17th January 2019

2023 – Luna 27 lands on the far side of the Moon

Luna 27 is the second probe, after China's Chang'e 4, to visit the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin.

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16th January 2019

2022 – Completion of the Northeast Corridor high-speed train upgrade

Avelia Liberty is a new high-speed train service running between Washington, D.C. and Boston. The first trains are introduced in 2021 and the final upgrade is completed in 2022.

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15th January 2019

Six-fold increase in Antarctic ice loss since 1979

A new study in the journal PNAS finds that Antarctica experienced a six-fold increase in yearly ice mass loss between 1979 and 2017.

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15th January 2019

IBM unveils quantum computer

IBM has unveiled the IBM Q System One, its first integrated quantum computing system for commercial use.

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14th January 2019

First direct evidence that white dwarfs form crystal cores

The first direct evidence of white dwarf stars solidifying into crystals has been discovered by astronomers. Our own Sun will meet this fate in 10 billion years.

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12th January 2019

Bioengineering of rice could boost grain yield by 27%

A new approach for boosting photosynthesis in rice plants could increase grain yield by up to 27%, according to a study published in the journal Molecular Plant.

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11th January 2019

Interstellar "precursor" mission could reach 1,000 AU by 2080

Scientists are proposing a mission to the inner Oort cloud that would launch by 2030 and reach it within 50 years.

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10th January 2019

"Walking car" could save lives in disaster zones

Hyundai has demonstrated a future concept vehicle that could activate robotic legs to "walk" over rough terrain.

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10th January 2019

World's first terabyte SD card

The first SD card with a storage capacity of 1 terabyte (TB) has been announced by Lexar.

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9th January 2019

2021 – Exascale computers are deployed

An exaFLOP is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (a million trillion) floating point operations per second. By 2021, the world's top supercomputers are reaching this speed.

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8th January 2019

Excitons could lead to more efficient electronics

Scientists report a way to control properties of excitons, which could lead to transistors that undergo less energy loss and heat dissipation.

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8th January 2019

Genetic "shortcut" boosts plant growth by 40%

Scientists report the engineering of crops with a photorespiratory "shortcut" to boost plant growth by 40% in real-world agronomic conditions.

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4th January 2019

2019-2020 – The 5G standard is released

From 2019 to 2020, the next major cellular wireless standard is rolled out, providing vastly improved data transfer speeds.

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3rd January 2019

2018 highlights

Our top 20 most viewed blogs of 2018, in reverse order.

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3rd January 2019

2019 – The first soft landing on the far side of the Moon

On 3rd January 2019, China achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon.

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3rd January 2019

2019 – The New Horizons probe arrives at Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69

After visiting Pluto in 2015, New Horizons continued onwards to the Kuiper Belt. On 1st January 2019 it encountered the distant object known as 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule.

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2nd January 2019

2019 – The CHEOPS telescope is deployed to study exoplanets

Originally planned for launch in 2017, CHEOPS was delayed until 2018, then delayed yet again until late 2019.

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2nd January 2019

2019 – The Emperor of Japan abdicates

On 30th April 2019, Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicates his position, the first Japanese monarch to do so since 1817.

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2nd January 2019

2019 – Jair Bolsonaro becomes President of Brazil

A polarising and controversial politician, Jair Bolsonaro was elected as President of Brazil in October 2018. His four-year term began on 1st January 2019.

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