Technology

A new study has recently revealed that first stars started to shine 100 million years later than previously thought, as they started to shine around 550 million years after the Big Bang.

New maps from ESA’s Planck satellite uncover the “polarized” light from the early universe across the entire sky, revealing that the first stars are actually younger than previously thought.

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has recently captured a rare triple moon transit of Jupiter.

Hubble took a string of images of the event which show the three of Jupiter’s largest moons, Europa, Callisto and Io, in action.

The three moons are known as Galilean moons since they were discovered by the scientist during the 17th century. With orbits ranging from two to 17 days, it’s common for at least one of the moons to be seen orbiting the Jupiter. However, the convergence of the three is an occurrence so rare that NASA said it happens only once or twice per decade.

A team of researcher has engineered a ‘malaria-in-a-dish’ method that paves the way for better treatments.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have come up with a way to use human liver cells, derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, to screen potential antimalarial drugs and vaccines for their ability to treat the liver stage of malaria infection.

“Not all termites are pest” because a new research has revealed that dirt mounds made by termites are crucial to stopping deserts from spreading into semi-arid ecosystems.

The National Science Foundation study found that in the parched grasslands and savannas, or drylands, of Africa, South America and Asia, termite mounds store nutrients and moisture and via internal tunnels, allow water to better penetrate the soil.

As a result, vegetation flourishes on and near termite mounds in ecosystems that are otherwise vulnerable to desertification.

Scientists are tailoring robotic exoskeletons to make them a perfect fit for humans.

Though exoskeletons are now available commercially, they pose several problems. They take a long time to design and fabricate, for example, and the models, while costly to create, can be ill-fitting.

According to a new study, records of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere millions of years ago support current predictions on climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

A multinational research team at the University of Southampton has analysed new records showing the CO2 content of the Earth’s atmosphere between 2.3 to 3.3 million years ago, over the Pliocene.

During the Pliocene, the Earth was around 2degree C warmer than it is today and atmospheric CO2 levels were around 350-400 parts per million (ppm), similar to the levels reached in recent years.

ESA’s Rosetta probe is set to fly rather close to Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 14 February, passing just 6 km from the surface.

The probe will start a new orbit of the comet on February 7, first moving out by 140 kilometers before getting as close as six kilometers away on February 14.

The flyby will take Rosetta over the most active regions of the comet, helping scientists to understand the connection between the source of the observed activity and the atmosphere, or coma.

People may say birds are brainless, but it turns out that pigeons’ brains are equivalent to that of toddlers”.

According to the study by University of Iowa professor Ed Wasserman, the finding suggests a pigeons can categorize and name both natural and manmade objects-and not just a few objects. These birds categorized 128 photographs into 16 categories, and they did so simultaneously.

A new research has discovered that a common lab chemical can extend the life span of female fruit flies by 68 percent, suggesting that some studies on the genetic roots of aging will need a second look.

For years, scientists have engineered fruit flies whose genes can be turned on and off by a synthetic hormone, allowing detailed studies of the effects of single genes on life span. Many of the genes have close relatives in humans.

Unfortunately, the hormone used to perform the studies turns out to be anything but neutral.

A recent space research has revealed possibility of hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets, which may support life.

The new research, led by PhD student Tim Bovaird and Associate Professor Charley Lineweaver from The Australian National University calculated this by applying a 200 year old idea to the thousands of exo-planets discovered by the Kepler space telescope.

They found the standard star has about two planets in the so-called goldilocks zone, the distance from the star where liquid water, crucial for life, can exist.

A new study has revealed that nerve cells in the brain interact with each other like friends on Facebook.

Researchers from Biozentrum, University of Basel found that nerve cells form a bewildering meshwork of connections called synapses up to several thousand per cell and yet not all synaptic connections are equal. The overwhelming majority of connections are weak, and cells make only very few strong links.

A new study has revealed that a team of scientists has discovered genes responsible for how our brains work as we age, which has brought the development of new treatments for dementia closer to reality.

The University of Edinburgh study found that some people are more at risk of conditions such as Alzheimer’s, due to genetic makeup, the Daily Express reported.

A new study has provided a deeper insight into how brain can ignore distractions and can achieve such optimal inattention.

The study led by Brown University examined some volunteers to whom they asked to ignore the sensation that will be created in their fingers and toes, and they analyzed the power of brain functions through magnetoencephalography (MEG) scans.

Kolkatans will have a rare opportunity this Friday to watch Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, from close quarters.

The planet comes closest to the earth on its opposition date when earth passes more or less between the Sun and the Jupiter.

This year, the date falls on Friday when Jupiter would be coming within 650 million km of the earth. This would be Jupiter’s closest until 2019.