New Atlas

Space Audio available

Astronomers discover oddball planet that shouldn't be where it is

David Szondy May 29, 2019

A team of astronomers has found a "forbidden" planet orbiting the "Neptunian Desert" of another star. Located 920 light years from Earth, exoplanet NGTS-4b is 20 percent smaller than Neptune, yet it retains an atmosphere despite being close enough to circle its star once every 1.3 days.

An exoplanet smaller than Neptune with its own atmosphere has been discovered in a Neptunian Desert

Space

Planetary core orbiting dying star echoes the twilight of our solar system

Anthony Wood April 4, 2019

Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the dense, metallic remains of a planet surviving closer to the core of a dying star than had previously been thought possible. The discovery offers a tantalizing glimpse into what may become of our home solar system billions of years in the future.

Artist's impression of a planetary fragment orbiting a white dwarf

Science Audio available

Prehistoric mummy shows embalming took place 1,500 years before the Pharaohs

Michael Irving August 15, 2018

Mummification is usually associated with the age of Pharaohs, but it didn't spring up overnight. Now an international team has found further evidence that deliberate mummification was taking place a millennium and a half earlier and across a much wider area of Egypt than previously believed.

Chemical analysis of a mummy has now revealed that the mummification process was being performed 1,500 ...

Environment

Fluorescent dye could highlight 99 percent of hidden ocean microplastics

Nick Lavars November 26, 2017

The corrosive forces of the ocean break plastic bottles, cigarette lighters and pieces of packaging down into tiny fragments that are difficult to track. But scientists have come up with a technique that could reveal the whereabouts of microplastics by way of a glowing fluorescent dye.

Scientists at the University of Warwick have come up with a technique to reveal microplastics in ...

Medical

Dinosaur-destroying asteroid might have delivered a cancer-killer to Earth

Michael Irving November 2, 2017

Over 65 million years ago, an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Strangely, the legacy of this huge space rock could include a treatment for cancer. Scientists have demonstrated that iridium – a rare metal delivered to Earth by the asteroid – can kill cancer without harming healthy cells.

Iridium, a rare metal brought to Earth by asteroids, has been found to be an effective ...

Health & Wellbeing

Appetite-controlling brain cells activated by amino acids

Michael Franco September 27, 2017

It's no secret that eating protein can fill you up faster than other foods. Researchers have figured out just why that is, and they've identified the specific foods that satisfy hunger the quickest. Their findings could lead to treatments that fight obesity and make us feel fuller while eating less.

This steak comes with a side of tanycyte activation

Medical

Can we track diabetes through Google searches?

Nick Lavars July 26, 2017

"How to quite smoking" and "how to lose weight," are the kind of search terms a person with specific health concerns might type into Google, but according to new research, they may be indicative of a more general, and serious medical condition.

More and more people are using Google as a way of checking on their health

Materials

One-dimensional nanowires are the world's thinnest, at one atom wide

Michael Irving May 21, 2017

Researchers at Cambridge and the University of Warwick have jumped ahead to the logical endpoint of Moore's Law and shrunk wires down to a string of single atoms. Effectively one dimensional, these “extreme nanowires” are made of tellurium, compressed inside carbon nanotubes to keep them stable.

The world's thinnest nanowires are made by injecting tellurium into carbon nanotubes, constricting them into a ...

3D Printing

Restorative 3D scanning is a piece of cake

Ben Coxworth February 13, 2017

You may not think of a wedding cake as being the type of thing that gets vandalized, but that's what happened to a replica of the cake that was presented to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1947. Now, thanks to 3D scanning technology, a super-accurate copy of that replica is being recreated.

Space

Researchers lay claim to first find of elusive white dwarf pulsar

Eric Mack February 10, 2017

Starspotters at Warwick University have observed the first white dwarf version of a pulsar. Located 380 light years from Earth in a binary system along with a red dwarf, AR Scorpii is the first to be discovered since pulsars were spotted for the first time half a century ago.

Astronomers have spotted a white dwarf pulsar for the first time