The first-ever mission dedicated to looking for dark matter and dark energy, two mysterious entities believed to explain the composition of the universe as we know it, will be launched in 2020, the European Space Agency said. The 800-million-euro ($1-billion) Euclid project will use a satellite employing a 1.2-metre (four-foot) diameter telescope and special cameras…
The message from Rio+20 is for practical action to deliver existing targets. Scientists must identify and overcome barriers to change. This is a meeting born out of gloom that so little has been achieved, as shown by the UN Environment Programme’s GEO-5 report launched recently. The question is, can the science, technology and innovation (ST&I)…
Recently analyzed data from the BaBar experiment may suggest possible flaws in the Standard Model of particle physics, the reigning description of how the universe works on subatomic scales. The data from BaBar, a high-energy physics experiment based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, show that a particular type of…
Audience responses may help composers fine-tune their works over time
Ancient people had minimal, if any, impact on the outlying forests of South America’s Amazon Basin, and settlements near rivers were likely limited, indicates a new study of soil collected from the western and central Amazon. Previous research has suggested that, prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and Europeans, indigenous people built dense, complex…
Neutrons may be traveling from our universe into parallel worlds and back again, according to a new theory that explains a rather odd phenomenon. Experiments at ultra-low temperatures carried out by Anatoly Serebrov at the Institut Laue-Langevin in France have revealed a phenomenon known as neutron loss, whereby neutrons appear to vanish for short periods….
Japanese scientists have devised a mathematical formula that can predict the box office performance of a movie based on the level of related activity on social networks and other websites before and during its release. The study, led by Professor Akira Ishii from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics at Tottori University, also found…
For decades, psychologists and other researchers assumed that the mother-child bond was the most important one in a kid’s life. They focused on studying those relationships, and however a child turned out, mom often got the credit — or blame. Within the last several decades, though, scientists are increasingly realizing just how much dads matter….
Scientists say new dads exhibit hormonal changes and, in turn, alter their behavior, which suggests that having children influences men in far-reaching ways. The research found that when a dad was more involved with his kids, he had better health, drank less and had lower substance use, as well as prompting men to be less…
Men who chose to have children later in life have gotten a lot of heat recently, with research churning up evidence that the older a man’s age at time of reproduction, the greater the risk of autism, schizophrenia, and other disorders in their kids. But a new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy…