Some recommended apps that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store: Solar Walk, described below.       1.TED This app is a video library of talks given by some of the world’s most fascinating people, free to download and watch. The official TED app has all the talks that can be found on […]

Researchers from Japan have for the first time created a ‘marshmallow-like’ superhydrophobic aerogel that acts effectively as a sponge to soak up hydrocarbons and can then be ‘wrung out’ and reused. Previous materials of this type have been created with varying success due to shortcomings that would affect large-scale clean up (for example, on the […]

The hairs in the ear that detect sounds (auditory hair cells) have been grown in mice whose hair cells had been damaged. The mice did not have their full hearing restored, but an increase in their measured hearing threshold was recorded. Rows of the auditory hair cells in the ear: Deafness due to hair cell […]

On Saturday the search for life beneath the ice in the Antarctic ran into a complication with the main boiler used to heat the water that powers the drill by melting through the thick ice. A circuit controlling the primary burner – required to start the boiler and so begin drilling – failed to start […]

The Voyager spacecraft have been on a trajectory towards the edge of the solar system for 35 years, since they completed their first mission to tour the outer planets. Voyager 1 is currently the most distant man-made object from Earth and is close to becoming the first to enter interstellar space, the region outside of […]

  Passengers can to fly to Australia in four hours (instead of around 23 hours) with the help of a new engine cooling system invented by British scientists to revolutionise space flight. The new ‘Sabre’ (Synergistic Air-breathing Rocket Engine) cycle air-cooling system engine is capable of cooling the air entering it from 1,000°C to -150°C […]

Over 17 000 delegates are expected to fly into Doha, Qatar, for talks on climate change over the next two weeks. Some commentators are confident that the talks could make real progress towards cuts in carbon emissions. Others are sceptical. We can’t help cringeing at the irony of all those air miles, the factt hat […]

  The Bexsero or 4CMenB vaccine, which protects against group B meningococcus, has recently been granted a licence for the immunisation of children older than two months. Meningitis is characterised by the inflammation of the meninges (the protective linings of the brain and spinal cord). Infection by a variety of organisms, including bacteria, viruses and […]

  Subglacial lakes are formed when geothermal heat beneath Antarctica melts the ice from below. Gravity and ice pressure cause this water to flow and collect in the valleys of the continent, far beneath the surface of the ice.  Lake Ellsworth is a subglacial lake beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, covered by around 3.4 […]

  Telomeres – protective regions on the ends of chromosomes preventing the DNA from being eaten away– may be linked to risk of dying, according to a new study. Telomeres are regions of nucleotide sequences that repeat at each end of chromosomes. They prevent the chromosomes from deteriorating or fusing with another chromosome. They shorten […]

  Before DNA, scientists believe that the molecule that encoded genetic instructions was RNA. But what came before RNA? AEG is a minute molecule that can link together to form chains, thus providing a backbone for peptide nucleic acids. It could be the answer according to scientists from the US and Sweden who found the […]

It has been confirmed by the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson that the disease will not be able to be eradicated from the countryside. Efforts are now being focused on slowing the spread of the disease and encouraging resistance to it. Mature trees – which are important for wildlife – are being left whilst younger diseased […]

Out of 92% of the sites surveyed in England and all of Wales the presence of ‘Ash dieback disease’, caused by the Chalara fraxinea fungus, has been reported at 115 sites, and seven sites in Scotland. It is characterised by loss of leaves and crown dieback, possibly leading to tree death. Trees in forests, urban […]

Hurricane Sandy – also known as ‘Frankenstorm’ – started in the Caribbean Sea on the 19th of October 2012 and was deemed to only have a 20% chance of developing into a superstorm by the U.S National Hurricane Centre. Climatic conditions, however, were to pull winds in this area into a counter clockwise rotation, and […]

Titanium rings containing a panel of glass were implanted into the abdominal wall of mice in an effort to observe the spread of cancer (tumour metastasis) which occurs when cells from a primary tumour migrate to other parts of the body where they may come together to form secondary tumours. This mechanism of this is […]

In a trial involving almost a thousand children, an EEG brain trace (used to record electrical brain activity) has shown differences between those with autism and those without. Scientists have found evidence from children aged from two to twelve, over thirty-three different EEG patterns. More work is needed to confirm it. To read more, see: […]