A furious debate is disturbing the peace in the French mountains: do plans to release two bears into the countryside represent a victory for biodiversity, or an intolerable threat to farmers? Back in the early 20th century around 150 brown bears roamed the French Pyrenees along the Spanish border, but by the 1990s they had […]

A study sheds new light on the connection between the gut and the brain, untangling the complex interplay that allows the byproducts of microorganisms living in the gut to influence the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. “These findings provide a clear understanding of how the gut impacts central nervous system resident cells in the brain,” said […]

Explorations in Earth’s space environment by NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft have discovered a surprising new magnetic event in turbulent plasma. Though close to home, the space immediately around Earth is full of hidden secrets and invisible processes. In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — […]

TEHRAN  – What does it take to build a gas giant? Building models of planet formation and studying exosolar systems have both provided us with some hints. But there’s a small but growing list of cases where the two of these approaches disagree about what’s possible. A new paper adds to that list by describing […]

TEHRAN — Water transfer won’t restore Lake Urmia, Hedayat Fahimi, an official with the Ministry of Energy has said, noting that promoting sustainable agriculture is the way to save the lake. Lake Urmia, located in northwestern Iran, used to be the largest salt-water lake in the Middle East and a home to flamingos, pelicans, egrets […]

Australia unveiled on Monday a US$34 million plan to help bring its koala population back from the brink, following a rapid decline in the furry marsupial’s fortunes. The Australian Koala Foundation estimates there may be as few as 43,000 koalas left in the wild, down from a population believed to number more than 10 million […]

A new sinkhole on a North Island farm as deep as four double-decker buses and almost the length of two football fields has grabbed the attention of New Zealand volcanologists. The chasm appeared after heavy rainfall near the town of Rotorua and left a jagged scar on the landscape, exposing rock deposits from 60,000 years […]

NASA on Saturday launched its latest Mars lander, called InSight, designed to perch on the surface and listen for “Marsquakes” ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet. “Three, two, one, liftoff!” said a NASA commentator as the unmanned spacecraft blasted off on a dark, foggy morning atop an Atlas V rocket at […]

SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon cargo ship splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, the company said, a few hours after leaving the International Space Station Saturday carrying 4,000 pounds (1,800 kilograms) of gear. “Good splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing SpaceX’s third resupply mission to and from the @Space_Station with a flight-proven spacecraft,” tweeted the company […]

TEHRAN – On Monday, Private sectors from Iran and South Korea discussed joint projects in nanotechnology during a meeting at the venue of Iran’s National Library and Archive. The sides plan to establish a joint club to expand cooperation in the field of nanotechnology, the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council announced in a press release, ISNA […]