President Joe Biden’s top science adviser Eric Lander resigned, hours after the White House confirmed that an internal investigation found credible evidence that he mistreated his staff, marking the first Cabinet-level departure of the Biden administration. An internal review last year, prompted by a workplace complaint, found evidence that Lander, the director of the Office
Science
With nowhere really to go, journalists inside the Beijing Olympics bubble are encouraged to sleep on the job. They can’t visit the village rooms where competitors are staying, but they can try out the high-tech beds athletes are sleeping in. Several corridors at the main media center are lined with “sleep rest cabins,” small pods
In a strange discovery, scientists have found twin asteroids that may be Earth’s newest neighbours. The asteroids, separated by about 600,000 miles, seem to have separated from a parent asteroid only a few centuries ago. The asteroids were discovered as separate entities in August 2019. However, within a month, the similarity in their orbiting patterns
Reports suggest that a part of a Falcon 9 rocket safely broke down over Mexico after falling through the Earth’s atmosphere. The incident occurred five years after the SpaceX rocket had sent a satellite to space. In March 2017, this spacecraft had helped launch the EchoStar 23 mission. A video of the disintegrating rocket was
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has installed a new supercomputer which is claimed to be one of the most powerful of its kind in the country. It is commissioned Param Pravega and has been installed under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), it is claimed to be the largest supercomputer in an academic institution. IISc’s Param
Planets do not take much longer to form after stars have formed. For example, the Sun formed 4.6 billion years ago and the Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. However, scientists now say it is not necessarily the only possibility. They say planets can form even if a star is nearing its death, long after
A giant asteroid, estimated to be up to 1.3km in diameter, is heading towards us and will make a close pass by next month. The potentially hazardous asteroid, called 138971 (2001 CB21), will come as close as 4.5 million km. But scientists say there is no need to worry as the asteroid will be about
NASA has shared a set of three images from the universe on social media, highlighting the collaboration between its two observatories. The collaboration showed what kind of images could be produced when you look at the same object in two wavelengths of light. NASA said the images were created by combining the data from its
Since its launch three decades ago, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured millions of stunning images of the cosmos. On its first launch anniversary on April 24 in 1991, it observed something amazing. It’s called the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant and it is located 2,600 light-years away from Earth. Sharing the image on Twitter, NASA
NASA has again delayed the final prelaunch test of Artemis I, an uncrewed mission that will be the stepping stone for returning humans to the Moon after several decades. The wet dress rehearsal was previously scheduled for February and has now been postponed to mid-March. This could now delay the actual launch of Artemis I
International Space Station (ISS) is entering its final decade of operational life and NASA is planning to open it for commercial activities. The space agency has detailed the transition plan in a new report. It outlines the steps being taken by NASA to develop “both the supply and demand side” of the low-Earth-orbit commercial economy.
A US intelligence agency said Wednesday that its newest spy satellite successfully launched into orbit atop a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The SpaceX rocket took off at 12:27 pm local time (01:57am IST on February 3) from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which is in charge of
Rain Neuromorphics, a startup designing chips that mimic the way the brain works and aims to serve companies using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, said on Wednesday it raised $25 million (roughly Rs. 187 crore). Gordon Wilson, CEO and co-founder of Rain, said that while most AI chips on the market today are digital, his company’s
Speculations about a second Trojan asteroid sharing Earth’s orbit have come to an end. Researchers have confirmed that it’s indeed real. Astronomers believed they had discovered a second Trojan asteroid orbiting Earth in 2020, which sparked rounds of speculation. Scientists affirm that the first confirmed Trojan asteroid isn’t an exceptional case after the most recent
The executive producer and host of Gimlet Media’s Science Vs podcast said she would devote her fact-checking show exclusively to contradicting misinformation on other podcasts carried by parent company Spotify. The announcement by Wendy Zukerman builds on protests by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and others against Spotify’s Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. They say Spotify is
Don’t be surprised if you look at photos of the surface of Mars and see a giant cross-section of a tree stump. Recent photos of the Red Planet show large concentric rings on the surface. These rings look very similar to a tree stump’s rings. But that’s not the case. The European Space Agency (ESA)
After several delays, SpaceX has finally launched an Italian satellite aboard its Falcon 9 rocket from a station in Florida, US. The space company founded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk initially planned to launch the Earth-observation satellite last week but continuous bad weather forced it to reschedule the launch several times. A window of
NASA’s Hubble telescope is known to capture spectacular glimpses of spatial objects as it is placed strategically and has an unrestricted view of the universe. It recently released an image of a group of three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A. Placed in the constellation Phoenix, these galaxies are about 425 million light-years from the Earth.
Australian researchers have found an unusual spinning object in our galaxy that flashes at regular intervals, but they are clueless about why it is doing so. There’s not much known about this mysterious object except that it sends out radio signals three times an hour and is located within the Milky Way. The object lies
Wildlife films, as seen and experienced by people on TV, are captured with the help of extremely sophisticated and expensive equipment. These cool cameras and gadgets are operated by some of the world’s best cinematographers, but this does not mean you cannot get into the amazing world of wildlife filmmaking. By making the right gear