World News

Mars didn’t lose all of its water at once, based on Curiosity rover find

Mars was a warm, wet planet that was likely capable of supporting life billions of years ago. Something caused the planet to lose its atmosphere and turn into the harsh, frozen desert it is today. The Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, has been exploring different aspects of Gale Crater on Mars to…

Alexey Navalny’s press secretary says he’s ‘dying’ as Russian prosecutors target his foundation

The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office filed a lawsuit on Friday with Moscow City Court seeking to label jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation known as FBK and his headquarters as “extremist” organizations. Meanwhile, Navalny’s supporters say that his medical condition is rapidly deteriorating. His press secretary said that Navalny was “dying” and his doctors said…

Space is the final frontier for archaeologists

The boot prints left by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong are a tangible legacy of one of humanity’s greatest achievements — putting a man on the moon. It’s a technological feat easily on par with Egypt’s pyramids, the Great Wall or Stonehenge — but how should the Apollo 11 mission site and others be preserved…

Mars helicopter’s first flight could happen on Monday

Mars helicopter’s first flight could happen on Monday

The Ingenuity helicopter is preparing for its historic flight on Mars Monday if everything goes according to plan. The first powered, controlled flight on another planet will take place at 3:30 a.m. ET on April 19, according to NASA. Unlike when the helicopter’s fellow traveler, the Perseverance rover, landed on Mars on February 18, we…

Global Covid-19 death toll passes 3 million as cases surge

Global Covid-19 death toll passes 3 million as cases surge

More than three million people globally have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, Johns Hopkins University said on Saturday. With 566,224 deaths, the US has the highest number of fatalities, followed by Brazil with 368,749 and Mexico with 211,693. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday the pandemic was at a…

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts have landed back on Earth

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts have landed back on Earth

Just days after the International Space Station’s crew reached 10 people, three have returned to Earth. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins ended their 185-day mission on the space station Friday. Their departure in the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft aired live on NASA’s TV channel and website. The hatch closed…

Must-watch videos of the week

A driver-less boat goes nuts, a pupper gets a horrific adoption ad and popcorn salad stuns the internet. These are the must-watch videos of the week. Berserk boat alert The Coast Guard had to stop a small craft that was out of control off the coast of Miami, after the owner and only passenger had…

Brood X is almost here. Billions of cicadas to emerge in eastern US

Brood X is almost here. Billions of cicadas to emerge in eastern US

Love is in the air this spring in the eastern United States, where billions of cicadas will soon appear in the biggest emergence event since 2004. The insects are part of a group called Brood X — also known as the Great Eastern Brood — which is expected in a geographical range stretching from Tennessee…

Giant radio pulses and X-ray surges are coming from the Crab Nebula

Giant radio pulses and X-ray surges are coming from the Crab Nebula

The hauntingly beautiful Crab Nebula, located 6,500 light-years away in the Taurus constellation, is releasing an incredible amount of energy. The nebula is six light-years wide, and it’s a growing cloud of debris formed from a supernova explosion. (A light-year is six trillion miles). The light from this supernova first reached Earth in July 1054…

Researchers now have an estimate for just how many T. rex once roamed Earth

Researchers now have an estimate for just how many T. rex once roamed Earth

Billions of Tyrannosaurus rex roamed North America during their fascinating reign as top predators, according to a team of researchers that went about the daunting task of making the calculation. Paleontologists from the University of California, Berkeley, set out to put a number on how many T. rex lived during the Cretaceous period — about…

The US could have 300M extra vaccines. Why won’t it share?

The US could have 300M extra vaccines. Why won’t it share?

The United States could have around 300 million excess Covid-19 shots by the end of July, health policy experts at Duke University estimated in a report Thursday, calling on the country to share doses more widely to address the stark inequality around global vaccine distribution. The US has provided limited shipments of AstraZeneca’s vaccine —…

Why Mars? The fascination with exploring the red planet

Why Mars? The fascination with exploring the red planet

The mystique of Mars is one that humans can’t seem to resist. The red planet has easily captured our interest for centuries, heavily featured in science fiction books and films and the subject of robotic exploration since the 1960s. In February, three spacecraft arrived at Mars after departing from different launch points on Earth in…

Johnson & Johnson rare blood clot concerns deal new blow to global vaccination drive

Johnson & Johnson rare blood clot concerns deal new blow to global vaccination drive

Reports that the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine may, in extremely rare cases, cause blood clots has dealt a fresh blow to the world’s vaccination drive, just weeks after similar concerns were raised over the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. On Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson said it would suspend shots across the United…

Eat like an astronaut (or a TikTok star) with these tortilla hacks

Eat like an astronaut (or a TikTok star) with these tortilla hacks

For astronauts aboard the International Space Station, sourdough is off-limits and whole wheat is out of bounds. It’s not because anyone is on a gluten-free diet, however. Tortillas are preferred over bread in a weightless environment because they don’t crumble and leave crumbs floating around, according to NASA. Since the astronauts don’t have the luxury…

There’s a fix for what ails the Mars helicopter’s software

There’s a fix for what ails the Mars helicopter’s software

The first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars is still delayed, but the mission’s team is working on a solution to make it possible. The helicopter returned data to mission teams on Earth late Friday evening that caused NASA to reschedule the first flight. Ingenuity conducted a high-speed test of its rotors Friday, but…

What alien raindrops on other planets have in common with rain on Earth

What alien raindrops on other planets have in common with rain on Earth

Our solar system boasts a diverse range of planets, but some of them may share a common phenomenon with Earth: raindrops. Rain on other planets is something scientists are still striving to understand, but new research has suggested raindrops themselves are incredibly similar even in different planetary environments. The more scientists know about clouds and…

WHO calls for ‘reality check’ as global Covid-19 cases surge for seventh week

WHO calls for ‘reality check’ as global Covid-19 cases surge for seventh week

The World Health Organization has warned that the world needs a “reality check” on the state of the pandemic, as countries abandon restrictions despite four weeks of rising deaths and seven weeks of rising cases globally. Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for coronavirus response, said 4.4 million Covid-19 infections had been recorded across…