According to Nasa, there have been no sunspots on the surface of our star in two weeks, leading to predictions the solar minimum has begun early. The sun follows cycles of roughly 11 years where it reaches a solar maximum and then a solar minimum.

During the former, the Sun gives off more heat, and less in the latter. By observing the sun through Nasa’s powerful Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft, experts have noticed there has been very little activity.

Image copyright: GETTY IMAGES

People who wake at night with an urge to go to the loo may need to cut back on salt in their diets, doctors from Japan are suggesting. The problem – called nocturia – which mainly affects the over-60s, leads to disrupted sleep and can significantly affect people’s lives.

In a study of more than 300 volunteers, researchers found that reduced salt intake led people to urinate less. Advice to follow a sensible diet could help improve symptoms, UK doctors said.

President Trump has slammed global warming as an elaborate hoax and forced the United Nations to stop making it compulsory for nations to contribute funding to global climate change programs.

G20 officials who met on Friday announced that “climate change is out for the time being” after President Trump dismantled Barack Obama and Angela Merkel’s old blueprint for compulsory financial donations to the cause.

Image copyright: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SETI INSTITUTE

After two decades of development and “heartbreak”, scientists are on the verge of sending missions to explore the ocean world of Europa. Could this be our best shot at finding life elsewhere in the Solar System?

Orbiting the giant planet Jupiter is an icy world, just a little smaller than Earth’s moon. From a distance, Europa appears to be etched with a nexus of dark streaks, like the product of a toddler’s chaotic scribbling.

Two weeks ago, the fake news New York Times declared an early spring, blamed your SUV, and by implication blamed America and Americans.

Spring Came Early. Scientists Say Climate Change Is a Culprit. – The New York Times

I was camped out in Bernie’s home town of Burlington, Vermont from April-June last year. This is what Burlington looks like today.

Prior to 1950, early spring was much warmer in the US. The four warmest March 24ths were 1939, 1910, 1907 and 1928.

./ghcn.exe US.txt date=0324 threshf=70 > US_0324_70F.csv

On this date in 1939, almost the entire country was over 70F, and most of the east coast was over 80F.

./ghcn.exe US.txt date=03241939 threshf=70 > US_03241939_70F.csv

Global warming is the biggest scam in science history. Essentially everything you read about it in the press is fraudulent.

Read more at realclimatescience.com

I’ve been on Twitter since April 2011 — nearly six years. A few weeks ago, for the first time, something I tweeted broke the thousand-retweets barrier. And I am really unhappy about it. For two reasons.

Image copyright: GARY MCARTHUR

Twelve “new” types of cloud – including the rare, wave-like asperitas cloud – have been recognised for the first time by the International Cloud Atlas.

The atlas, which dates back to the 19th Century, is the global reference book for observing and identifying clouds. Last revised in 1987, its new fully-digital edition includes the asperitas after campaigns by citizen scientists. Other new entries include the roll-like volutus, and contrails, clouds formed from the vapour trail of aeroplanes.

Right before they got slammed with cold and three feet of snow upstate, the fake news New York Times announced the early spring due to your SUV.

As with almost everything climate experts say, they are lying. Prior to 1950, early spring temperatures in the US were much warmer. The four warmest March 23 dates in the US were 1910, 1907, 1939 and 1928.

./ghcn.exe US.txt date=0323 threshf=70 > US_0323_70F.csv

On this date in 1910, two-thirds of US stations were over seventy degrees, and 80 degree temperatures occurred all the way up to northern Minnesota and North Dakota.

./ghcn.exe US.txt date=03231910 threshf=70 > US_03231910_70F.csv

Northern Minnesota is forecast to reach the low 40’s today, about 40 degrees cooler than 1910.

Read more at realclimatescience.com

Image copyright: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Scientists have located an impact crater linked to powerful tsunamis that swept across part of ancient Mars. The team believe an asteroid triggered 150m-high waves when it plunged into an ocean thought to have existed on northern Mars three billion years ago.

Lomonosov crater in the planet’s northern plains fits the bill as the source of tsunami deposits identified on the surface. Details were outlined at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

European  and American science institutions are sounding the alarm about the real and pressing danger of space weather. At a time when man-made global warming scares are increasingly dismissed as fake news scientists are turning their attentions beyond our planet where perhaps the greatest threat to life exists.

Human Achievement Hour is CEI’s annual celebration of human progress and will be held on Saturday, March 25, 2017, from 8:30 – 9:30PM GMT, or your local time. During Human Achievement Hour, we pay tribute to human innovations that have allowed people around the globe to live better, fuller lives, and defend our basic human right to use energy to improve everyone’s quality of life.

Until late 2006, global temperatures were more than a degree Fahrenheit warmer when compared to the 20th Century average. From August of 2007 through February of 2008, the Earth’s mean temperature dropped to near the 20^th Century average of 57 degrees. Since that time, land and ocean readings have rebounded to the highest levels in recorded history in 2016 with a temperature of 58.69 degrees Fahrenheit.

Image copyright: MILLARD H. SHARP

The first dinosaurs may have originated in the Northern Hemisphere, possibly in an area that is now Britain. This is one of the conclusions of the first detailed re-evaluation of the relationships between dinosaurs for 130 years.

It shows that the current theory of how dinosaurs evolved and where they came from may well be wrong. This major shake-up of dinosaur theory is published in this weeks’s edition of the journal Nature.

A British teenager has contacted scientists at Nasa to point out an error in a set of their own data. A-level student Miles Soloman found that radiation sensors on the International Space Station (ISS) were recording false data.

The 17-year-old from Tapton school in Sheffield said it was “pretty cool” to email the space agency. The correction was said to be “appreciated” by Nasa, which invited him to help analyse the problem.

NASA has found two small breaks in one wheel on the Curiosity Mars, marking the first step in the rover’s long decline.

Curiosity has breaks in the rover’s left middle wheel that appear to have been caused by simple wear and tear. It has driven a total of 9.9 miles since the mission’s August 2012 landing on Mars. The rover only needs to go another 3.7 miles to complete its mission.