Science

A collection of 541 posts

Science

More than 80% of Naracoorte flying fox colony wiped out by heatwaves

About 1,000 flying foxes in a Naracoorte camp in South Australia were devastated by intense heat last week, with more than 80% of the colony killed. Around 180 animals survived, including about 34 underweight and dehydrated babies that will face months of recovery. The deaths followed an earlier January

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Biomedical Research, CubeSat Deployments Top Crew Schedule - NASA

Biomedical research to keep crews healthy and CubeSat deployments for educational research topped the science schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday, while the crew also worked on cargo swaps and life support maintenance. NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams processed body samples for the long-running CIPHER astronaut health study,

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Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal: NASA Discusses Initial Results

NASA conducted a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 3, to discuss initial findings from the recently completed Artemis II wet dress rehearsal test. The briefing covered initial findings from the test. A post about the briefing appeared on NASA Science. artemis ii, wet dress rehearsal, nasa, news conference, feb. 3,

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Attempt to Drill Through Thwaites Glacier Is Foiled

A joint British and South Korean team attempting to install instruments beneath the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica was forced to abandon the mooring after the cable and equipment became stuck partway through a half‑mile‑thick borehole, trapping the instruments in the ice. The researchers had melted a roughly one‑

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NASA issues Amendment 44 final text for B.2 Heliophysics Foundational Research

NASA's ROSES-2025 Amendment 44 releases the final text and the Step-1 due date for B.2 Heliophysics Foundational Research (HFR); the amendment will be posted on or about February 3, 2026, on the NASA research opportunity homepage at https://solicitation.nasaprs.com/ROSES2025, according to the announcement. B.

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NASA delays Artemis II moon launch to March after hydrogen leaks

NASA announced on Feb. 3, 2026, that it would not try to launch Artemis II until at least March after it was unable to complete a wet dress rehearsal for the mission at Launchpad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The two-day rehearsal, which began on Sunday, involves

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NASA lists AI/ML STIG lecture on Graph Neural Networks for Feb. 2, 2026

NASA Science lists an AI/ML STIG Lecture Series event scheduled for 2 Feb 2026 that will feature Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) with Tri Nguyen of Northwestern as the speaker. The brief announcement is titled "Graph Neural Networks (GNNs)" and identifies Tri Nguyen, Northwestern, as the speaker. The

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Study suggests adolescence can last until 32, so parents must adapt

Recent neuroscience research from Cambridge University, published in Nature Communications, suggests the brain's adolescent phase can extend until about age 32. Julia Samuel, a psychotherapist, uses that finding to argue that parenting does not stop at 18 but changes shape and that many parents are unprepared for relationships

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Why does a song get stuck in our heads? Readers reply

The Guardian’s Readers Reply series on 1 February 2026 asked why a song sometimes gets stuck in our heads, prompted by a question from Laura Ashton of Haslemere, Surrey. The item describes the question as part of a series exploring an “ancient, vexed musical conundrum.” Ashton supplied a teasing

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Artemis II wet dress rehearsal countdown progresses at Kennedy Space Center

NASA continued the countdown for the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal, a fueling test of the Space Launch System rocket, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Early this morning, at approximately L-39 hours and 30 minutes, teams powered up the rocket’s core stage. Teams monitored all

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Snow drought in the West reaches record levels, threatening water and recreation

Jim Robbins reported in The New York Times on Feb. 1, 2026, that an extreme snow drought and unusually warm winter have left much of the American West with record-low snow cover, threatening water supplies and winter recreation. Places long famed for deep natural snow — including Park City, Utah; Vail,

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Waved albatross sighted off California, thousands of miles from home

A rare waved albatross was spotted off Point Piedras Blancas, Calif., on Jan. 23 by Tammy Russell, a marine ornithologist aboard the research vessel Reuben Lasker. The bird appeared shortly after noon, wheeling low over the Pacific as dolphins and humpback whales breached. "I yelled, 'waved albatross'

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Amendment 42 updates ROSES-2025 F.10 PRISM lunar payload solicitation

ROSES-2025 Amendment 42 makes several changes to F.10 Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM), the NASA solicitation for development and flight of science-driven instrument suites and technology demonstration payloads for lunar surface investigations. The amendment will be posted on the NASA research opportunity homepage

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NASA honors Cold Atom Laboratory team with agency awards

NASA has presented agency honor awards to members of the Cold Atom Laboratory team for leadership and scientific achievements connected to the Cold Atom Laboratory on the International Space Station. Kamal Oudrhiri received the NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal for outstanding leadership of the Cold Atom Laboratory, described as NASA’

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Perseverance AI-planned 807-foot drive visualized with Caspian tool

NASA and JPL released an animation made with the Caspian visualization tool using data from an 807-foot (246-meter) drive by the Perseverance rover on the rim of Jezero Crater on Dec. 10, 2025 (sol 1,709). The mission’s “drivers,” or rover planners, use the visualization to understand Perseverance’s

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Countdown begins for Artemis II wet dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center

The countdown for the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal is underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The countdown clock began at 8:13 p.m. EST, or L-48 hours, 40 minutes before the opening of a simulated launch window at 9 pm. Mon, Feb. 2. The test

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NASA opens STRIDE competition for Mars robotic mobility design studies

NASA’s ROSES-2025 Amendment 43 releases C.13, Science Transport and Robotic Innovation for Deployment and Exploration (STRIDE), soliciting U.S. industry proposals for design studies of advanced robotic surface and aerial mobility systems for Mars. The amendment will be posted on or about January 30, 2026, on the NASA

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NASA’s Libera instrument completes testing and is ready for delivery

NASA reported Jan. 30, 2026, that its Libera instrument has completed comprehensive environmental testing, including thermal vacuum tests that simulate the space temperatures and environments it will experience, and is ready for delivery. Libera is slated to fly on the Joint Polar Satellite System-4 (JPSS-4) satellite, which is targeted for

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Readers Respond: Trust in Science, addiction treatment, judges and cursive

Letters published in The New York Times on Jan. 30, 2026 respond to Elay Shech’s Jan. 7 opinion essay about whether to trust science. Writers include Robert A. Phillips and Dirk Sostman of Weill Cornell Medicine, Stephen A. Silver of San Francisco, Deborah Moran of Houston and other readers

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NASA Libera instrument completes testing, ready for delivery

NASA’s Libera instrument, designed to maintain the global data record of Earth’s radiation budget, has completed comprehensive environmental testing and is ready for delivery. Thermal vacuum tests simulated the temperatures and environments Libera will experience in space. The instrument will fly on the Joint Polar Satellite System-4 (JPSS-4)

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Algae blooms on Greenland’s ice are darkening surfaces and speeding melt, studies say

Two new studies published in January find that algae growing on Greenland’s snow and ice is darkening surfaces and exacerbating seasonal melting, the research says. One paper appeared Jan. 13 in Environmental Science and Technology and the other on Jan. 28 in Nature Communications. On snow the growth appears

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NASA selects Axiom Space for fifth private mission to ISS, targeted Jan 2027

NASA and Axiom Space have signed an order for the fifth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, targeted to launch no earlier than January 2027 from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "The award of our fifth private astronaut mission shows that commercial space is

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Hot-water drilling begins through Thwaites Glacier to study melting

British and South Korean researchers on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2026, began boring a deep hole through the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica to study the warm ocean currents that are melting the glacier from below. The team hopes to place instruments in the waters beneath the glacier’s floating end because

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Blue Origin pauses New Shepard flights for at least two years

Blue Origin announced on Friday that it will pause launches of its New Shepard suborbital rocket for at least two years to focus on work for NASA’s upcoming moon missions. New Shepard flights have lifted off from the company’s site in West Texas. The small, reusable New Shepard

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Perseverance animation shows 807-foot drive along Jezero Crater rim

This animation shows NASA’s Perseverance rover’s point of view during an 807-foot (246-meter) drive along the rim of Jezero Crater on Dec. 10, 2025, the 1,709th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The sequence was captured over two hours and 35 minutes using 53 Navigation Camera