Nature & Science

Scientists have created a robotic lens that is controlled by small eye movements, including double blinks to zoom in and out.  Most soft robots are controlled manually or pre-programmed but the lenses mimic the natural electric signals in the human eyeball that are active even when the eye itself is closed. Researchers from the University of California San Diego harnessed this…

NASA landed on the Moon 50 years ago this month in the evening hours of July 20, 1969. At the time, the Apollo 11 Moon landing and its spacecraft were hailed a marvel of engineering and science. Half-a-century later, however, NASA’s top brass has admitted Apollo’s lunar landers are no longer adequate for modern lunar…

Delta Aquariid meteor shower will light up the night skySummer nights are shorter but a great time to check out meteor showers, and the Delta Aquariid shower peaks Sunday night. Though it's a fairly average meteor shower, you can still see up to 20 meteors per hour. The best time to look up will be between midnight and just…

CNN — People have a lot of questions (and misconceptions) about space.It's understandable given that only 573 humans have ever gone there, according to a count by space expert Jonathan McDowell.Still, they shouldn't be the only ones who get to know the truth about what happens in the great beyond. Right?Fear not. NASA has answered…

Scientists were surprised after an asteroid almost hit earth on Thursday, July 25. “It’s impressively close. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet. It’s a pretty big deal,” Associate Professor Michael Brown, from Monash University’s school of physics and astronomy, told The Sydney Morning Herald. “[If it hit Earth] it makes the bang of a…

Let’s try this again: SpaceX is looking to launch its 18th International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission on Thursday at 6:01 PM ET (3:01 PM PT), a day after it tried to do so a first time. The initial attempt was scrubbed at the last minute due to weather conditions on the launch range in…

An artist’s illustration of the star S0-2 as it passes by the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center. As the star gets closer to the supermassive black hole, it experiences a gravitational redshift that is predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. (Image: © Nicolle R. Fuller/National Science Foundation) By analyzing the extraordinarily…

Artist's illustration of NASA's 2020 Mars rover on the Red Planet. (Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech) Mars exploration will get a big boost next summer.Earth and the Red Planet align favorably for interplanetary travel just once every 26 months, for a few weeks at a time. The next such window opens in mid-July 2020, and four big-ticket…

News Today 9:49 AM By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com People along the East Coast reported a seeing “bright fireball” from a meteor streaking across the sky Wednesday night.The American Meteor Society said it received more than 200 reports from witnesses who saw the white light low in the sky around 11…

The kauri tree stump (left) and a living tree belonging to the same species (right).Image: Sebastian LeuzingerA tree stump in New Zealand is very much alive, thanks to an interconnected root system that benefits both the stump and its neighboring trees. Scientists say this unusual symbiotic arrangement could change our very conception of what it…