB as reserved storage. This reserve storage will be used for installing updates and cannot be removed from the OS.
YouTube limiting recommendations of conspiracy theory videos
YouTube has had a problem for some time with conspiracy theories and other misinformation being spread over its platform. Now it has announced plans to reduce recommendations of content that promotes misinformation like phony cures, flat Earth theories, and false claims about events like 9/11.
Could satellites be 3D-printed in order to reduce space junk?
Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about space junk -- the detritus orbiting around our planet left over from artificially created space objects. Now a researcher at MIT's Media Lab has spoken out about how satellite design could be improved to reduce space junk and make construction cheaper.
Image shows the dramatic and beautiful last breath of a dying star
The European Southern Observatory has captured an image of a galactic phenomenon known as a planetary nebula. The beautiful colors of ESO 577-24 come from a shell of glowing ionized gas around the dying star and will last only a short time -- 10,000 years, which is extremely brief in cosmic terms.
NASA makes last ditch attempt to revive dormant Mars rover Opportunity
The Opportunity rover is solar-powered, and last year a dust storm blocked the sun's rays from recharging its batteries. The rover has not responded to contact from Earth over the last seven months, leading the NASA team to believe that it may no longer be able to continue its mission.
Facebook’s merger plan causing concern among lawmakers and security experts
A Facebook plan to merge Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram has caused controversy this week. Now some experts and lawmakers are raising concerns about the privacy implications and antitrust issues stemming from the plan, as well as questioning the plans for end-to-end encryption in messaging.
Scientists investigate how massive stars die in dramatic hypernova events
Our Sun will gradually fade before expanding into a red giant at the end of its life. But larger mass stars undergo extreme explosive events when they die which outshine their entire galaxies. Scientists have investigated the death of a high mass star and the dramatic events which occur in a hypernova.
Water-based fuel cell converts carbon emissions to electricity
Scientists from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology developed a system which can continuously produce electrical energy and hydrogen by dissolving carbon dioxide in an aqueous solution. The inspiration came from the fact that carbon dioxide produced by humans is absorbed by the ocean.
Saturn didn’t always have rings, according to new analysis of Cassini data
Saturn's rings are younger than previously believed, according to new data gathered from the Cassini mission. Cassini took a loop between the planet and its rings acting as a gravity probe and found that the rings are certainly less than 100 million years old and perhaps as young as 10 million years old.
Dinosaurs never stood a chance after asteroid impacts doubled 290M years ago
The number of asteroids pummeling the ancient Earth jumped dramatically around 290 million years ago, according to scientists studying the Moon. By looking at Moon craters they discovered that during this period the number of asteroid impacts on both Earth and the Moon increased by two to three times.
Tiny microbots fold like origami to travel through the human body
Tiny robots modeled after bacteria could be used to deliver drugs to hard to reach areas of the human body. Scientists at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed elastic microbots that can change shape depending on their environment.
Prices for using Tesla Supercharging just skyrocketed
Tesla is apparently moving away from a regional pricing structure for Supercharging to a per-station pricing structure in which the cost of charging will be based on local electricity rates and customer demand. This has lead to an increase in charging costs by as much as 33 percent in some regions.
How long is a day on Saturn? Scientists finally have an answer
How long is a day on Saturn? This figure was hard to calculate because the gas giant does not have a solid surface and a magnetic field makes the rate of rotation hard to see. But now scientists have used data from Cassini to pin down a final answer: a day is ten hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds long.
Tiny animals discovered in Antarctic lake deep beneath the ice
Scientists have made a surprising discovery in Antarctica: the carcasses of tiny animals were found in a lake that sits deep beneath one kilometer (0.6 miles) of Antarctic ice. The animals the team discovered in the underground lake included crustaceans and a tardigrade, also known as a water bear.
Alphabet’s health watch monitors your heart health, is approved by the FDA
A health monitoring watch being developed by Alphabet, Google's parent company, has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a medical device. This means that the FDA has found the devices to be safe and effective, and that they can legally be sold in the US.
Watch China’s moon mission touch down on the planet’s far side
China's Chang'e 4 mission to the far side of the moon landed successfully at the start of the month, and now footage has been shared of a lander's-eye view of the touchdown. The mission touched down in the Von Kármán Crater and captured footage of the descent with a camera which was attached to the probe.
Brightest quasar ever seen discovered by Hubble, may be star-producing machine
The brightest quasar even seen in the early Universe has been observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. The quasar was identified using a technique called strong gravitational lensing, and its identification gives a glimpse into how galaxies were born when the Universe was young.
Scientists debate mysterious flash of light in space, known as ‘The Cow’
On June 16, 2018 there was an unusual flash in the sky which puzzled astronomers around the world. NASA researchers have collected data on the event and have shared two competing theories for what could have caused it: a black hole shredding a white dwarf, or a supernova giving birth to a neutron star.
Earth’s magnetic field is shifting, vital map can’t be updated due to shutdown
The movement of the Earth's magnetic field is described by the World Magnetic Model, used by navigation systems of all kinds. The most recent version of the model should have been good until 2020, however, the magnetic field has moved so quickly that an update is required sooner than that.
Black holes devour nearby stars and spew brilliant X-rays during outburst phase
Using data from the International Space Station, physicists have investigated an explosion of X-ray light that originated from a black hole in an outburst phase. The data suggests that during an outburst, black holes consume huge amounts of stellar material and shrink in size by a factor of ten.
Scientists find a technique to identify electricity-producing bacteria
A new development in bacteriology could allow microbes to be used to run fuel cells and purify sewage water, according to a team at MIT. They have developed a new microfluidic technique which can process samples of bacteria to see if they are able to produce electricity.
New research could allow fast diagnosis of viruses like Ebola and Zika
A new development in molecular biology is a step towards mobile and instant diagnosis of viruses like Ebola or Zika in the field. Researchers at the French agriculture research center CIRAD have found a way to use a mobile device to identify plant viruses and potentially animal and human viruses too.
