David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University In a spectacular few days for solar system exploration – during which NASA whizzed the New Horizons spacecraft past the Kuiper Belt object 2009 MU69 (somewhat controversially nicknamed “Ultima Thule”) and eased OSIRIS-REx into orbit about the asteroid Bennu – the Chinese National Space Administration […]

Frank J. Cilluffo, Director, McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, Auburn University and Sharon L. Cardash, Deputy Director, Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, Auburn University The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei is under scrutiny around the globe over concerns that its close ties with the Chinese government present national security threats to the […]

Imogen Whittam, Post-doctoral researcher in Astrophysics, University of the W.Cape Supermassive black holes are giant black holes found at the centre of almost every galaxy. Astronomers recently made the clearest image yet of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own galaxy using the new MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, revealing the […]

The studies support the argument of her discoverer, Professor Ronald Clarke of the University of the Witwatersrand, that there were two species of Australopithecus living at the same time in South Africa’s ‘Cradle of Humankind’, Australopithecus africanus, which was small, like Lucy, and probably primarily tree-dwelling, and Australopithecus prometheus, which was probably just within the […]

For the first time, we were able to describe at a detailed level how two proteins, as they exist in nature, interact with each other and how they behave in their own molecular worlds. Michal Gwizdala, Postdoctoral researcher in photosynthesis, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Tjaart Krüger, Associate Professor in Biophysics, University of Pretoria People have […]

Ntombizikhona Beaulah Ndlovu, Postdoctoral research fellow, iThemba LABS Matter is all around us. As human beings, we’re made of it. Matter is the “stuff” that makes up the physical world as we know it; a collection of atoms made up of particles called protons, electrons and neutrons. Part of my work, as a post-doctoral researcher […]

Joyce Harper, Professor of Reproductive Science, UCL A scientist in China claims to have produced the world’s first genome-edited babies by altering their DNA to increase their resistance to HIV. Aside from the lack of verifiable evidence for this non peer-reviewed claim, this research is premature, dangerous and irresponsible. He Jiankui from the Southern University […]

NASA’s InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA – 26 November 2018 Mars has received its newest robotic resident. NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet after an almost […]

Laurence D. Hurst, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at The Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath Modern medicine’s ability to keep us alive makes it tempting to think human evolution may have stopped. Better healthcare disrupts a key driving force of evolution by keeping some people alive longer, making them more likely to pass on […]

David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University The European Space Agency (ESA) will launch its BepiColombo mission to the planet Mercury from its spaceport near the equator in Kourou, French Guyana, on October 20. My involvement in the mission means that I will be anxiously following the journey as the spacecraft carries out […]