SAfrican telescope proving worth its SALT and other top stories.

• SAfrican telescope proving worth its SALT

  

  South Africa's SALT telescope has helped detect the first white dwarf pulsar, the latest co-discovery that has astronomers eager to use the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere to unlock the galaxy's secrets.Quick reaction times, as well as being significantly cheaper than similar European or American facilities in producing the science are key competitive advantages, said a senior astronomer at the SALT consortium during a media visit."SALT is now living up to expectations, prod..

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• Large Carnivores May Have Eaten Ancient Hominins

  

  The femur bone of a 500,000 year old hominin, discovered in a cave in Morocco, bears telltale tooth marks – making a case for large carnivores having preyed upon these hominins during prehistory. In a new research study published recently on behalf of France’s Muséum National D’Histoire Naturelle, head researcher Camille Daujeard and colleagues say that in this instance, a large carnivore such as a hyena likely snacked on this early human specimen. Hominins living during the time – the Middle P..

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• NASA just unveiled the James Webb Space Telescope's huge golden mirror

  

  When launched, Hubble's successor, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, will be the most powerful space telescope in the world (or, outside of it?). Though it’s still under construction and is expected to launch in 2018, officials have just now unveiled pictures of the telescope’s huge, golden mirrors. And boy, are they pretty. These large, blinged-out mirrors are too large to fit onto a rocket, which means they have to fold up and unfurl in space where they will help researchers focus light from..

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• Disturbing New Study Shows The Pacific Ocean May Suffocate In Just 15 Years

  

  The same human activity that is causing the world’s oceans to warm, rise, and acidify is also robbing those same oceans of oxygen. Furthermore, the impact of ocean suffocation on the planet is equally as alarming as the impact of climate change. Matthew Long, an oceanographer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, states that climate change-driven oxygen loss in oceans is already easily detectable and that certain swaths of oxygen-deprived, or “suffocated,” oceans will likely be wides..

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• A Brand New 'Atlas' Shows Where Different Ideas Live In Our Brains

  

  Social concepts which are coded in red on the atlas, are splashed across both hemispheres of the brain. A man on the radio is talking about what it was like to come out to his family as gay. The sound of his voice streams into the ear of the listener and vibrates in the snail shell-shaped cavity of her cochlea. The sounds are translated into electric impulses, which shoot along her nerves into her auditory cort..

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• Coral reef at Amazon River's mouth surprises scientists

  

  Scientists have discovered a huge, coral reef hidden in a place they didn't think coral reefs could live – under the muddy waters at the mouth of the Amazon River. The massive reef covers about 9,500 square kilometres, stretching from the Brazil-French Guiana border in the north to Brazil's Maranhao State in the south, report Brazilian and U.S. researchers in a recent paper in the journal Science Advances. 'Oh my gosh, it is just full of the most amazing, colourful animals I have ever seen on ..

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• Astronomers find first tailless comet

  

  Astronomers find first tailless cometIrene KlotzAAPApril 30, 2016 11:03AMSavePrint Astronomers have found a first-of-its-kind tailless comet whose composition may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution.The research was published in the journal Science Advances on Saturday.The so-called Manx comet, named after a breed of cats without tails, was made of rocky materials that are normally found near earth. Most comets are made of ice and other froz..

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• Forming Fogbows: Study finds limit on evaporation to ice sheets, but that may change

  

  NEW DELHI: Although the coastal regions of the Greenland Ice Sheet are experiencing rapid melting, a significant portion of the interior of that ice sheet has remained stable - but a new study suggests that stability may not continue.Researchers found that very little of the snow and ice on the vast interior of the ice sheet is lost to the atmosphere through evaporation because of a strong thermal "lid" that essentially traps the moisture and returns it to the surface where it refreezes.However,..

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