This image, released on Feb. 10, 2014, combines a photograph of seasonal dark flows on a Martian slope with a grid of colors based on data collected by a mineral-mapping spectrometer observing the same area. Scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) say new clues have emerged about the presence of flowing water on the surface of Mars. NASA’s spacecraft orbiting Mars... 

Harvard ‘brainiacs’ are at it again. Inspired by termites, they have realized their dream of cheap, expendable, self-organizing robots – a construction crew building complex structures at a quick pace, and completely independent of leadership. The possibilities are vast. The machines can be made to build any three-dimensional structure on their own and with minimal instruction. But what is... 

Anti sonar coating for submarines that will allow them to become virtually invisible during combat service is being developed in St. Petersburg. In fact, we are talking about application of stealth technology in the submarine fleet. While the development of Russian scientists is unique, in fairness it should be noted that this was conceived by the Third Reich designers. According to media reports,... 

For the first time tiny rocket-shaped synthetic motors have been placed inside live human cells. What has been a staple of science fiction is now a promising method to treat cancer, US scientists say. The researchers from Penn State University have successfully embedded synthetic nanomotors into HeLa cells, an immortal line of human cervical cancer cells typically used in research studies, according... 

Star discovered to be the oldest ever found, by Dr. Stefan Keller with the SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia. Australian astronomers are positive they’ve discovered the most ancient star to date. Being practically three times older than our Sun, the old-timer star could serve as a prototype system to explore matter metamorphose in... 

A new battlefield lifesaver in the form of a syringe can seal a gunshot wound in just seconds. Supporters hope the ‘XStat’ will replace gauze, which army medics have used to treat life threatening war injuries for centuries. The device was designed by US company RevMedx, which claims the apparatus can stop a wound from bleeding in just 15 seconds. The XStat is a modified syringe that injects tiny... 

First light: The young star cluster NGC1818 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken as part of calibration and testing before the science phase of the Gaia telescope mission begins. Europe’s billion-star surveyor Gaia is slowly being brought into focus as it begins its mission to create the most accurate map of the Milky Way begins. Launched in December, the satellite has now reached its destination... 

Animal study indicates that a type of food poisoning bacterium known as Clostridium perfringens can develop Multiple Sclerosis damage in the brain. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in the United States, through lab tests in mice, found that a toxin made by a rare strain of C. perfringens is responsible for MS-like damage. While the exact cause of Multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been... 

A new photo from the Mars Curiosity rover shows it on the edge of a sand dune and US engineers have decided to risk driving Curiosity over the dune so it can continue to an area of fresh bedrock known as KMS-9 to do some drilling. In order to get to the area engineers have called KMS-9, Curiosity will have to enter a small valley known as the Dingo Gap and navigate a one meter high sand dune. The... 

The world’s first monkeys with genes modified through a DNA engineering method known as Crispr/Cas9 were born in a lab. The scientific breakthrough by Chinese researchers could become a cornerstone for research and prevention of human genetic disorders. Researchers at Nanjing Medical University and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research in Kunming in China have created two genetically... 

In a significant breakthrough, scientists have found a cheap and easy way to produce highly sought-after embryonic-like stem cells without terminating any embryos. The ground-breaking discovery could usher in a new era in stem cell biology. Although the research was carried out on laboratory mice, scientists believe that the same approach should also work on human cells, researchers said. “If... 

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States have developed a wearable book that enables the readers to experience the characters’ feelings as they read the story. The book, which has been created under a project dubbed sensory fiction, is covered in sensors and actuators and is hooked up to a vest. The vest has a personal heating device to change the temperature... 

What do you get when you cross a fish with an elephant? A patent. But transgenic genetic modification is no joke. It has the potential to create new diseases that can jump species. A new study has found a pathogenic virus that has jumped from genetic engineers’ favorite test-bed, tobacco, to agriculture’s most important helper, honeybees. Honeybees are vitally important to our food supply and... 

Approximately 2,300 years ago the ancient Chinese wrote the world’s oldest decimal multiplication table on bamboo sticks. According to experts, it was a very effective calculator that let one do the calculations not only with integers but also fractions. No country in the world had similar calculators at that time. Five years ago, Beijing Tsinghua University received a gift of nearly two and... 

Dictyostelium Fruiting Bodies Scientists have discovered a way to study the causes of Alzheimer disease using a simple single-celled amoeba, which leads to a better understanding of how human proteins mutate. It circumvents the need for animal testing. British scientists point to the possibility of amoeba use in biomedical studies of the presenilin protein that plays a part in causing Alzheimer disease,...