Technology 16 April 2021 By Matthew Sparkes A robotic elephant trunk that uses artificial intelligence to mimic some aspects of brains could lead to snake-like machines that can roam and adapt to new tasks. Sebastian Otte at the University of Tubingen in Germany and his colleagues created a 3D-printed robot trunk from segments that each…
Environment 16 April 2021 By Donna Lu Woman walking during the rainy season in VietnamNick Dolding / Getty ImagesA climate model can now reliably predict the strength of the Asian summer monsoon – and tropical cyclone activity associated with it – more than one year ahead of time, which could enable government agencies to make…
By Leah Crane The New Shepard booster after returning to the landing pad on 14 AprilBlue OriginBlue Origin, the space flight company founded by Jeff Bezos, has completed what may be its last test flight before attempting to put astronauts aboard its New Shepard rocket. On 14 April, the US-based company launched the spacecraft –…
Environment 15 April 2021 By Matthew Sparkes An infrared camera shows how a sample of the whitest paint (the dark purple square in the middle on the right) cools the board below ambient temperaturePurdue University/Joseph PeoplesAn extremely white paint that reflects 98.1 per cent of sunlight can cool itself by radiating heat into deep space.…
By Christa Lesté-Lasserre The central bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) of Australia can change sex before hatchingMOAimage / Getty ImagesSome lizards that begin developing as males will actually hatch as females if the egg is particularly warm – and now we know why. The heat triggers genes that override chromosomal sex determination. In the 1960s, French…
By Simon Ings Daisy Ridley as Viola Eade and Tom Holland as Todd Hewitt in Chaos WalkingMurray Close/LionsgateIn Chaos Walking, Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) is learning to be a man – and in Prentisstown, ostensibly the only settlement to survive humanity’s arrival on the planet New World, this means keeping your thoughts to yourself. Something…
By Michael Le Page , Clare Wilson , Jessica Hamzelou , Sam Wong , Graham Lawton , Adam Vaughan , Conrad Quilty-Harper and Layal Liverpool A devotee attends an evening prayer on the banks of Ganges river during Kumbh Mela, or the Pitcher Festival, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Haridwar, India.REUTERS/Danish…
Space 12 April 2021 By David Hambling Nuclear thermal rockets could be more manoeuvrable in spaceDARPAThe US is taking steps to put a nuclear-powered rocket in orbit by 2025, paving the way for navigation in space to become much easier. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to turn the long-studied concept of a…
By Ian Morse Spiders are mostly blind, but their webs are sensitive to disturbances, which they detect with their legs. Now, scientists have created an audio-visual virtual reality take on this that converts a web’s vibrations to sounds we can hear, giving us an idea of what it might feel like to be a spider.…
By Leah Crane NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter photographed by the Perseverance rover on 5 AprilNASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUThe first drone on another world is ready to fly. The Ingenuity helicopter is primed to lift off from the surface of Mars on 12 April, which will be the first powered flight on another planet. NASA’s Perseverance rover, which launched…
By Ibrahim Sawal A female putty-nose monkey C.Kolopp/WCSWhen faced with a predator, female putty-nosed monkeys will call males to help protect them from the threat. Putty-nosed monkeys (Cercopithecus nictitans) live in the forests of West Africa in groups of one male with multiple females and their offspring. The male will tend to roam further from…
By Michael Marshall Mnemiopsis leidyi at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, CaliforniaFRANS LANTING, MINT IMAGES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYMarine animals called comb jellies have nervous systems unlike those of any other known animal. Their neurons are oddly shaped and use chemicals not found in those of other animals. “These neurons are quite unique,” says Pawel Burkhardt at the…