UK tides could provide more of the UK’s electricity than previously thought. Until now, the Department for Energy and Climate Change estimated that tidal energy could help to provide up to 12% of the UK’s electricity, but a new paper, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society reports that it is probably…
A clock based on just a single atom — the simplest clock yet — has now been devised, researchers say. This new device to measure time could help lead to a radically new way to define mass as well, scientists added. In addition, this achievement suggests that researchers might one day build even more exotic…
Polymer film could be used in artificial muscle and to power micro- and nanoelectronic devices.
A federal advisory panel released a massive draft report detailing the extent to which climate change is already transforming the nation’s landscape and Americans’ way of life, warning that these impacts will intensify in the coming decades, given the current rate of global carbon emissions. The draft of the third National Climate Assessment– more than…
In this search for the origin of one of the world’s most common genetic diseases, emerging research in evolutionary medicine raises new questions about our history, development, and future as a species.
When it comes to climbing waterfalls, the Nopili rock-climbing goby really puts its teeth into it. The inch-long fish uses suckers in its mouth and belly to move up steep cliffs in its rugged Hawaiian habitat. Because its freshwater habitat is easily disturbed—by a big storm, for instance—the fish often crawl up waterfalls to return…
An international team of astronomers has found the largest known structure in the universe – a group of quasars four billion light years across. Quasars are the nuclei of extremely ancient galaxies that can flare up brightly, making them visible across huge distances, for comparatively brief period of between 10 and 100 million years. They…
Astronomers say they’re hot on the trail of real-life alien moons — which could also potentially be viable candidates for habitable worlds, researchers say. Astronomers have found roughly 850 known alien worlds. And as recently announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting, the Kepler spacecraft has picked up 2,740 candidate planets since its 2009 launch….
A team of amateurs has discovered evidence for 42 alien planets, including a Jupiter-size world that could potentially be habitable, by sifting through data from a NASA spacecraft. Forty volunteers with the crowd-sourcing Planet Hunters project discovered the new planet candidates, which include 15 potentially habitable worlds and PH2 b, a Jupiter-size planet that the…
An international team of astronomers says analysis of NASA data on a distant stellar system has led them to crown it the largest-known spiral galaxy. The spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872, long ranked among the biggest observed stellar systems, spans more than 522,000 light-years, making it more than five times the size of our…