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‘Science’ Stories

Colossal Milky Way photo captures ‘one billion stars’

Chris Burns, Mar 29th 2012 Discuss [0]

Dr Nick Cross from the University of Edinburgh and associates of his at that institution have completed a 10 year sky survey data combination which will allow one single image (and the information embedded within) to display "about one billion starts." This is according to Cross who notes that this "is more than has been in any other image produced by surveys." This image can be seen in an extremely zoomed-in portion of an image as well as an expanded image which reads more like a river-sized landscape than it does a photograph. Read The Full Story

Researchers develop world’s most efficient flexible OLED display

Ben Kersey, Mar 29th 2012 Discuss [0]

We saw a flexible display concept from Nokia back at Nokia World in October, and Samsung filed a patent application not too long ago that revealed the company was working on potential foldable display applications. Researchers at the University of Toronto have demonstrated that the technology is feasibly possible on a large scale. They’ve managed to combine OLEDs with a flexible plastic, leading to more efficient displays and a simpler manufacturing process. Read The Full Story

Jeff Bezos to raise Apollo 11 engines from the ocean depths

Shane McGlaun, Mar 29th 2012 Discuss [0]

Of all the Apollo missions, Apollo 11 is certainly the most famous. The Apollo 11 mission is the one that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Apollo 11 launched in 1969 and the astronauts roared into space aboard a Saturn V rocket. Shortly after liftoff, the five massive engines on the Saturn V rocket detached and fell into the ocean as designed. Read The Full Story

Billions of Super-Earths with 41% in ‘habitable zone’

Chris Burns, Mar 28th 2012 Discuss [0]

Grenoble University is today reporting that their international team of astronomers has taken data they've collected on Super-Earths and figured that additional discoveries could number "in the billions." Over the past few years and the past few months especially, we've been hearing an unbelievable amount of reports of newly-discovered Earth-like planets, this most recent announcement showing that of these "billions" of Super-Earth planets, a whopping 41% sit inside a zone orbiting their stars where they could potentially support life. The HARPS high-precision "Planet Hunter" device works with a 3.6m telescope at the Silla Observatory in Chile to bring us these results today. Read The Full Story

Face transplant recipient recovering well post surgery

Shane McGlaun, Mar 28th 2012 Discuss [0]

An American man named Richard Lee Norris has lived as a recluse for the last 15 years after suffering devastating facial injuries after a gun accident. The devastating injuries left Norris without lips and most of his nose and with very limited movement of his mouth. His facial transplant was the most extensive ever performed included giving the man new teeth, nose, tongue, and a new jaw. Read The Full Story

Scientists predict deep-sea life discovery in future Cameron dives

Chris Davies, Mar 28th 2012 Discuss [0]

James Cameron's Challenger Deep dive 6.8 miles to the bottom of the ocean may not have turned up any of the monstrous sea beasts the Titanic director hoped for, but experts still expect new species to be discovered when more time can be spent at the inhospitable depths. "Three hours is just a drop in the bucket, and with more hours I think he's going to discover cool things" Cindy Lee Van Dover, director of the marine laboratory at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, told MSNBC. "I was rooting for him to land and find strange-looking animals." Read The Full Story

Super-Earths may cling tightly to life on surface

Shane McGlaun, Mar 28th 2012 Discuss [0]

Scientists have long studied the universe in a search for planets that could harbor life as we know it. Life as we know it requires water so scientists particularly study stars have planets orbiting within the habitable zone that could support liquid water. Some of these planets that have been discovered are dubbed super-earth because they can have up to 10 times the mass of our planet. Read The Full Story

New species of hammerhead shark discovered

Ben Kersey, Mar 27th 2012 Discuss [0]

Is it safe to go back into the water? That’s not really for us to say, but we’ll remind you that there’s always something nasty in the ocean. Scientists have discovered the latest: more precisely, they’ve managed to track down a new species of shark. They haven’t given it a name yet, although it closely resembles a scalloped hammerhead. Read The Full Story

Moon rock analysis cast doubt on giant impact hypothesis

Shane McGlaun, Mar 27th 2012 Discuss [0]

One of the prevailing theories on how our moon formed is called the giant impact hypothesis. In this hypothesis, the Earth collided with a Mars-sized planet called Theia early in its formation. The massive resulting impact is believed to have caused the ejection of a giant magma disk into orbit that eventually cooled and formed our moon. Read The Full Story

First video of Cameron’s 6.8 mile seabed dive released

Chris Davies, Mar 27th 2012 Discuss [0]

Footage of the deepest ocean point from Titanic director James Cameron's 6.8 mile dive into the Challenger Deep has been released, showing the desolate and "lunar" like seabed devoid of any huge, exciting beasts whatsoever. The clip from National Geographic - for whom Cameron is "Explorer-in-Residence" - is the first glimpse of around three hours of footage from the solo dive. Read The Full Story

Solar tornado wide as five Earths caught on camera

Chris Davies, Mar 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

Sun observers have released clips of a vast solar tornado, as wide across as five Earths, that broke the surface of the star back in September 2011. Caught on camera by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory and spotted in the footage by the Institute of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales, the "coronal mass ejections" spurt from solar prominences and the coronal cavities above them. Read The Full Story

Cameron brings back tales of “desolate” sea bed but no souvenirs

Chris Davies, Mar 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

A "vast black unknown unexplored place" is how famed director turned deep-sea diver James Cameron described his trip to the deepest place on Earth, but technical issues prevented the Titanic creator from bringing back any physical souvenirs. "There had to be a moment where I just stopped, and took it in, and said, 'This is where I am; I'm at the bottom of the ocean, the deepest place on Earth. What does that mean?" Cameron told reporters in the post-dive press conference, the AP reports. The director spent three hours at a depth of 6.8 miles. Read The Full Story