Science

“The nanoscale biocompass has the tendency to align itself along geomagnetic field lines and to obtain navigation cues from a geomagnetic field,” said Xie. “We propose that any disturbance in this alignment may be captured by connected cellular machinery, which would channel information to the downstream neural system, forming the animal’s magnetic sense.” … [Read more...] about Tiny protein ‘compasses’ found in fruit flies – and potentially humans

However, if quantum mechanics can so beautifully and accurately describe the behaviour of atoms with all their accompanying weirdness, then why aren’t all the objects we see around us, including us – which are after all only made up of these atoms – also able to be in two place at once, pass through impenetrable barriers or communicate instantaneously across space? One obvious difference is that the quantum rules apply to single particles or systems consisting of just a handful of atoms, whereas much larger objects consist of trillions of atoms bound together in mindboggling variety and complexity. Somehow, in ways we are only now beginning to understand, most of the quantum weirdness washes away ever more quickly the bigger the system is, until we end up with the everyday objects that obey the familiar rules of what physicists call the “classical world”. In fact, when we want to detect the delicate quantum effects in everyday-size objects we have to go to … [Read more...] about You’re powered by quantum mechanics. No, really…

On Wednesday, the stakes will be even higher when the two Americans on board conduct a spacewalk to replace a dead computer. Nasa wants a reliable backup in place as soon as possible, even though the primary computer is working fine. The backup failed on 11 April. … [Read more...] about International Space Station takes special Easter cargo from SpaceX ship

The commercial cargo ship splashed into the Pacific on Sunday, just five hours after leaving the International Space Station. It brought back 3,500lb of science samples and old equipment for Nasa. … [Read more...] about SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth after space station mission

Nowadays, the moon has no global magnetic field, but that was not always the case; between 4.25bn and 3.56bn years ago, the lunar magnetic field was similar to that of the Earth. The field is thought to have been generated by the churning movement of fluids within the moon’s molten core – a sort of lunar dynamo. … [Read more...] about Moon had magnetic field at least a billion years longer than thought – study