Tag Archives: science

Miami, UNITED STATES | AFP |On Monday, August 21, for the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will march across the entire United States. “The Great American Eclipse” will cast a shadow over the whole country, moving diagonally from Oregon in the northwest to South Carolina in …

Paris, France | AFP | Ignore the snobs, because most experts agree: a few drops of water enhance the taste of whiskies, from well-rounded blends to peat bombs redolent of smoke, tobacco and leather. The only real question is, why is this true? The answer, a pair of biochemists in Sweden …

Miami, United States | AFP | SpaceX is poised to launch an unmanned cargo ship toward the International Space Station Monday, including a super-computer that could direct astronauts on future deep-space missions. The liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Dragon cargo ship, is planned for 12:31 pm (1631 GMT) …

Paris, France | AFP | An asteroid the size of a house will shave past Earth at a distance of some 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles) in October, inside the Moon’s orbit, astronomers said Thursday. The space rock will zoom by at an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the …

Paris, France | AFP | The first flower to appear along the path of plant evolution, during the time of the dinosaurs, was a hermaphrodite with petal-like organs arranged in concentric circles, researchers said Monday. The bloom had both male and female reproductive organs at the centre, surrounded by multiple layers …

Paris, France | AFP | Sugar may be bad not only for your teeth and your waistline, but also your mental health, claimed a study Thursday that was met with scepticism by other experts. Researchers at University College London (UCL) compared the reported sugar intake of more than 8,000 people in …

Paris, France | AFP |  The three-decade-old quest for an AIDS vaccine received a shot of hope Monday when developers announced that a prototype triggered the immune system in an early phase of human trials. Tested in 393 people in the United States, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa and Thailand, the …

Paris, France | AFP |  From the start of the AIDS epidemic in 1981, here are 10 dates in the history of the disease. – 1981: First alert – On June 5, 1981, US epidemiologists report the first deaths among young homosexuals from a mysterious immune-wrecking disease later named acquired …

Paris, France | AFP |  Someone is infected with the AIDS virus every 17 seconds in the world, and the disease has killed the equivalent of the population of Canada, figures released Thursday by UNAIDS show. Here is a numerical snapshot of the disease. – 17 seconds – Roughly 1.8 …

Miami, United States | AFP | Some very “peculiar signals” have been noticed coming from a star just 11 light-years away, scientists in Puerto Rico say. The mystery has gripped the internet as speculation mounts about the potential for a discovery of alien life on the red dwarf star known …