Lifeboat Foundation

On Wednesday, November 7, NASA will launch its Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft to study the ionosphere. This boundary lies between space and Earth, being home to a “sea” of charged electrons and ions; it reacts to both lower atmosphere weather and solar energy, the result being space weather. NASA’s ICON will study this, offering unprecedented scientific data.

A tiny fossil rove beetle helps to reconstruct the breakup of the former supercontinent Gondwana 99 million years ago and the formation of our modern world.

The Netherlands exports more crops than almost any other country in the world and places a lot of value on sustainable, eco-friendly agriculture.

The smartphone of the future is rolling out soon.

“The problems the Bay Area is facing are the problems of success,” says Grant. The northern California metropolis is among the top 50 science cities in the Nature Index, measured by its contribution to the authorship of 82 high-quality research journals. When assessed solely on the output of its corporate institutions, it ranks number one. The question is whether the Bay Area can, in the face of mounting social problems, retain these companies and the brilliant researchers whose work they depend on.

Scientific innovation has long powered the San Francisco Bay Area’s economy, but community and political challenges could undermine progress.

Abstract: ‘Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is the first object of interstellar origin observed in the Solar system.

Recently, Micheli et al. (2018) reported that ‘Oumuamua showed deviationsfrom a Keplerian orbit at a high statistical significance.

Scientists in Japan have developed the world’s first test that can detect cancers in patient urine samples. The breakthrough technology by Japanese researchers from engineering firm Hitachi has been in development for two years and it may be made available by 2020.

According to Agence France-Presse, the research team will work with Nagoya University to analyze 250 urine samples to check for breast, colon, and childhood forms of the disease in central Japan. The experiments will begin this month and end in September.

Continue reading “Japan Develops World’s First Test to Detect Cancer via Urine Samples” »

The future of mass depends on a conference vote next week.

A long-discussed resolution for next week’s General Conference on Weights and Measures would toss out the international prototype of the kilogram—a hunk of platinum and iridium in Paris that everyone agrees weighs 1 kilogram. Instead, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) would redefine the International System of Units to ensure that kilograms are based on things that can’t change over time. It would require an entire rethinking of how kilograms work.

The blog Retraction Watch released an online database of more than 18,000 papers and conference materials that have been retracted since the 1970s.