From Silicon Valley to Valles Marineris: is humanity ready for Elon Musk’s Mars vision?

Sep 29, 2016 13:34 pm UTC| Science

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has laid out plans for his aerospace company SpaceX to transport human beings to and from Mars. His presentation, held at the International Astronautical Congress in Mexico, had been long...

Underwater robots help scientists see where marine larvae go and how they get there

Sep 28, 2016 15:50 pm UTC| Technology Science

Many people who love the oceans never realize that a single drop of seawater is teeming with plankton, which means drifters in Greek. These organisms, which typically range in size from a pinhead down to the tip of a pin,...

Crashing space station shows why China must start to collaborate in orbit

Sep 27, 2016 18:19 pm UTC| Science

China launched the second vehicle in its Tiangong (meaning Heavenly palace) programme to construct a space station in early September. Despite the success of the launch, the announcement was overshadowed by the...

Making space rocket fuel from water could drive a power revolution on Earth

Sep 27, 2016 15:55 pm UTC| Science

Researchers led by NASAs former chief technologist are hoping to launch a satellite carrying water as the source of its fuel. The team from Cornell University, guided by Mason Peck, want their device to become the first...

Science in crisis: from the sugar scam to Brexit, our faith in experts is fading

Sep 27, 2016 14:27 pm UTC| Science

This is a Foundation Essay for The Conversation Global. Our series of Foundation Essays provide an in-depth investigation of a particular global challenge. In this piece, Andrea Saltelli asks whats behind the worldwide...

COVID Virus Crisis

How the smell of chickens repels the most common malaria carrying mosquito

Sep 25, 2016 15:52 pm UTC| Science

One of the worlds dominant malaria vectors is Anopheles arabiensis. Humans are its preferred blood meal although it also feeds on other livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep. But recent research shows that chickens are...

How do antibiotic-resistant bacteria get into the environment?

Sep 22, 2016 23:03 pm UTC| Science Nature

Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health problem. The United Nations recently acknowledged this as one of the biggest threats to modern medicine, dedicating a high-level meeting to the issue at the 2016 General...