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MIAMI, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Wednesday launched a rocket that had already flown to space and landed it successfully on an ocean platform, as part of its ongoing effort to recycle costly rocket components. On a clear autumn evening at 6:53 pm (2253 GMT), the tall, white Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying the Echostar 105/SES-11 satellite. “Couldn’t be more perfect weather for a launch,” said a commentator […]
by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A house-size asteroid will give Earth a near-miss Thursday, passing harmlessly inside the Moon’s orbit while giving experts a rare chance to rehearse for a real-life strike threat. Dubbed 2012 TC4, the space rock will shave past at an altitude of less than 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles) — just above the 36,000-km plane at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth. That […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Move over Saturn! Scientists have found a ring around an unassuming mini-planet in our Solar System to debunk the theory that only giant planets can be so adorned. The planet, dubbed Haumea, orbits the Sun far beyond Neptune — the eighth and furthest recognized “full” planet in our star system since Pluto was downgraded to dwarf status in 2006. About eight billion kilometers (five billion miles) from the Sun, Haumea spins […]
NEW JERSEY, United States (Reuters) — They are real diamonds. That’s what the industry behind diamonds made inside a scientific laboratory wants you to believe. “All the composition is exactly the same. It is a real diamond. What we’ve done is we’ve just taken what’s happened in nature and just put it in a lab,” said Kelly Good, the director of marketing for Pure Grown Diamonds. Currently, the lab-grown diamond industry is small, but it […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Two US astronauts installed a high-definition video camera at the International Space Station Tuesday and made more progress on repairs to the lab’s robotic arm, NASA said. NASA spokesman Rob Navias described the camera equipment as offering “new eyes” to the orbiting outpost, as live video showed astronaut Randy Bresnik in sharp detail, floating in his white spacesuit. The previous camera had aged, and was tinting images pink. Another camera […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (Reuters) — For parents raising children in urban environments, the quality of air their little ones breathe can be a big concern. Recent studies have linked infants exposed to higher levels of vehicular air pollution with lung problems later on in life. It was this concern for his own daughter that prompted Yosi Romano to invent Brizi Baby, a cushioned headrest for a baby’s pushchair with in-built sensors and a fan filter […]
LONDON, England (Reuters) — A new one-step process that turns spent coffee grounds into biofuel could help in the fight to reduce our reliance on diesel made from fossil fuels, say researchers at Lancaster University. Using feedstocks, such as soybean, rapeseed, or corn, grown specifically to extract oils to make biodiesel is controversial because of their cost and because they divert crops from food production. Lead researcher Dr Vesna Najdanovic-Visak told Reuters: “These kind of […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Wind farms in the open ocean can generate far more renewable energy than those on land, possibly enough to power the whole world, said a US study on Monday. Researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science found that higher wind speeds over the open seas could produce five times as much energy as wind turbines over land. While no commercial-scale deep water wind farms exist at present, the findings suggest […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese researchers have genetically engineered hens whose eggs contain drugs that can fight serious diseases including cancer, in a bid to dramatically reduce the cost of treatment, a report said Monday. If the scientists are able to safely produce “interferon beta”, a type of protein used to treat illnesses including multiple sclerosis and hepatitis, by rearing the hens, the price of the drug — currently up to 100,000 yen ($888) for a few microgrammes — […]
WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) — A group of Warsaw-based scientists say they have developed a new, economically viable method for transforming non-recyclable plastic waste into gasoline and diesel fuel which complies with European standards. Inventor Adam Handerek’s team have worked together with the Automotive Industry Institute in Warsaw to construct a prototype reactor that converts popular plastics including polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene into gasoline and diesel fuel fractions. Their method uses a vertical reactor with internal […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Google’s parent company is set to launch balloons into the Caribbean skies in an attempt to restore telephone networks in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. Alphabet Inc., which controls Google, obtained authorization from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy the devices — developed from 2013 as part of a project known as “Loon.” It aims to temporarily re-establish Puerto Rico’s cellular network — where 83 per cent of cell […]
MERIGNAC, France (Reuters) — This aircraft has a very special mission. It allows its passengers to experience zero gravity – or weightlessness – the next best thing to being in the International Space Station. Passengers of the Zero-G plane, an Airbus A310, can experience zero gravity for over 20 seconds at a time when the plane leaps through the sky. Company Novespace runs the program with French space agency CNES, allowing researchers to study the […]
