[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n just hours, NASA’s InSight spacecraft will enter the atmosphere of Mars after traveling 301,223,981 miles during a seven-month period. If all goes well, the craft will enter the atmosphere, deploy a chute and utilize retro-rockets to touch down on the red planet six minutes before 11 am Alaska time today. NASA’s InSight stands for Interior […]
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n 1908, a colossal blast incinerated a swath of wilderness deep in Siberia, at about the same latitude as Anchorage. The explosion that July day registered on seismic recorders all over the world. Within minutes, 80 million trees lay flat and scorched in a circle 60 miles wide. Scientists calculated the shock was more than […]
A planet has been detected orbiting Barnard’s Star, a mere 6 light-years away. This breakthrough — announced in a paper published today in the journal Nature — is a result of the Red Dots and CARMENES projects, whose search for local rocky planets has already uncovered a new world orbiting our nearest neighbour, Proxima Centauri. The planet, designated Barnard’s Star b, now steps […]
Pancreatic cancer cells are known for their ability to thrive under extreme conditions of low nutrients and oxygen, a trait known in the cancer field as “austerity.” The cells’ remarkable resistance to starvation is one reason why pancreatic cancer is so deadly. Now researchers have identified a compound from a Congolese plant that has strong […]