Science

By Science Daily   There are some 100 million other places in the Milky Way galaxy that could support complex life, report a group of university astronomers in the journal Challenges. They have developed a new computation method to examine data from planets orbiting other stars in the universe. Their study provides the first quantitative …

By Ian Sample and Alex Hern   A computer program named Eugene Goostman which imitates a Ukrainian teenager with a quirky sense of humour and a pet guinea pig has won an artificial intelligence competition at the Royal Society in London. The program convinced 10 out of 30 judges at the nation’s most prestigious scientific institution that it was a real person …

By Jesse Emspak   An enormous explosion, rivaling the most powerful outbursts in the universe, called a supernova, has been created in a lab, along with the associated shock wave of charged particles, scientists report. The scientists from the University of Oxford weren’t just looking to blow things up. Led by Gianluca Gregori and graduate student Jena Meinecke, …

By Jeanna Bryner   A mysterious disease that is turning sea stars to goo has taken off along the Oregon coast, with up to half or more of the creatures being infected in just the last few weeks, scientists say. Until now, Oregon was the one state along the U.S. West Coast essentially spared from …

By Pranav Dixit   This is big. A computer program has successfully managed to fool a bunch of researchers into thinking that it was a 13-year-old boy named Eugene Goostman. In doing so, it has become the first in the world to have successfully passed the Turing Test. The test is named after computer pioneer Alan …

By Grabriella Munoz A conventional soccer ball has 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons, good enough for a friendly match with your mates. But that design is so last century when it comes to the innovation needed for the 2014 World Cup. Researchers in Japan compared the stability of the Brazuca, the official ball of this …

By Will Dunham   A spectacular fossil find in China – a prehistoric egg extravaganza from 120 million years ago – is providing unique insight into the lifestyle and gender differences of pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs. Until now, only four pterosaur eggs had ever been found, and all were flattened during the …

By Mark Kinver   Forest species are coming under increasing pressure from human activities and climate change, and face the risk of extinction, the UN warns. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has published a global action plan to improve management of the world’s forest genetic resources. It describes forest ecosystems as “essential refuges for biodiversity”. …

By Matt McGrath China’s senior climate negotiator says his scientists are divided over when their carbon emissions will peak. Reports earlier this week suggested that China would introduce an overall emissions cap by 2020. Speaking on the fringes of UN climate talks in Bonn, Xie Zhenhua said that his country was determined to peak “as …

By Paul Steinhardt. When a team of cosmologists announced at a press conference in March that they had detected gravitational waves generated in the first instants after the Big Bang, the origins of the Universe were once again major news. The reported discovery created a worldwide sensation in the scientific community, the media and the public …

By NASA Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have assembled a comprehensive picture of the evolving universe – among the most colorful deep space images ever captured by the 24-year-old telescope. Researchers say the image, in new study called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, provides the missing link in star formation. …

By Scott Gavura   One of the most pervasive yet appealing health myths is the idea that natural equals safe. It’s a statement that’s repeated constantly by manufacturers of supplements and “natural” health products. It’s been the primary argument used, with considerable success, to give these products completely different regulatory structures than exist for drug products. …