Japan's experiment module on ISS, called Kibo. (Credit: NASA) Astronauts living on the International Space Station spend hours working out every day just to avoid losing serious muscle mass and bone density in microgravity. But will such precautions be needed to live on worlds that are simply lower in gravity than Earth, like the moon and Mars? And what effect would such gravity have on growing children? These questions are almost entirely unanswered by science, but they're vital for humani ...read more

Rachel Seevers shows off her jellyfish-inspired propulsion device at ISEF. (Credit: Chris Ayers, Society for Science & the Public) Seventeen-year-old Rachel Seevers waited nervously at the 2019 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The high school senior was about to demonstrate a new kind of underwater propulsion system she’d created and tested in her parents’ basement. But no one came to talk to her. So, Seevers tried an experiment. She and a nearby male partici ...read more

Canadian John Hodge, left, with astronaut Al Shepard and Flight Director Chris Kraft. NASA. There was nothing particularly different about February 20, 1959. For the workers at the A.V. Roe plant in Malton, Ontario, it was just another Friday working on cutting-edge aircraft before the chilly winter weekend. Then, out of nowhere that afternoon, the plant’s public announcement system crackled to life. A.V. Roe’s President Crawford Gordon’s angry voice addressed the workforce ...read more

An artist's depiction of Lucy, the world's most famous Australopithecus africanus. (Credit: Greg Grabowski/Shutterstock) In the savannah of southern Africa three million years ago, an early human species known as Australopithecus africanus roamed the tropical grasslands chomping on a diverse diet of fruits, leaves and roots. The hominins ate well when the land was ripe with bounty, but seasonal rains and lengthy dry spells meant food was often scarce. Now an international team of rese ...read more

Astronomers measured red giant stars to figure out a new measure of how fast the universe is expanding. (Credit: Norval Glover/University of Chicago) If you’re confused by modern cosmology, you’re not alone. Cosmologists themselves are confused, and two new results, using very different methods, add to their collective bewilderment. The results are measurements of how fast the universe is expanding, known as the Hubble constant. In recent years, astronomers keep finding strangely ...read more

Archinaut One will test 3-D printing spacecraft components, and then assembling them, in low-Earth orbit. (Credit: Made in Space, Inc.) Putting a satellite in space is news of the past, but launching a spacecraft that can 3-D print and self-assemble is a story of the future. NASA is now betting on the technology being ready for prime time as early as 2022. Last week, the space agency announced that they had awarded a $73.7 million contract to a startup company called Made In Space, Inc. ...read more

Could moons around hot Jupiters, like the exoplanet shown in this artist's concept, be stripped from the planets they orbit? New research suggests the answer is yes, and the researchers have defined such objects as "ploonets." (Credit: ESA/ATG medialab) Astronomers can’t stop debating about the definition of a planet (see: Pluto). But one thing is for sure — there are a lot of objects that skirt the line between two types of cosmic bodies. Now, researchers are adding a new kin ...read more

An artist's illustration shows the eventual Starship, SpaceX's future passenger vehicle, launching above the clouds. (Credit: SpaceX) Exploring space on your next family vacation is still a few years in the future. But Elon Musk now says that Starhopper, the prototype for SpaceX’s future passenger spacecraft, could be tested as soon as July 16 at the company’s facility near Brownsville, Texas. That would coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo launch. In a tweet on Jul ...read more

(Credit: Discover; Pavel Chagochkin/Shutterstock) (Inside Science) -- Shields made of a material so light it is sometimes called "frozen smoke" could help make areas on Mars livable, a new study suggests. Currently, the surface of Mars is too cold for water to stay liquid, often thought of as a key prerequisite for life as we know it. Moreover, its atmosphere is too thin to shield against hostile ultraviolet radiation, which is dangerous to life. Scientists have suggested a number of s ...read more

Ochre engraving on a rib fragment from China is the oldest evidence for the material's symbolic usage, say researchers behind the find (top: photograph; bottom: illustration). (Credit: Francesco d’Errico and Luc Doyon) Two pieces of animal bones with ochre engraving, found in central China, are the latest evidence that members of the human family used the material to express abstract ideas much earlier than once believed — and much further from Africa. Researchers studying the ...read more