The Cross Heads

US to start nationwide testing for H5N1 flu virus in milk supply

So, the ultimate goal of the USDA is to eliminate cattle as a reservoir. When the Agency announced it was planning for this program, it noted that there were two candidate vaccines in trials. Until those are validated, it plans to use the standard playbook for handling emerging infections: contact tracing and isolation. And it […]

December 6, 2024 | Biology, bird flu, Flu virus, H5N1, Health, Infectious disease, medicine, Science | No comments

Lizards and snakes are 35 million years older than we thought

Lizards are ancient creatures. They were around before the dinosaurs and persisted long after dinosaurs went extinct. We’ve now found they are 35 million years older than we thought they were. Cryptovaranoides microlanius was a tiny lizard that skittered around what is now southern England during the late Triassic, around 205 million years ago. It […]

December 6, 2024 | Biology, fossils, lizards, paleontology, reptiles, Science | No comments

Rocket Report: NASA delays Artemis again; SpinLaunch spins a little cash

China debuts a new medium-lift rocket. China’s new Long March 12 rocket made a successful inaugural flight Saturday, placing two experimental satellites into orbit and testing uprated, higher-thrust engines that will allow a larger Chinese launcher in development to send astronauts to the Moon. The Long March 12 is the newest member of China’s Long […]

December 6, 2024 | rocket report, Science, Space | No comments

Two European satellites launch on mission to blot out the Sun—for science

Two spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency launched on top of an Indian rocket Thursday, kicking off a mission to test novel formation flying technologies and observe a rarely-seen slice of the Sun’s ethereal corona. ESA’s Proba-3 mission is purely experimental. The satellites are loaded with sophisticated sensors and ranging instruments to allow the […]

December 6, 2024 | european space agency, india, isro, launch, proba-3, Science, solar eclipse, Space | No comments

New drone has legs for landing gear, enabling efficient launches

“What we meant by energy efficiency was calculating the energy input and energy output. The energy output was the kinetic energy and the potential energy at the moment of takeoff, defined as the moment when the feet of the robot stop touching the ground,” Shin explains. The energy input was calculated by measuring the power […]

December 5, 2024 | drones, Robotics, Science | No comments

Study: Warming has accelerated due to the Earth absorbing more sunlight

The concept of an atmospheric energy imbalance is pretty straightforward: We can measure both the amount of energy the Earth receives from the Sun and how much energy it radiates back into space. Any difference between the two results in a net energy imbalance that’s either absorbed by or extracted from the ocean/atmosphere system. And […]

December 5, 2024 | albedo, atmospheric science, climate change, Earth science, global warming, Science | No comments

How did the CEO of an online payments firm become the nominee to lead NASA?

So how would NASA astronauts get to the Moon without the SLS rocket? Nothing is final, and the trade space is open. One possible scenario being discussed for future Artemis missions is to launch the Orion spacecraft on a New Glenn rocket into low-Earth orbit. There, it could dock with a Centaur upper stage that […]

December 5, 2024 | Features, jared isaacman, NASA, Science, Space | No comments

E-tattoos could make mobile EEGs a reality

A 3D-printable EEG electrode e-tattoo. Credit: University of Texas at Austin. Epidermal electronics attached to the skin via temporary tattoos (e-tattoos) have been around for more than a decade, but they have their limitations, most notably that they don’t function well on curved and/or hairy surfaces. Scientists have now developed special conductive inks that can […]

December 5, 2024 | e-ink, EEG, electroencephalography, electronic tattoos, engineering, materials science, Science | No comments

Prenatal test accidentally picks up cancer in 50% of those with wonky results

To address the lack of data, researchers at the National Institute of Health set up a study to look at outcomes after abnormal cfDNA tests—and specifically look for cancer in patients. Women were enrolled if they were pregnant or recently postpartum and had no known cancers. Another big requirement was that they had received some […]

December 5, 2024 | cancer, cfDNA, chromosomes, Health, NEJM, pregnancy, prenatal, Science | No comments

These spiders listen for prey before hurling webs like slingshots

Along came a spider A) Untensed web shown from front view. (B) Tensed web shown from side view. Credit: S.I. Han and T.A. Blackledge, 2024 The 19 spiders built 26 webs over the testing period. For the experiments, Han and Blackledge used a weighted tuning fork with frequencies in the mid-range for whirring wings for […]

December 4, 2024 | Science | No comments

January 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031