Category: Science

What is niobobaotite? Niobobaotite is a new type of ore that contains the rare earth metal niobium, along with barium, titanium, iron and chloride. It was discovered by scientists in China in the Bayan Obo ore deposit in Inner Mongolia on Oct. 3, 2023. The ore has received official approval from the International Mineralogical Association’s classification committee. Niobium is a light-gray metal that has a high melting point and excellent…

Katalin Karikó’s journey from mRNA researcher to Nobel laureate On Monday, October 8, 2023, Katalin Karikó won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for her groundbreaking work on mRNA, the genetic messenger that sends DNA instructions to make specific proteins. Her research with Drew Weissman, with whom she shares the prize, laid the foundation for the Covid-19 vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna. Karikó’s career serves as a lesson…

MBARI partners with Saab to license LRAUV technology The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has announced a new commercial licensing agreement with Saab, Inc. to make its long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (LRAUV) technology available for the first time to a global market. The LRAUV is an innovative robot that can explore, map, and monitor the ocean for weeks at a time, covering distances of more than 1,000 kilometers (620…

A unique role in science popularization and education China’s modern science and technology museum system has attracted over 1 billion offline visits since 2012, playing a unique role in promoting fair and inclusive science popularization and improving scientific literacy in the country, according to the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). The CAST started to build a modern sci-tech museum system in 2012. After more than a decade, the…

Tokyo Tech students from the Society for the Study of Robotics, an official student club, have won the Best Performance Award at the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Marine Robots Night Festival. The event was held at Nippon Maru Memorial Park in Yokohama City on July 12, 2023, as part of the IFAC World Congress 2023, a public forum that took place at the Pacifico Yokohama convention complex from…

India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1, has made a remarkable discovery of sulphur on the Moon’s south pole, according to a report by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission, which was launched in February 2023, has been observing the Sun and its influence on the Earth and the solar system. Aditya-L1: India’s Eye on the Sun Aditya-L1 is a 400 kg satellite that carries seven payloads to study various…

India becomes the first nation to land on the moon’s south pole India achieved a historic feat on Wednesday evening, when it successfully landed a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, making it the first country to do so. The Vikram lander, part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, touched down on the lunar surface at 7:31 pm IST, after a tense descent that lasted about 15 minutes. The lander carried a…

South Korea has made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion research by achieving a plasma temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius for 30 seconds, the longest duration ever recorded. What is nuclear fusion and why is it important? Nuclear fusion is the process of fusing two or more lighter atoms into a heavier one, releasing a huge amount of energy in the process. This is the same reaction that powers…

A Global Initiative to Connect Rural Communities Farmers and fishers in developing countries face many challenges, such as climate change, pests, diseases, market fluctuations, and lack of access to information and technology. To overcome these obstacles, they need to learn from each other and share their best practices. That is why a global initiative called Knowledge Sharing for Resilient Livelihoods was launched in 2021 by the Christian Science Monitor and…