More than two kilometres beneath the surface of the Pacific, off the coast of Oregon, an active underwater volcano has been hiding one of the strangest landscapes ever mapped on the seafloor. Using robotic vehicles capable of withstanding crushing depths, scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have spent more than two decades surveying…

Melinda French Gates grew up in a household where science, engineering and education were closely woven into family life. Her father, Raymond Joseph French Jr., was an aerospace engineer whose career included work connected to NASA’s Apollo programme, giving his daughter an early glimpse into the world of space exploration and advanced technology. But some…

Long before astronauts ever plant a seed on the Moon or Mars, Nasa has been testing a much simpler question here on Earth’s doorstep: what happens when a corn seed germinates with no gravity to tell it which way to grow? Back in the early 1990s, researchers flew dry corn kernels aboard the space shuttle,…

A school bag is full of mud brought in by the recent flash floods, at the Shree Bagheswori Madhyamik School in Nepal. (Photo: AP) Morning assembly was about to begin at Bageshwori Higher Secondary School on August 26 when teachers learned that floodwaters were heading towards Baireni.Principal Prakash Malla told students to move to higher…