WASHINGTON — The second Trump administration started with soaring rhetoric about sending humans to Mars but confusion about who was leading NASA on an acting basis. President Donald Trump, in his inaugural address shortly after being sworn in as the 47th president Jan. 20, mentioned human missions to Mars as part of the “manifest destiny”
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Foxys_forest_manufacture/Getty Images There are many things we can blame for a bad night’s sleep – screen time, stress, too much booze. Now there is another culprit: the microbes in our gut. This article is part of special series investigating key questions about sleep. Read more here. We have long known that our microbiome has a
Wrinkles in spacetime could remember the secrets of exploding stars – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced Jan. 17 that he will nominate former U.S. Space Force commander Matthew Lohmeier to serve as the next undersecretary of the Air Force. Lohmeier gained national attention in 2021 after being relieved of his command for publishing a book criticizing diversity initiatives in the military. If confirmed by the
Flooding in Atlanta, Georgia, in September 2024 S LESSER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock In 2024, Earth received about 2.9 millimetres of rain per day. That may not sound like much, but it could represent a new record amount of precipitation for the planet. Last year’s global average precipitation was about 3 per cent greater than the average since records
Could bubble-like microrobots be the drug delivery vehicles of the future? – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration says it is investigating reports that debris from the failed Starship test flight landed, and caused property damage in, the Turks and Caicos Islands. In a Jan. 17 statement, the FAA confirmed that it would require SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation for the Starship/Super Heavy test flight the
Smoke rises during a fire at Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing battery storage facility in California on 17 January Bloomberg / Getty Images A fire at the world’s largest battery storage plant in California destroyed 300 megawatts of energy storage, forced 1200 area residents to evacuate and released smoke plumes that could pose a health threat
World’s darkest skies threatened by industrial megaproject in Chile, astronomers warn – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
TAMPA, Fla. — Thaicom’s board is urging shareholders to reject a takeover bid for the Thai geostationary satellite operator if its stock remains above the 11 baht ($0.32) per share offer until the tender closes Feb. 6. The offer, from Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi, power producer Gulf Energy Development and mobile operator Intouch Holdings, falls
A tiny drone powered by soft muscle-like actuators Kevin Chen An insect-inspired robot that only weighs as much as a raisin can perform acrobatics and fly for much longer than any previous insect-sized drone without falling apart. For tiny flying robots to make nimble manoeuvres, they need to be lightweight and agile but also capable
Astrophysicists reveal huge variation in the shape of exocomet belts – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force has removed Derek Tournear from his position as director of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA), SpaceNews has learned. A department spokesperson said Tournear was placed on administrative leave as of Jan. 16 pending the results of an investigation but did not elaborate on the
A satellite orbits the planet Shutterstock / Andrei Armiagov Over the past couple years, undersea cables from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean have been severed in apparent acts of sabotage. Now a NATO-backed project has shown how to quickly re-establish the most critical communications using satellites. The first demonstration of the $2.5 million
String theory may be inevitable as a unified theory of physics, calculations suggest – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
TAMPA, Fla. — Emirati operator Space42 said Jan. 15 it has established communications with its recently launched Foresight-2 satellite, the second synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload for the hybrid imaging and connectivity provider. Provided by Finnish SAR operator Iceye, Foresight-2 was one of 131 payloads SpaceX sent to sun-synchronous orbit Jan. 14 on a Falcon
Stone plaques with sun motifs found on Bornholm island, Denmark Antiquity Publications/John Lee, National Museum of Denmark Hundreds of mysterious engraved “sun stones” unearthed in Denmark may have been ceremonially buried because a volcanic eruption in about 2900 BC made the sun disappear. A total of 614 stone plaques and fragments of plaques engraved with
Photonics West shines a light on optical innovation – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here