Science

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prehistoric opossum-sized critter dubbed the “crazy beast” that inhabited Madagascar at the end of the age of dinosaurs is providing scientists insight into early mammalian evolution even as they scratch their heads over its bewildering anatomy.Researchers on Wednesday described an exquisitely preserved fossil of the plant-eating...

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - At an outer suburban manufacturing plant, engineer Byron Kennedy is resetting a machine to spray-print a layer of copper on to a door handle, aiming to use the metal’s antiviral properties to counter the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.His firm Spee3D is better known as a producer...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.Men’s blood contains more of enzyme that helps coronavirus infect cellsA study from 11 European countries may...

A group of jumping spiders that mostly occur in Eurasia and Africa, has been spotted for the first time in Ernakulam’s Illithodu forests by arachnologists from Kochi’s Sacred Heart College, Thevara. The team also found that the spider belonging to the genus (a taxonomic classification above species) Habrocestum is a...

NASA’s plan to conduct the first all-female spacewalk this month had to be scrapped after the crew aboard the International Space Station encountered an unexpected setback — the lack of well-fitting spacesuits, the U.S. space agency said.

Scientists in southwest China’s Yunnan province have cloned what they called the ”Sherlock Holmes of police dogs” in a programme they hope will help cut training times and costs for police dogs, state media reported on Wednesday.

The state of West Virginia on Wednesday settled a lawsuit against the nation’s largest drug distributor, which had been accused of shipping nearly 100 million doses of addictive opioids to residents over a six-year period.The state’s suit accused McKesson Corporation of putting profits ahead of residents’ welfare by failing to...

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech scientists have opened a lab to experiment growing food for environments with extreme conditions and lack of water, such as Mars.The “Marsonaut” experiment by scientist Jan Lukacevic, 29, and his team at the Prague University of Life Sciences is based on aeroponics - growing plants...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The coronavirus outbreak dealt a blow to NASA’s plans to return Americans to the moon by 2024, as the space agency chief on Thursday ordered the temporary closure of two rocket production facilities after an employee tested positive for the respiratory illness.NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Red pandas, the bushy-tailed and russet-furred bamboo munchers that dwell in Asian high forests, are not a single species but rather two distinct ones, according to the most comprehensive genetic study to date on these endangered mammals.Scientists said on Wednesday they found substantial divergences between the two...

LONDON (Reuters) - One of the world’s largest lunar meteorites goes on private sale at Christie’s on Thursday, valued at 2 million pounds ($2.49 million).The moon rock, weighing over 13.5 kg, was probably struck off the surface of the moon by a collision with an asteroid or comet and then...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The sun appears to be far less active than similar stars in terms of brightness variations caused by sunspots and other phenomena - a “boring” personality, according to scientists, that may not be a bad thing for us Earthlings.Researchers said on Thursday that an examination of 369...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have solved a lingering mystery about koala behavior - how these tree-dwelling marsupials native to Australia consume enough water to live.A new study describes koala drinking behavior in the wild for the first time, finding that they lick water running down the smooth surface of tree...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brad Pitt traded laughs on Monday in a call to the International Space Station with a NASA astronaut, who somersaulted during the zero-gravity interview ahead of this week’s release of the actor’s new film, the space thriller “Ad Astra.”Pitt peppered astronaut Nick Hague with dozens of questions...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German drugmaker Bayer on Tuesday said it is to spend more than 25 billion euros ($27.22 billion) on research and development at its agriculture unit over the next 10 years.“Agriculture needs to feed a growing world without starving the planet,” Liam Condon, board member and head of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A decade after NASA sent a rocket crashing into the moon’s south pole, spewing a plume of debris that revealed vast reserves of ice beneath the barren lunar surface, the space agency is racing to pick up where its little-remembered project left off.The so-called LCROSS mission was...

BANDUNG, Indonesia (Reuters) - A watchmaker in Indonesia’s Bandung city thinks the next step in sustainability is a wristwatch with a strap made out of the complex root structure of a mushroom.Mycelium leather, as the material is known, is fibrous and tough yet pliable and waterproof, and has been touted...

IMAGE: The Army and the Lockheed Martin Corporation announced a cooperative agreement to spur scientific research in the area of Self-Assembly of Nanostructures for Tunable Materials. view more  Credit: U.S. Army photo by Conrad Johnson ...

IMAGE: GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is working with the US Department of Energy on the Versatile Test Reactor concept design that is based off of its PRISM reactor. view more  Credit: Image by GE Hitachi Nuclear...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of fossils of a primordial sea creature with rake-like claws and a head resembling a famous fictional spaceship have been unearthed in Canada, providing a wealth of information about an important predator from a key time in the evolution of life on Earth.Scientists on Tuesday said...

MIKHMORET, Israel (Reuters) - On a Mediterranean beach in Israel, a newly-hatched baby turtle fumbles along the sand, making its way to the sea for the very first time.The hatchling, one of 60 to be released into the wild this week, is part of a unique conservation program run by...