Science - SlashGear

Bedbugs were around 100 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed

Shane McGlaun | May 17, 2019

Begbugs are one of the parasites that people find most disturbing, right up there with head lice. Scientists thought for a long time that the first hosts for parasitic bedbugs were bats indicating that bedbugs had been around for 50-60 million years. New research shows that bedbugs are much older than previously thought and may have crawled the planet with the dinosaurs. Researchers from an international team, including scientists from the University of Sheffield, have compared the DNA of dozens of bedbug species.

Researchers create washable and wearable batteries for fabrics

Shane McGlaun | May 16, 2019

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and colleagues from Jiangnan University in China have developed electronic components that can be directly incorporated into fabrics that could be used for flexible circuits, healthcare monitoring, energy conversion, and other applications. The researchers have shown how graphene and related materials can be directly incorporated into fabrics to produce charge storage elements like capacitors.

NASA’s MRO completed 60,000 orbits around the Red Planet

Shane McGlaun | May 16, 2019

NASA has had a spacecraft orbiting Mars called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or MRO since March 10, 2006. The spacecraft has been circling the planet at about 2 miles per second and collecting daily science data about the planet's surface and atmosphere. NASA has announced a milestone for the MRO that was reached this week.

NASA LRO spots Beresheet spacecraft’s impact site on the Moon

Brittany A. Roston | May 15, 2019

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) snapped multiple pictures of the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft's impact site on the Moon's surface. The images were captured in late April and published by the space agency on Wednesday, offering two different perspectives of the crashed robotic lunar lander. NASA says there are multiple pieces of evidence that show the captured crater was created by human, not meteoroid, activity.

Tomato pan-genome project may improve tomatoes taste

Shane McGlaun | May 15, 2019

Fans of tomatoes would agree that most store-bought varieties lack flavor. A group of scientists from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Boyce Thompson Institute has found a solution to the problem of no taste in tomatoes. Scientists have constructed the pan-genome for the cultivated tomato and its wild relatives mapping nearly 5,000 previously undocumented genes.

LightSail 2 heads into orbit aboard Falcon Heavy in June

Shane McGlaun | May 15, 2019

The Planetary Society has announced that its next-generation of light-propelled satellites will launch next month. LightSail 2 will head into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket scheduled for liftoff on June 22 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once the LightSail 2 spacecraft is in orbit, it will deploy a solar sail that is the size of a boxing ring meant to give the satellite propulsion using solar photons.

Caffeine addiction boosts ability to smell faint traces of coffee

Brittany A. Roston | May 14, 2019

People who regularly drink coffee are able to sniff out even the faintest whiffs of coffee aroma, according to a new study. The research found that regular coffee drinkers become more sensitive to the smell of the energizing beverage, and they're also able to identify it at a faster rate compared to non-coffee drinkers. The study follows recent research that found coffee drinkers get an energy boost just by thinking about coffee.

Seashells in ancient amber: A science mystery

Chris Burns | May 14, 2019

A mysterious blob of amber appeared in a study published this week in PNAS. In the ancient piece of tree resin were bits of sand and evidence of several sea creatures. How did these sea creatures find their way into one of the most helpful preservers of history in all of nature? And how is it that most of the contents of this amber are far younger than the biggest mystery of all: One very, very old ammonite.

Hummingbird-inspired drone could one day help in a disaster

Shane McGlaun | May 14, 2019

Researchers from Purdue University have been working on drones powered by AI that can mimic some of the abilities that hummingbirds possess. The team believes if they were able to engineer a drone with the abilities of a hummingbird, like the ability to hover and change direction quickly, the drones could be helpful in disaster situations. The drones were trained using machine learning algorithms to use techniques that the tiny bird uses naturally every day.

NASA seeks extra $1.6 billion to boost its return to the Moon

Brittany A. Roston | May 13, 2019

In order to meet the Trump administration's desire to return to the Moon by 2024, NASA will seek another $1.6 billion for its fiscal year 2020, it has been revealed. The deadline is a revision of the previous 2028 goal of returning humans to the lunar surface; Vice President Pence declared the new 2024 goal during the National Space Council meeting held earlier this year.

The Moon is shrinking: Five decades on, Apollo mission data still surprising

Chris Davies | May 13, 2019

The Moon is not only still active tectonically, but shrinking, NASA says, generating "moonquakes" as it slowly contracts. The new findings combined data from multiple Moon missions that took place nearly five decades ago with the LRO Mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which is currently mapping out the surface of Earth's satellite.

Atmospheric CO2 exceeded 415 ppm on May 11

Shane McGlaun | May 13, 2019

A record has just been set for the highest ever reading for the level of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere. The reading was recorded on May 11, 2019, and was 415.26 ppm (parts per million). That is the highest level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since humans have been on Earth.