Ours or Mars? Understanding Microbial Bioloading on the InSight Mars Lander

Abstract: A review of planetary protection approaches to the reduction of "harmful contamination" in the form…

World’s rarest bird gets new home in Madagascar

Conservationists hope to save a species of duck called the Madagascar pochard from extinction.

Hybrid qubits solve key hurdle to quantum computing

Spin-based quantum computers have the potential to tackle difficult mathematical problems that cannot be solved using…

Reactive optical matter: Light-induced motion

Newton's third law dictates that forces between interacting particles are equal and opposite for closed systems.…

Electronics of the future: A new energy-efficient mechanism using the Rashba effect

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology proposed new quasi-1-D materials for potential spintronic applications, an upcoming…

Laser diode detects counterfeit olive oil

Researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the Scintillon Institute in the U.S. have…

ESA sets clock by distant spinning stars

ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands has begun running a pulsar-based clock. The "PulChron' system measures…

Mission accomplished for ESA’s butane-propelled CubeSat

The cereal-box sized GomX-4B – ESA's biggest small CubeSat yet flown – has completed its mission…

The mysterious demise of Europe’s massive cave bears

Once more common than brown bears, cave bears didn't survive the last ice age. Could their…

Huge reserves of iron in Western Siberia might originate from under an ancient sea

The world's largest Bakchar iron ore deposit is located in an ancient sea in West Siberia,…