Emily Smith

Space 27 June 2019 Johns Hopkins APLBy Leah Crane NASA is going to send a drone called Dragonfly to Saturn’s largest moon Titan. It is planning to launch in 2026 and land on Titan in 2034. The Dragonfly mission falls under NASA’s New Frontiers programme, which began a selection process began with 12 proposals in April…

The Australian Square Kilometre Array PathfinderCSIRO/Alex Cherney By Leah CraneWe have tracked a strange blast of cosmic radio waves back to its home galaxy. This is the second time such a trace has been possible, but the differences from the first one may require us to rethink our ideas of what causes these so-called fast…

It’s worth getting all the facts before making a decisionmuharrem öner/getty By Ruby Prosser ScullyPeople jump to conclusions they want to be true, even when it is against their interests to do so, according to a study of how we make decisions. “In the case of topics important for one’s identity, preferential treatment of information…

Technology 27 June 2019 The layered structure of mother of pearl has inspired a new kind of glassEye of Science/SPL By Michael Le PageA type of glass that bends like plastic has been created by copying seashells. It could be used to make safer windows, more shatterproof screens for phones and even foldable screens that…

Physics 27 June 2019 A laser beam can be twisted to move like a vortexJILA (USA) Rebecca Jacobson, Servicio de Produccion e Innovacion Digital – Universidad de Salamanca (Spain) By Leah CraneThere’s a new kind of twisted light. A rotating “vortex beam” whose twist changes across the length of the beam has been created in…

Mind 27 June 2019 Even at rest our brains are working hardWestend61/Getty By Jessica HamzelouOur brains never really switch off. When we rest, neurons fire to replay recent experiences – and this seems to improve our ability to make decisions. This replay happens in a region called the hippocampus, which is known to be important…

The Washington Post/Getty ImagesBy Jessica Hamzelou The HPV vaccine appears to be working. Countries with vaccination programmes are lowering the rate of virus infection, precancerous lesions and genital warts in girls and women. Boys and men are benefiting too, even when they are not vaccinated. That’s the conclusion of a review of 65 studies across…

Neanderthal bones have revealed ancient migrationsJ. Eloy, AWEM, © Archéologie andennaise By Alison GeorgeNeanderthals existed for hundreds of thousands of years but we know little about their early ancestry. Now DNA analysis of 120,000-year-old bones from Germany and Belgium sheds light on their mysterious past. The study reveals a remarkable continuity of European Neanderthal ancestry…

Health 26 June 2019 Tough but sensitive solesMahmoud Khaled/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images By Michael Le PageThe thicker soles that develop on the feet of those who rarely or never wear shoes provide protection without reducing the foot’s ability to sense the ground beneath them – unlike cushioned shoes. That’s the finding of a team led by…

Technology 26 June 2019 RoboBeeXwingNoah T. Jafferis and E. Farrell Helbling, Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory By Donna LuA solar-powered flying robot has become the lightest machine capable of flying without an attached power source. Weighing just 259 milligrams, the insect-inspired RoboBee X-Wing has four wings that flap at a rate of 170 times per second. It…