Particles travelling through empty space can emit bright flashes of gamma rays by interacting with the quantum vacuum, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Strathclyde.
‘I got there first!’ How your subjective experience of time makes you think you did – even when you didn’t
Imagine a championship match between two rival basketball teams. The game is tied, seconds left on the shot clock, two players lunge forward, reaching for the ball. In a split second, their hands both collide with the ball, but neither player gains possession. Instead, the ball goes soaring out of bounds. Immediately an argument erupts as each player claims the other knocked the ball out. The referee desperately tries to break the two apart and make the correct call.
As Expected, the Newly Upgraded LIGO is Finding a Black Hole Merger Every Week
In February of 2016, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first-ever detection of gravitational waves (GWs). Since then, multiple events have been detected, providing insight into a cosmic phenomena that was predicted over a century ago by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
Feel like time is flying? Here’s how to slow it down
Haunted by the past - People suffering from insomnia have difficulty finding a place for emotions
Why Pluto is losing its atmosphere: winter is coming
Scientists discover that young galaxies also have spiral arms, bars and rings!
Half-life of xenon 124 is about 18 sextillion years!
Sickly sweet or just right? How genes control your taste for sugar
NASA’s InSight Lander Captures Audio of First Likely ‘Quake’ on Mars!
You Could Travel Through a Wormhole, but it’s Slower Than Going Through Space
Special Relativity. It’s been the bane of space explorers, futurists and science fiction authors since Albert Einstein first proposed it in 1905. For those of us who dream of humans one-day becoming an interstellar species, this scientific fact is like a wet blanket. Luckily, there are a few theoretical concepts that have been proposed that indicate that Faster-Than-Light (FTL) travel might still be possible someday.
How much do sedentary people really need to move? It’s less than you think
What does vertical farming cost?
Health Check: what causes constipation?
Before the Big Bang
The quest to save the banana from extinction
Panama disease, an infection that ravages banana plants, has been sweeping across Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Africa. The impact has been devastating. In the Philippines alone, losses have totalled US$400m. And the disease threatens not only the livelihoods of everyone in this US$44 billion industry but also the 400m people in developing countries who depend on bananas for a substantial proportion of their calorie intake.
The World’s Biggest Aircraft – the Rocket-Launching Stratolaunch – Completes its First Test Flight
In 2011, Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan announced the creation of Stratolaunch Systems. With the goal of reducing the associated costs of space launches, the company set out to create the world’s largest air-launch-to-orbit system. After many years, these efforts bore fruit with the unveiling of the massive Scaled Composites Model 351 Stratolaunch air carrier in the Summer of 2017.
The Universe’s First Type of Molecule Is Found at Last
The first type of molecule that ever formed in the universe has been detected in space for the first time, after decades of searching. Scientists discovered its signature in our own galaxy using the world’s largest airborne observatory, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, as the aircraft flew high above the Earth’s surface and pointed its sensitive instruments out into the cosmos.
Curious Kids: what would happen if the sun exploded?
The sun is a star, and when a star explodes it’s called a supernova. These types of explosions are very bright, and very powerful. They release lots of dust into space, which is used to make more stars and planets. Our solar system was made using stuff from these explosions. Even humans are made of star stuff!
