China successfully launches first ever mission to Mars
The secretive space mission is called Tianwen-1 and is scheduled to land on Mars in seven months time. China has officially entered the Mars space race with the successful launch of Tianwen-1, an unmanned rover that will land sometime in February if all goes well. It would make China the...
Current in Science
The first human trial of potential coronavirus vaccine shows promise
Oxford University has partnered with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to produce a global coronavirus vaccine and hopefully begin delivering doses by the end of the year. After preliminary trial results revealed that Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine – called AZD1222 – appears to be safe, AstraZeneca has stated that it hopes to...
Russian hacking group attack vaccine researchers
According to British authorities, Russia is sponsoring hacking group APT29 who’re attacking British, US, and Canadian medical organisations. The UK’s National Cyber Security has publicly stated that drug companies and research groups focusing on a Covid-19 vaccine have been targeted by a hacker group called APT29. Known in hacking circles...
NASA set to return to Mars with new rover ‘Perseverance’
Having bid farewell to the Mars rover in 2019, NASA is revisiting the Red Planet in 2021 with its most sophisticated vehicle to date, ‘Perseverance’. America’s chief space agency is set to embark on a new adventure to Mount Sharp, a huge summit on Mars, and the expedition will be...
Could llamas hold the key to curing Covid-19?
If this works out, the llama may pip the unicorn to the title of Most Magical Animal. As you will have heard a thousand times before, mostly on morning news shows, Covid-19 has all of us navigating through ‘unprecedented times’. Social distancing regulations may be easing worldwide, but getting back to living the...
SpaceX and NASA successfully launch Dragon Capsule
It’s the first time NASA has launched astronauts since 2011, and could usher in a new age of commercial and government space innovation. Amidst all of the memes and baby names, I sometimes forget that Elon Musk is an actual billionaire with a huge, privately owned space tech company....
The ‘Doomsday Vault’ preserving agricultural biodiversity
This Norwegian vault holds nearly one million preserved seeds from all across the world, just in case they’re needed in the future. When I first played Bethesda’s Fallout video game series, in which you are thrown into a giant vault underground and then eventually released hundreds of years later, I presumed it was merely a fictional fantasy. It appears I was grossly incorrect, however, as it turns out that...
People are experiencing strange dreams en mass during lockdown
Disturbed sleeping patterns and heightened anxiety induced by the current crisis has led to a sharp increase in vivid and unusual dreams, though experts claim it's no cause for concern. Since we began isolating all those weeks ago, you've probably been having some pretty strange dreams. While you're definitely not the only one (check out the #pandemicdreams trend on Twitter if you're after some interesting stories), the vivid-nature of these...
Is the quantum computing in ‘Devs’ really possible?
We take a peek at the physics behind Alex Garland’s new sci-fi offering Devs. Will quantum computers be able to tell us the future? Alex Garland’s newest foray into sci-fi, the Hulu show Devs, is one of the most innovate programs to be screened on prime-time Television for a while. Displaying the same heady mix of strange soundscapes, unnerving visuals, and ambitious set pieces that made his first two...
Malaria cure possible with new microbe
Scientists in Kenya have discovered a microbe they say can prevent mosquitoes from spreading malaria. Malaria is currently one of the leading causes of mortality in the world. More than 400,000 people are killed by the disease each year, and most of these victims are children under the age of five in emerging African nations. Likely because of its containment to non-western states, progress in...
