Sci-tech
Fort McMurray hit by flooding, forces residents to evacuate
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Mayor Don Scott offered condolences during a Wednesday afternoon press conference. "Albertans are facing some of the toughest challenges in our province's history", says Premier Jason Kenney. She said she was one of about 30 volunteers who helped evacuees get registered. The province's chief medical officer of health has exempted municipality residents fr... [Full Article...]
NASA selects SpaceX among 3 companies to build next moon landers
The companies vying for this contract included Blue Origin, with Jeff Bezos' company taking the lead for its collaborative industry-spanning team; Boeing, which is one of NASA's providers for its Commercial Crew program; SpaceX, which developed the other vehicle for Commercial Crew, and is targeting its first crewed flight for late May; and other smaller companies including Sierra Nevada Cor... [Full Article...]
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos win Nasa contracts for Moon lander
This artist's concept shows the briefcase-sized Lunar Flashlight spacecraft using its near-infrared lasers to shine light into shaded polar regions on the Moon to look for water ice. So the scientists aim to be sure before sending in the astronauts. The mission, proposed in a research paper , will last two months and see the satellite hover over the South Pole of the moon to look for su... [Full Article...]
Mammal fossil from age of dinosaurs found in Madagascar
Scientists have dubbed the creature Adalatherium hui , which translates from Malagasy - the national language of Madagascar - and Greek as "crazy beast". "Its teeth are freakish; the molar teeth have a construction dramatically different from those of any known mammal, extant or extinct", he said. Its backbone had more vertebrae than any Mesozoic mammal and one of its leg bones was strangely cu... [Full Article...]
An Asteroid Big Enough To Destroy Earth Is Nearing On April 29
Is there anything to worry? Based on Live Science , the asteroid is big enough to threaten civilisation here on earth. With a relatively close encounter of the "masked" 1998 OR2 at a distance of 6.3 million kilometers (4 million miles) due on April 29, we can already look forward to more potential cosmic calamity courtesy of the two Apollo-class asteroids in the coming weeks. [Full Article...]
Don't use taxpayer money to save polluting industries — United Nations chief
The outbreak has resulted in at least 200,000 deaths globally and widespread economic hardship as countries impose lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus. The U.N. chief warned that just like the pandemic, climate change can't be tackled by any one nation on its own. "Like the coronavirus, greenhouse gases respect no boundaries" and a joint worldwide effort is required to tackle both the p... [Full Article...]
Coronavirus slows global energy demand causing carbon dioxide emissions to plummet
Carbon intensive coal demand has so far been hit the hardest by the pandemic, with demand in both the first quarter and projections for 2020 as a whole down 8% compared with the same periods past year. But the IEA said this should have a limited impact on total renewable electricity generation this year. In the U.S., nuclear output was down 4 TWh, or 2%, in Q1 2020, partly due to lower electricity... [Full Article...]
SpaceX will take more rich space tourists to the International Space Station
Currently, the Dragon capsule has been the only flying cargo ship that is capable of bringing equipment from earth to NASA's ISS. As for NASA's broader commercial approach, other than opening the ISS to commercial ventures in general - including to private tourist outfits like Axiom Space , who'll arrange the privately funded, dedicated commercial spaceflights for eager visitors, take respon... [Full Article...]