Science

Just less than a week on from Bill Nye and his Planetary Society's smashing of their Kickstarter goal, the Light Sail Solar Sail satellite, slated to officially launch next year, is set to go through a test run. Sat atop an Atlus V rocket, the miniature cubesat will be launched into …

One of the biggest arguments for fossil fuels and against their green alternatives, is that they are relatively cheap and efficient. Bang for buck, coal and oil are much more viable to turn into electricity we're often told, but it turns out that that's only the case because over $5.3 …

As NASA's New Horizons probe gets ever closer to its intended target of Pluto, where on the 14th July it is expected to complete its first flyby of the dwarf planet, scientists on the ground are scanning the inky blackness of space to make sure that it has a clear path. …

The automotive industry right now is much like the early days of the smartphone, with the first hints at advanced computational features just cresting the horizon. There are companies all over the world introducing new automation and adding highly connected infotainment systems, but still most people put us well into the …

As it stands, the most exotic of locations tend to be barely inhabited islands in remote parts of the world, volcano lairs and skyscaper penthouses, but there's one problem with all of those: they're Earthbound. If we really want to start offering tourists a life changing holiday destination, we need …

Even though the past few years have seen some amazing space endeavours and science recovery from traditional space-faring organisations like NASA and the ESA, some of the most exciting developments as of late have come from commercial ventures like Space X and Virgin Galactic. However that time has also seen …

When Elon Musk announced Tesla's new Powerwall battery technology last week, it wasn't quite the big news it could have been, since we'd been given a heads up a few days before about his intended unveiling. Still, that doesn't seem to have impacted people's interest in the high capacity UPS …

One of the standout features of movies and TV shows from the future, is that food preparation is something that was long ago simplified. Whether you're talking the Star Trek replicator, or the McFly's home hydration unit, making a meal is supposed to be a lot easier than it is today and …

Even though Microsoft's Kinect camera never really found a valid use for its 3D tracking capabilities in a gaming sense, it has been used in many interesting applications outside of that world. In one such example, researchers at Brunel University found that by using its ability to detect movement – or …

Despite many innovations being made to aviation since the original consumer focused flights of the early 20th century, it's still not the most comfortable of experiences for those that can't afford the luxuries of the higher classes. Still, it may at least become a much quieter experience in the near …

In a move that shows Space X certainly isn't putting all its eggs in a Western basket, the Elon Musk backed corporation has launched another successful Falcon 9 rocket, this time sending up a satellite for ex-Soviet state, Turkmenistan. Although it didn't attempt a soft-landing on the remote barge, the …

Space X's latest launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon supply capsule payload went off without a hitch last week. At least, in that it achieved orbit and successfully docked with the international space station to deliver much needed food, science experiments and other important tools for the …

Next year will see a team of British engineers attempt to break the land speed record with the Bloodhound Super Conic car, a jet-engine and rocket propelled vehicle that's been in development for more than half a decade. It's projected to reach speeds higher than 1,000 miles per hour when it's …

Even though life aboard the International Space Station is full of scientific experiments and tests which push the boundaries of human endeavour in the great black beyond, it's worth remembering that the people up there aren't so different from us. Chris Hadfield showed us that back in 2013 when he …

Driverless car technologies are coming on leaps and bounds at the moments, with the world's first motorway-only automated features set to hit commercial cars as soon as 2017. However, whether our automated future will look like the cars of old, or something more akin to Google's Pod Car design remains to …

Yesterday's launch of the Space X Dragon module supply run to the International Space Station went off without a hitch, sending around three tonnes of scientific experiments, food and other essentials to the orbiting station. However, arguably the bigger news was how well the first booster stage of the rocket …

Yesterday's intended launch of a supply mission to the International Space Station was scrapped due to a thunder storm straying too close to the launch pad, but there's more at stake here than food and supplies for the astronauts aboard the world's only persistent, manned space craft. Yesterday's launch was …

Spider silk is a very versatile material whether you're a spider or a human being. It's been used to help ignite lasers, give crosshairs to microscopes and even catch fish in some parts of the world, but due to its strength and low-weight, it could have much more uses if …

Effective body armour has always been important for those in combat scenarios, whether they're knights of old or modern day soldiers, but it almost always comes at the cost of weight and manoeuvrability. Often times too, as effective as modern armour is, even if a projectile doesn't penetrate, its impact …

The last thing you would expect when it comes to helping make the planet greener, is that you might need to defend your efforts from opportunists, but that's just the problem being faced by Lincolnshire farmers at the moment. In the past few weeks, over 100 solar panels have have …

Despite Microsoft introducing the technology in the early '00s, it's only in the past few years that tablets have become a mainstream technology, with some 42 per cent of US under 18's now said to have one of their own. However, while many more of us may be tapping a …

Although Jupiter's moon Europa has often been considered the mostly likely place in our solar system other than Earth to have life as we know it somewhere within its under-ice oceans, there may be another, more viable contender on the cosmic horizon. Enceladus, a small moon orbiting Saturn, is now thought …

Medical technology is advancing so fast, that a partner in Google's investment department believes that as long as we can live for another 20-30 years, we'll be able to make it to the ripe old age of 500 without too much difficulty. His reasoning? The ultra fast development of new …

Researchers working for the NASA space agency have announced that they've found evidence on Mars for an ocean that covered almost 20 per cent of the planet's surface, which formed shortly after Mars itself 4.3 billion years ago. At its peak, it would have covered much of the northern hemisphere and …

Generating clean energy is a bit of a minefield. Nuclear is incredibly powerful but has some horrific dangers, solar power is still expensive and inefficient on a large scale and nobody wants a wind turbine in their back garden due to their size and noise. But what about wave power? …

Solar eclipses are probably not something that most of us humans have been scared of in a very long time, thanks to science and reasoning, but soon there may actually be a reason to be at least a little nervous. With our increasing dependence on energy drawn from the Sun …

Update: Thanks to our readers for pointing out some of the problems with this piece. Mark Smith came up with a short and sweet analogy for what's going on in the video below: “The times given are how long *we* perceive it takes light to travel those distances. Relativity tells …

Although one of the common ways sci-fi writers like to make their planets more exciting is adding a second sun to the mix, it's not something we're ever likely to experience here on Earth. However our ancestors might have, as 70,000 years ago, another star did a fly-by of our …

If there's one thing we know about the universe at large, it's that it can always surprise us. Even close to home in-fact, as Mars, one of our solar system companions has been puzzling scientists for years, having protruded something from its atmosphere back in 2012 and nobody is quite sure …

On average, us flesh sacks can recognise stuff in pictures pretty well, with an error rate of around 5.1% according to a recent study. Previously computers could come pretty close to that, getting around 6.66% of objects wrong. Now however, a new computer vision system from Microsoft Research is actually managing to …