SciShorts: A Very Rare Astronomical Phenomenon on January 31

On the 31st of January, the world will experience a rather rare astronomical event. The event will feature a coincidence of three other events- a lunar eclipse, a blue moon and a super moon. When the moon moves into the earth’s shadow, it’s known as a lunar eclipse or a blood moon. A blue moon […]

SciShorts: Citizen Scientists Discover New Planetary System

Adding to the many exoplanets discovered over the past few years, a group of citizen scientists have discovered a five-planet solar system. The Kepler space telescope, which was launched by NASA in 2009 provided the data. The planets in this unusual solar system are considered to be sub-Neptune like planets and their radii range from […]

SciShorts: Scientists Clone Primates For The First Time

Taking a step closer to the future, Chinese scientists have successfully cloned monkeys. Zhong Zhong and Zua Zua are two identical long-tailed macaques created by scientists at Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, from a non-embryonic cell. These two are the first primates ever to be cloned. They were cloned using the […]

SciShorts: Scientists Trace the Thought Process of a Human Brain

Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley have managed to trace the progress of a thought through the human brain. Through this experiment, scientists have been able to note how the prefrontal cortex helps the brain coordinate activity based on perception. The scientists were also able to find that the brain gets ready to respond even […]

SciShorts: The Hubble Captures Rare Images of an Ancient Galaxy

The Hubble Telescope captured a close up view of what seems to be one of the oldest galaxies in the universe. Astronomers believe that this galaxy existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The telescope received light that was 130 billion years old – which speaks how far this galaxy is from us. […]

SciShorts: Arrivo – A New High-Speed Transport System

Another high-speed transport system has been born with Arrivo – a network that bids goodbye to traffic. The system will involve parallel tracks for automobiles to whisk past at speeds greater than 200 mph. These tracks will employ magnetic levitation and could support any vehicle from cars to cargo carriers. Arrivo promises to shorten an […]

SciShorts: SpaceX’s Dragon Cargo Vessel returns to Earth after resupplying the ISS

After spending more than a month in the International Space Station, the SpaceX Dragon cargo vessel made a successful re-entry last week. The vessel had been sent to resupply the ISS with some vital cargo including some experimental gear, hardware, scientific instruments and even a few live lab mice. On its return, the capsule brought […]

SciShorts: The Ozone Hole is Healing

For the first time, researchers have proof that the ozone hole is indeed healing due to human activities. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has been studying the chemical composition of the ozone layer. Every September, the ozone layer over the Antarctic breaks down due to a reaction with solar rays. This breaking down is […]

SciShorts: Alzheimer’s Can Spread Like a Viral Disease

Through studies done on mice, researchers have discovered that Alzheimer’s disease could spread like a viral infection. One of the biggest symptoms of Alzheimer’s is the formation of clumps in the brain. This is due to a protein called amyloid-β. It was discovered that when this protein accumulated in the brain, the connections between regions […]

SciShorts: Witnessing a Black Hole for the First Time

For the first time ever, scientists are working on unveiling the image of a black hole. This is to be done by using collective data from various telescopes that have been placed at different places on the globe. This group of telescopes is called the Event Horizon Telescope (yes, singular). To obtain an image of […]