Science Cosmos

      NASA engineers are spending the day researching the massive James Webb Space Telescope's power subsystem to ensure the telescope is ready to perform a critical procedure: tensioning its massive sunshield. The Webb space telescope, which launched on Dec. 25, is in the midst of a month-long deployment process to prepare it for data collection. However, the majority of the phases in that procedure are managed from the ground: While NASA has a tentative schedule for the work, mission officials can opt to change it as the project progresses. After taking Saturday (Jan. 1) off, the Webb team will analyse the observatory's power component on Sunday (Jan. 2), NASA stated. "Nothing we can learn from simulations on the ground compares to evaluating the observatory once it's up and operating," said Bill Ochs, Webb project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, in a statement released Sunday (Jan. 2). "Now is the instant to lea

  Image Credit: Helge Mißbach Organic molecules preserved in remarkably ancient rock formations in Australia have been found by researchers, exposing what they claim is the first detailed evidence of early chemical ingredients that may have underpinned the primordial microbial life-forms of Earth. The find, made in Western Australia's Pilbara Craton's 3.5 billion-year-old Dresser Formation, adds to a large body of research pointing to ancient life in this part of the world, marking one of only two pristine, uncovered land deposits on Earth dating back to the Archean Eon. In recent years, with scientists finding "definitive evidence" of microbial bio signatures dating back to 3.5 billion years ago, the hydrothermal rock of the Dresser Formation has thrown up repeated signs of what looks to be the earliest known life on earth. In a new study, researchers in Germany have now found traces of unique chemistry that may have made it possible for such primordia

  North-east Greenland's Piedmont Glacier (Coen Hofstede/Institute of Alfred Wegener) This ought to be easy. Massive quantities of water ice frozen in giant glaciers begin to thaw as temperatures on Earth get warm, dumping water into the oceans, and causing sea levels to rise. That's the tale of our lives. In the other side, as global temperatures fall, which occur during ice ages, sea levels begin to decrease, as the water content retreats from the ocean, freezing once again in large inland ice sheets. Since time immemorial, the changes from glacial to interglacial have occurred in this epic, continuing period of ice ebb and flow. But the problem is there. Scientists tracking these cycles have proposed for years now that there is a "missing ice" problem: a mysterious difference between the very low levels of the sea approximately 20,000 years ago and the amount of ice deposited at the same time in glaciers. The problem, at its heart, is this. Based o

With six legs, a newborn puppy called Skipper was born. (Image credit: Neel Veterinary Hospital)   With its unusual circumstances, the puppy, called Skipper, may be the first dog to survive. Every dog owner undoubtedly believes their canine is one of a kind, but according to news reports, a newborn puppy called Skipper is truly unique; she was born with six legs and two tails. With her unusual collection of congenital disorders, or conditions that are present at birth, her vets say Skipper could be the first dog to be born alive. It's a miracle by the name of Skipper. Literally, workers at Oklahoma's Neel Veterinary Hospital, where Skipper was treated wrote. She has lived longer than any other canine we suspect has... The hospital wrote, with its mixture of congenital conditions, adding that published research would not suggest that one [a dog with these conditions] was born alive. Skipper is a combination of a border collie and an Australian shepherd, and she was born

  (Image credit:Yves Adams) In the penguin world, black-and-white tuxedos may be the traditional dress code, but with an à la mode yellow coat, one dashing person breaks the status quo. In December 2019, a wildlife photographer took pictures of a rare penguin on a remote island in South Georgia and recently released the images. In the midst of a chaos full of sea elephants and Antarctic fur seals, and thousands of other king penguins, we were walking straight in our path, in the midst of a chaos full of sea elephants and Antarctic fur seals, and thousands of other king penguins were walking straight in our direction. How blessed could I have been? Adams was leading a two-month photography expedition through the South Atlantic at the time and had stopped at a beach in South Georgia. He saw a fluttering of penguins swimming toward the shore while unpacking protection equipment. One person instantly caught his attention. I had never seen a yellow penguin before or heard of

    According to new studies, people with radical views are not defined solely by their political, religious, or social convictions. Scientists claim that these ideological views run deep, so deep, in reality, that they can be identified in a 'psychological signature' of cognitive characteristics and abilities that typifies the radical mind's thought patterns. In the minds of those most likely to take drastic steps to uphold their ideological doctrines, latent parallels tend to exist, explains psychologist Leor Zmigrod. She and colleagues write in their newly published study that this psychological signature is novel and should stimulate more studies on the impact of dogmatism on perceptual decision-making processes. In addition, these psychological trends may be what forces certain people, the researchers say, to embrace strong or extreme ideological positions in the first place. Subtle problems with nuanced mental processing can subconsciously drive people towar

      A new speed limit for moving quantum information has just been hit by physicists   So far, scientific progress towards the future of quantum computing has involved several different breakthroughs in many different (but related) fields, and now there is a new one to report: the discovery of a critical limit of quantum velocity. A fundamental question is answered by this latest research: how swift can a quantum process be? Knowing whether you want to create a quantum computer or a quantum network is a helpful piece of knowledge, as it shows you some of the weaknesses inherent in the device. Fortunately, the team behind the new study has produced an easier-to-understand example for those of us who are not quantum physicists, which includes a professional waiter running around with a tray of drinks. How soon will all the drinks be distributed by the waiter without spilling any of the liquid? The solution, it turns out, is to speed up and slow down at some points carefully, ti

      There was not meant to be a perplexing group of alien-like beings.   Scientists inadvertently found a perplexing set of bizarre creatures about a mile beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica in a remote region 160 miles from sunlight, puzzling the researchers who thought the place was a wasteland totally devoid of existence. After melting 20 tons of snow, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey drilled through 3,000 ft. of ice to suck up seafloor sediment before lowering a camera into the frigid ocean below. They soon discovered, however, that their tunnel at the bottom of the ocean had been dug right over a rock, making it difficult to collect any sediment. Nevertheless, to the horror of the researchers, their camera was able to discover an ecosystem of life that left them baffled with what Wired described as "strange creatures," two kinds of filter feeding sea sponges that had never been encountered, living in the water at 28.04 ° F (-2.2 ° C) where rese