A new machine may be the tipping point for making DNA-based data storage mainstream. ...read more

A flare erupted from our Milky Way's center some 3.5 million years ago. While Earth wouldn't be in any danger if it happened today, the the light would be clearly visible. (Credit: James Josephides/ASTRO 3D) Astronomers believe supermassive black holes probably lurk in the centers of most large galaxies. These gargantuan black holes can gather swirling disks of material around them as their gravity attracts stars and gases. In some cases, these disks can emit vast amounts of light and even s ...read more

Tasty and toxic? A new study finds elevated levels of PFAS chemicals in microwave popcorn and fast food fans. (Credit: Maxim Larin/Shutterstock) BPA isn’t the only chemical in our food supply you should be aware of. A group of manmade chemicals called PFAS have been in use since the mid-20th century and they're in our water, our air, our soil and potentially in your afternoon snack. A new study finds these chemicals may pose much greater health risks than previously thought. PFA ...read more

NASA’s X-57 Maxwell is the agency’s first all-electric airplane. It's also the first X-plane for NASA in two decades. (Credit: NASA) NASA is getting ready to test their first all-electric plane, the X-57 Maxwell, at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. This latest version of the aircraft, called Modification II or Mod II, just arrived at Edwards from San Luis Obispo, California, where the plane was being developed by Empirical Systems Aerospace. E ...read more

(Credit: Africa Studio/Shutterstock) If you get a cut, it'll heal. If you lose some skin to road rash, it'll grow back. But lose a limb, and it's gone for good. Unless you're a salamander, a zebrafish or an axolotl, of course — all of which can regrow missing limbs. Now, scientists find that some of the molecules crucial to that process are at work inside of us. Specific microRNA molecules are key to limb regeneration in salamanders. It turns out that similar molecules in our own bod ...read more

A reconstruction of the predatory dinosaur's skull based on partial fossils of Siamraptor suwati. (Credit: Chokchaloemwong et al., 2019) Siamraptor suwati joins the ranks of predatory dinosaurs known to science — and it's the first of its lineage from Southeast Asia, giving its discovery greater significance. When it comes to bitey dinos, most people think of T. rex and velociraptors (thanks, Jurassic Park...). But if toothy terrors are your thing, you should really get to know t ...read more

(Credit: Abigail Malate, Staff Illustrator. Copyright American Institute of Physics) (Inside Science) -- The 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists "for the development of lithium-ion batteries." The prize goes jointly to John B. Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin, M. Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University in New York, and Akira Yoshino, of Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan. At 97, Goodenough will be the oldest Nobel laureate ever awar ...read more

The new orbiter will orbit in the ionosphere and study the interactions of Earth and space weather. (Credit: ASA Goddard's Conceptual Image Lab/B. Monroe) NASA will launch its Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite on Wednesday, October 9, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:30 p.m. EDT. The new satellite will orbit Earth, studying what happens when space weather and Earth weather interact in Earth’s ionosphere, the atmosphere level populated by ions a ...read more

The first exoplanets ever discovered were found orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. It took years for astronomers to find exoplanets around sun-like stars. (Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech) In 1992, astronomers discovered the first exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system. But it didn’t come in any form they’d really anticipated. Neutron stars are the second densest type of object in the universe outside black holes. They form when a giant star dies and explodes outward as a result ...read more

Following the only deaths to have ever occurred in space, the USSR started a policy requiring all cosmonauts to wear pressurized spacesuits during reentry. (Credit: Peakpx.com) For many wannabe astronauts, the idea of venturing into the great unknown would be a dream come true. But over the past 50 years, there's been a slew of spaceflight-related tragedies that are more akin to an astronaut's worst nightmare. In the last half-century, about 30 astronauts and cosmonauts have died while tr ...read more