Science & Technology

Need for Speed: China Revives World’s Fastest Bullet Trains
China raised the maximum speed of its popular Beijing-Shanghai bullet trains up to 350 kph Tuesday, following years of restrictions amid safety concerns. China's Fuxings have once again become the world's fastest trains with the journey between Beijing and Shanghai being reduced from 5 hours and 45 minutes to 4 hours and 28 minutes. [...]
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Supervolcanoes Could Herald a ‘Gold Rush’ for Lithium to Power Electric Cars
Scientists at Stanford University in California say they have found lithium – which can be used for batteries – in supervolcanoes. The lead author of the report, Tom Benson, said the discovery could be great news for "clean, green energy." [...]
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Russian Military Likely to Give Up Using Baikonur Spaceport Soon: Here’s Why
Roscosmos and the Russian Ministry of Defense are likely to team up to facilitate the construction of the launch pad for the Angara heavy-lift carrier rockets, RIA Novosti contributor Andrei Stanavov writes, shedding light on why the Russian military is ready to give up using the Kazakhstan-based Baikonur cosmodrome. [...]
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Stephen Hawking Fears He’s More Welcome in Space Than Trump’s America
Stephen Hawking says he fears he "may not be welcome" in the United States during the Trump administration's time in the Oval Office, due to their contradicting beliefs on climate change. Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain with television host Piers Morgan on Monday, March 20, the eminent physicist expressed his concern over Trump's policy and added that Scott Pruitt — the head of t [...]
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Speed for the Masses: Startup Raises $33M to Test Commercial Supersonic Aircraft
Boom Technology has raised $33 million to build and fly its first prototype. The company hopes to eventually build an aircraft that can travel from New York to London in three hours and fifteen minutes, less than half the time it would take on a conventional aircraft – and at a price that may surprise you! [...]
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Celebrating the Life of Yuri Gagarin, First Man in Space
The world's first man in space Yuri Gagarin was born 83 years ago, on March 9, 1934. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first man in outer space when the Vostok-1 spacecraft with the Soviet cosmonaut on board was launched from the Baikonur space center on April 12, 1961, at 6:07 AM local time, marking a new era in human history.  Yuri Gagarin's Birthday First woman in space Valentina [...]
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For The Ages: Russian Scientists Make Anti-Aging Breakthrough
Russian biologists from Moscow State University have successfully tested a medication that is capable of slowing cells aging. In particular, the researchers proved that the medication has efficiently worked on mice. During the experiment, the researchers divided the mice into two groups: the first group was fed normally, while the second one's fodder contained a SkQ1 molecule, a powerful antiox [...]
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The Sun King: China Becomes World’s Largest Solar Energy Producer
China has become the world’s largest producer of solar energy, according to a new report from the country’s energy administration. The most populous nation on Earth nearly doubled their capacity for solar power in 2016, but they still have a very low per-capita rate for solar power use. [...]
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Cosmonaut on How to End All Wars: ‘Gather Up Politicians & Send Them Into Space’
Yuri Usachov is no stranger to space travel, with four spaceflights, seven spacewalks and 553 days in orbit under his belt. He's also well-versed in person-to-person diplomacy, spending three of his missions interacting with foreign astronauts. Speaking to Radio Baltkom, Usachov revealed how the world's conflicts might be brought to a peaceful end. [...]
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Russia develops super-heavy ground-effect civilian transport
A civilian transport vehicle capable of hauling up to 500 tons of cargo across oceans is in the early stages of development in Russia. The vehicle would fly just meters over the surface to utilize so-called ground effect for better fuel efficiency. A ground-effect vehicle is a combination of a maritime vessel and an aircraft. [...]
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UFO sightings & psychic powers revealed in newly released CIA docs
There’s no shortage of intrigue amidst the CIA’s newly released archive of nearly 13 million pages of declassified records. Some of the more peculiar revelations detail the handling of UFO sightings and the potential weaponization of psychic powers. [...]
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Spooky clouds over CERN spark ‘portal to other dimensions’ theory
A doorway to “other dimensions” has been opened by the CERN Large Hadron Collider, according to someone with too much time on their hands and an active imagination. For the rest of us, it’s one of the most epic cloud formations you’ll see in your life. [...]
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5 times cheaper? Siberian artificial heart to challenge European implants
Siberian scientists have created an artificial heart they claim will be up to five times cheaper than its western alternatives. Doctors hope to test the first implants on animals this autumn. The new artificial heart design created by a team of cardiologists from the Novosibirsk State Research Institute of Circulation Pathology was unveiled at a medical forum in Novosibirsk on Thursday. [...]
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Germany’s Fantastic New Flying Car Achieves Road Speeds in the Sky
A quadcopter-like contraption, but for humans, the "Volocopter" hopes to change urban transportation by transforming low altitudes into highways. A new vehicle, called the Volocopter, could make flying cars a reality for many people, as the design includes such ideas as creating virtual highways with speed limits for the vehicles. [...]
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Euro-Russian Mission to Mars ‘a Response to Foolish Political Sanctions’
The launch of the first joint ESA-Roscosmos mission to the Red Planet serves partly as a response to the "stupid political" anti-Russian sanctions, according to Alexey Novikov, spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos. In an interview with Sputnik, Alexey Novikov, spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, described the launch of the first joint ESA-Roscosmos miss [...]
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Zoom to Mars in 6 weeks with new Russian nuclear-fission engine
A nuclear power propulsion system could propel a spacecraft to Mars in just over a month, a huge step forward from the current 18 months required. Russia might test a nuclear engine as early as 2018, the head of the Rosatom nuclear corporation revealed. Another advantage of a nuclear engine is that it enables a spacecraft to maneuver throughout the flight, whereas existing technology only makes [...]
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Russia’s New Nuclear Engine to Enable Spacecrafts to Reach Mars in 45 Days
A nuclear engine currently being developed in Russia by the nuclear agency Rosatom and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will allow a spaceship to reach Mars in an unprecedentedly short period of just 1.5 months, Rosatom’s General Director Sergei Kirienko said Wednesday. [...]
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Assembly of Russia’s Soyuz Rocket With Earth-Sensing Satellite Completed
The assembly of Russia’s Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket carrying an advanced Resurs-P Earth remote sensing satellite has been completed, Russian Roscosmos state corporation said in a statement on Wednesday. The rocket is expected to lift off on Saturday at 18:56 GMT. [...]
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Antares rocket producer orders 8 more Russian engines
Orbital Sciences Corporation, the US maker of the Antares rocket, has ordered eight additional RD-181 engines under an option of the 2014 contract with Energomash, the Russian company announced. Antares was initially designed to use AJ26 engines in its first stage, which are refurbished Soviet NK-33 engines [...]
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