5 HRS AGO - European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover arrives in France for final tests before next year’s mission The European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover has arrived in France for final tests before being prepared for its mission next year.Named Rosalind Franklin after the English chemist, the rover is designed to determine whether there has ever been life on Mars. It will also better understand the history of water on the red planet. Continue reading... Collapse

9 HRS AGO - A new study has found that lefties’ brains could be associated with better verbal skills, among other talents. I always knew I was special Being a leftie has a genetic component, is linked to better verbal skills and is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study published in the journal Brain. Unfortunately for Guardian readers, that’s leftie in the handedness sense, not political. Fortunately for me, I’m both.The study is a fascinating one, using thousands of brain scans and hundreds of thousands of sequenced genomes to look for associations between genes, brains and hands. It found that, in left-handers, the left and right hemispheres had stronger links in the regions associated with language, which could correlate with greater language ability. Continue reading... Collapse

10 HRS AGO - Hundreds of researchers share Breakthrough prize in fundamental physicsAn international collaboration that captured the first image of a black hole, a cosmic plughole from which nothing that enters can ever escape, has won the most lucrative prize in physics.Hundreds of researchers on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team will share the $3m Breakthrough prize in fundamental physics for their image of the monster black hole at the heart of Messier 87, a galaxy 55m light years from Earth. Continue reading... Collapse

11 HRS AGO - Japanese whalers have long known of the existence of a rare kind of beaked whale which has been spotted in the north Pacific Ocean, but it had not been officially recognised as a separate species, Collapse

15 HRS AGO - A new study suggests that ‘extreme inbreeding’ (EI) - in which parents are first- or second-degree relatives - is much more common that thought Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Researchers from the University of Oxford have revealed that while vegan and vegetarian diets reduce your risk of heart disease, they may increase your risk of stroke Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research showsPlastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945.Scientists suggest the plastic layers could be used to mark the start of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which human activities have come to dominate the planet. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current period may become known as the plastic age. Continue reading... Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Researchers from The Ohio State University have revealed that there is no connection between ‘extreme’ grooming and chlamydia or gonorrhoea Collapse