New Atlas

Science Audio available

Sea creatures and land insects found together in ancient amber

Michael Irving May 13, 2019

Amber can be a veritable treasure trove of ancient animals and insects, but it most commonly captures creatures that lived in forests – understandable, given the stuff starts life as tree sap. But now researchers have found a piece of amber bearing a strange mix of land and sea-dwelling creatures.

Researchers have discovered a piece of amber containing a strange mix of land-dwelling insects and sea ...

Science Audio available

Batwinged, feathered dinosaur was a weird, failed experiment in flight

Michael Irving May 8, 2019

Like the Wright Brothers, evolution didn’t get flight exactly right the first time. It takes experimentation to find the best design, and now palaeontologists have found one of nature’s quirky side projects – a strange dinosaur that was covered in feathers but had leathery bat-like wings.

Ambopteryx longibrachium is a strange new species of dinosaur that sported bat-like wings and feathers

Energy

Hybrid cathodes improve energy density of lithium-sulfur batteries

Michael Irving March 25, 2019

Engineers have developed a new type of hybrid cathode for a lithium-sulfur battery that seems to boast better energy density than existing versions of both lithium-ion and lithium-sulfur batteries.

The molecular structure of molybdenum sulfide, one of the materials in the new lithium-sulfur battery cathode

Space

The Milky Way galaxy is warped, according to new 3D map

Michael Irving February 4, 2019

Conventional wisdom has long held that the Milky Way was a flat disk of stars and gas, with a bulge in the middle. But now astronomers have created a more accurate 3D map of the galaxy and found that it’s more warped and twisted than previously thought.

An artist's impression of the warped shape of the Milky Way disk

Science Audio available

Autonomous Chinese semi-submersible launches weather rocket at sea

Ben Coxworth January 31, 2019

Rocketsondes, which are a type of sounding rocket, are used to make high-altitude weather observations. Given that they require launch sites, they're not used much over the ocean. That could change, though, as Chinese scientists have now launched one from an autonomous semi-submersible vehicle.

The USSV during its first sea trial, in June 2017

Science

Half-billion-year-old fossils are the oldest animal footprints ever found

Michael Irving June 6, 2018

Scientists have found the earliest animal footprints ever discovered. The tracks and burrows, dating back half a billion years to the Ediacaran Period, were made by some of the earliest bilaterian animals, and reveal that more complex lifeforms arose earlier than previously thought.

Dating back between 551 and 541 million years, these are the oldest fossil footprints ever found

Environment

TanSat delivers first global map of atmospheric CO2

James Holloway April 19, 2018

Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have put together the first global carbon dioxide maps based on data from the Chinese satellite TanSat. The satellite also measures “carbon dioxide flux,” changes in its behavior on Earth and in the Earth's atmosphere.

TanSat data has given birth to the first global map of atmospheric carbon dioxide

Around The Home

Researchers develop fire-detecting wallpaper

James Holloway April 12, 2018

Researchers have come up with a “fire alarm wallpaper” which can detect a house fire, but also sound an alarm and even help to restrict the spread of fire. It's made from hydroxyapatite, which occurs in bone and teeth. However, the wallpaper’s real smarts are down to an ink-based on graphene oxide.

The researchers think their wallpaper could one day help prevent loss of property due to fire

Electronics

New triboelectric nanogenerator generates electricity at the bend of a finger

Rebekah Andrews February 12, 2018

Researchers have developed a triboelectric nanogenerator in the form of a small metallic tab that can generate electricity from simple body movements, such as the bending of a finger.

A prototype triboelectric nanogenerator that can generate electricity from the bending of a finger

Telecommunications

Global quantum internet dawns, thanks to China's Micius satellite

Michael Irving January 23, 2018

Quantum encryption can make data breaches literally impossible, and in a new demonstration of that kind of security, scientists have now used the Chinese satellite Micius to send quantum-encrypted data between China and Austria. That brings the world another step closer to a global quantum internet.

The Micius satellite has sent quantum-encrypted data between China and Austria, bringing the world closer to ...