Image copyright: PA

In 2017, scientists thought they had detected Einstein’s gravitational waves from a new source – the collision of two dead stars, or neutron stars. The first direct detection of these waves was announced in 2016, when the Advanced LIGO laboratories described the warping of space from the merger of two distant black holes. The result was hailed as the starting point for a new branch of astronomy, using gravitational waves to collect data about distant phenomena.

A new technological revolution is taking place and each person on the internet will be affected.

American consumers, particularly parents, should be asking some hard questions about why the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) apparently have no interest in improving vaccine safety.

People living around the Pacific Ring of Fire are facing a terrifying New Year of earthquakes and volcanoes after experts predicted a period of unprecedented seismic activity.

Santa really was good this year. Rather than handing out expensive kitchen gadgets to clutter up the shrinking counter space, he had some swell presents in his bag. My Dearest was the clear winner — she got a new snow shovel!

When the US entered the nuclear age, it did so recklessly. New research suggests that the hidden cost of developing nuclear weapons were far larger than previous estimates, with radioactive fallout responsible for 340,000 to 690,000 American deaths from 1951 to 1973.

Albert Einstein contributed greatly to modern physics, but was he wrong in his definition of gravity lensing? If you are less impressed with clever manipulation of mathematical equations and prefer empirical science, that which is based on verifiable observation of natural events, then the work of Edsel Chromie will interest you.

What follows are 6 recent studies presented by Lüning and Vahrenholt, which dump cold water on the claim storms will get more frequent and intense.

Paper Reviewed: Pingale, B.N., Singh, S.D. and Yadav, A. 2017. Potential impacts of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide on yield and plant growth of rice (Oryza sativa) and maize (Zea mays) crops. Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 87: 1041-1044.

Image copyright: TANUSREE CHAUDHURI

Tanusree Chaudhuri, 34, was pregnant with her first child when her supervisor told her she would have to give up her dreams. She was doing a doctorate in computational biology and aspired to improve people’s health.

Image copyright: JAMES GALLAGHER

It has been a remarkable year of promise in medical science. Incurable diseases from sickle cell to haemophilia now look as though they can be treated. Here are the highlights.

In recent decades, select groups of scientists and politicians have blamed carbon dioxide (CO2) — a “greenhouse gas” — for increasing global temperatures to dangerous levels.

Image copyright: ROBERT PARK

Scientists say they have made a step forward in the fight against a wheat disease that threatens food security. Wheat is a staple food crop, making up a fifth of the calories on our plates.

But in many parts of the world, the crop is being attacked by stem rust (black rust), a fungus that can ravage a farmer’s fields. Researchers from the UK, US and Australia identified genetic clues that give insights into whether a crop will succumb to stem rust.

Nasa is to fund a helicopter mission to hunt for alien life on Saturn’s largest moon – the ocean world of Titan. The US space agency announced this week that the project, dubbed Dragonfly, has been selected as a finalist for a new expedition which will launch in the 2020s.