Technology

Astronomers have said that the planets Kepler-56b and Kepler-56c are going to be swallowed by their star in a short time by astronomical standards.

Their ends will come in 130 million and 155 million years, respectively.

Lead author Gongjie Li of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), said as far as they know, this is the first time two known exoplanets in a single system have a predicted “time of death.”

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has said that alien contact, which is the next frontier – may have already come and gone.

Speaking to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, the ‘Cosmos’ presenter said that his great fear is that they’ve been visited by extraterrestrials, but they chose not to make contact with us, on the conclusion that there’s no sign of intelligent life on Earth, CNET reported.

Tyson said that there’s plenty of organic matter in the Universe and that it is perfectly possible that planets out there have outlived their intelligent species.ANI

A multi-center phase I study using an investigational drug for advanced bladder cancer patients who did not respond to other treatments has shown promising results in patients with certain tumor types, researchers report.

Yale Cancer Center played a key role in the study, the results of which will be presented Saturday, May 31 at the 2014 annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

Researchers have said that reducing emissions will be the primary way to fight climate change.

Daniela Cusack, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of geography in UCLA’s College of Letters and Science, said they found that climate engineering doesn’t offer a perfect option.

She said that the perfect option is reducing emissions.

NASA’s sun-observing IRIS spacecraft has captured its first stunning close-up of a colossal coronal mass ejection (CME) erupting from the sun.

The field of view for this imagery is about five times the width of earth and about seven-and-half times its length, a tremendous sheet of solar material can be seen erupting in a latest video released by NASA.

The view is unprecedented for IRIS which was launched in June last year to observe the lowest levels of the sun’s atmosphere with better resolution than ever before.

People with narcissistic tendencies can feel empathy for another person’s suffering if they are persuaded to take that person’s perspective.

“If we encourage narcissists to consider the situation from their teammate or friend’s point of view, they are likely to respond in a much more considerate and sympathetic way,” said Erica Hepper from University of Surrey in Britain.

The researchers studied participants in three different situations and found that individuals high in narcissism were capable of higher empathy when instructed to take that person’s perspective.

Unlike what they actually practice – pursuing aggressive, life-prolonging treatment for terminally-ill patients – most physicians would like to forego it for themselves, a new study reveals.

Most physicians would choose a do-not-resuscitate or “no code” status for themselves when they are terminally ill, according to a study from Stanford University School of Medicine.

“Why do we physicians choose to pursue such aggressive treatment for our patients when we would not choose it for ourselves?” asked V.J. Periyakoil, lead author of the study.

To help test solar cell properties and find ways to boost their efficiency, researchers have developed a laser-based instrument that generates artificial sunlight.

The device simulates sunlight well across a broad spectrum of visible to infrared light.

More flexible than conventional solar simulators such as xenon arc-lamps or light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the laser instrument can be focused down to a small beam spot.

If you wish to sell your old laptop online before buying a new tablet, restrain the urge to upload several photos as researchers have found that too many photos can confuse consumers and dent your chances of selling.

Looking at more photos when making product comparisons can ultimately inhibit consumers from noticing what differentiates them in the first place.

A “vintage” sun explorer NASA spacecraft lost in space early in 1980s has now been established contact with by a group of private space science enthusiasts.

“Our team has established two-way communication with the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft and has begun commanding it to perform specific functions,” scientists associated with the “ISEE-3 Reboot Project” were quoted as saying.

In 1982, the ISEE-3 satellite was pulled away from its solar mission and joined a mini international race to make the first encounter with Halley’s comet.

Do you know that the current rate of extinction of the world’s threatened species – driven primarily by human activity – is roughly 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate, an alarming number that is likely to grow.

To stem the loss of the world’s threatened species, the world requires new tools to collect and share information.

“Online databases, smart phone apps, crowd sourcing and new hardware are making it easier to collect data on species,” said lead author of a study, Stuart L. Pimm of Duke University.

A Curtin University researcher has revealed that Australia’s deadly eruptions, which occurred over 510 million years ago, were the significant reason behind the climate change that caused history’s first known mass extinction.

Fred Jourdan from Curtin’s Department of Applied Geology used the radioactive dating techniques to precisely measure the age of the eruptions of the Kalkarindji volcanic province where lavas covered an area of more than 2 million square kilometers in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has shed light on the mystery over why giant elliptical galaxies have few, if any, young stars.

This new evidence highlights the important role that supermassive black holes play in the evolution of their host galaxies.

Because star-forming activity in many giant elliptical galaxies has shut down to very low levels, these galaxies mostly house long-lived stars with low masses and red optical colors. Astronomers have therefore called these galaxies “red and dead.”