science news

Disposable personal electronics in the offing

The advance may lead to eco-friendly disposable personal electronics and biomedical devices that dissolve within the body, researchers said.

Sep 11, 2017, 13:31 PM IST

Fossilised hair five times rarer than feathers: Study

Fossil beds that preserve soft tissues like hair and feathers are called lagerstatte and are rare on their own.

Sep 11, 2017, 11:51 AM IST

Scientists turn human skin cells directly into motor neurons

Unlike commonly studied mouse motor neurons, human motor neurons growing in the lab would be a new tool since researchers cannot take samples of these neurons from living people but can easily take skin samples.

Sep 09, 2017, 18:42 PM IST

Scientists find way to produce methanol, create fuel using air

Methanol is currently produced by breaking down natural gas at high temperatures into hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide before reassembling them - expensive and energy-intensive processes known as 'steam reforming' and 'methanol synthesis.'

Sep 08, 2017, 16:08 PM IST

Secret life may be under warm Antarctic caves, say scientists

Forensic analyses of soil samples from these caves have revealed intriguing traces of DNA from algae, mosses and small animals, researchers said.

Sep 08, 2017, 14:34 PM IST

New AI software can detect when people text and drive

The system uses cameras to detect hand movements that deviate from normal driving behaviour and grades or classifies them in terms of possible safety threats.

Sep 08, 2017, 14:20 PM IST

Spinning at 42,000 revolutions per minute, scientists discover second-fastest pulsar

A pulsar is the core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova. In this stellar remnant, also called a neutron star, the equivalent mass of half a million Earths is crushed into a magnetised, spinning ball no larger than Washington DC.

Sep 06, 2017, 16:03 PM IST

Artificial leaf that creates fuel from sunlight, water is here

The ultra-thin wireless device mimics plant leaves to produce energy using water and sunlight.

Sep 06, 2017, 14:08 PM IST

Women spread culture, men stayed at home during Stone Age

At the end of the Stone Age and in the early Bronze Age, families were established in a surprising manner in Germany, researchers said.

Sep 05, 2017, 16:42 PM IST

Rare 4th century Roman mosaic discovered in the UK

The mosaic is square-shaped, roughly 10 metres in length and on each side it has a half-metre border made from red roof tiles cut into cubes, called tesserae, forming a panel adjacent to the nearby interior walls.

Sep 04, 2017, 13:36 PM IST

How Neanderthals made the world's first glue decoded

For the simplest method, all that is needed is a roll of bark and an open fire. This enabled Neanderthals to produce the first glue as early as 200,000 years ago.

Sep 03, 2017, 19:31 PM IST

Stephen Hawking's mission to find alien life detects mystery signals

The latest fast radio bursts (FRBs) prove their equipment is working well and ready to pick up signs of life if they exist.

Sep 02, 2017, 17:21 PM IST

Citizen scientists discover landform on Mars, spot 'spiders' formation

The 'spiders' are named for their arachnid-like appearance and are a type of land erosion where networks of cracks form on martian soil, completely different to anything on Earth

Sep 01, 2017, 12:54 PM IST

Why rubbing a balloon on your hair makes it stick

The research is a step toward understanding and, ultimately, managing the charging process for specific uses and to increase safety, the researchers said.

Aug 30, 2017, 19:49 PM IST

New method converts tree leaves into electronic devices

The dried leaves were first ground into a powder, then heated to 220 degrees Celsius for 12 hours. This produced a powder composed of tiny carbon microspheres.

Aug 30, 2017, 19:45 PM IST

Largest Ichthyosaurus was pregnant at time of death

The new specimen was originally discovered on the Somerset coast, during the mid-1990s, and is from the Early Jurassic, roughly 200 million years old.

Aug 29, 2017, 20:41 PM IST

New way to mix water and oil identified

The team squeezed methane and water molecules between two ultra-sharp diamonds and compressed them by bringing the two anvil points together.

Aug 29, 2017, 20:38 PM IST

Now, simple device to mimic complex birdsongs

Researchers found that the inherent complexity in birdsongs may actually be the result of a simple controllable instability in the structure of the specialised organ used to create song, known as a syrinx.

Aug 29, 2017, 20:26 PM IST