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A HIV patient lying on a mat (Photo: CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP/Getty Images)

The Sleeper Cell

A sterilizing cure could be a 'tough ask' in HIV

Thirty years after the detection of HIV, scientists are divided on whether we will ever see a cure.

Health

Seeing the eye as a window to disease elsewhere

A woman's eye. (Copyright: Serg Zastavkin)

People with bad vision tend to go to the ophthalmologist, but their actual problems may lie somewhere else. Ophthalmologists are able to recognize other illnesses through the eyes.

fight for your right

Lawmakers call for right to return mobile apps

Angry Birds app on an iPhone

German state-level lawmakers agree that consumers should have the right to return mobile apps. But changing the law may do little to help consumers if companies don't do their bit.

viral feedback

Saudi labs need help with new SARS-like virus

An electron microscope image of a coronavirus (AP Photo/Health Protection Agency)

Virology expert Professor Christian Drosten of Bonn University says Saudi labs are failing to collaborate on research into the novel coronavirus (NCoV) which has killed 18 people since last year.

digging in the dirt

Testing sewage for drugs will help public health

Two young women taking cocaine

Sifting through sewage to find traces of illicit drugs is no one's idea of fun. But leading experts, meeting in Lisbon, say drug wastewater analysis will shape future public health initiatives.

space invaders

The writer playing Eboy's FixPix on his iPhone.

Games makers may reject HTML5 out of hand

HTML plays a major role in our Web experience. Its latest specification, HTML5, will make multimedia functions work across operating systems and browsers. But developers aren't impressed.

mind altering

Picture painted by me, named Don Juan, it shows a sideways portrait of a old indian with extreme colorful mystic headdress #36326507

Never tried LSD - the drug my father discovered

Seventy years ago - on April 16, 1943 - Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD-25. Its psychedelic effects came on during his bike ride home.

Tech Startups

Where are Europe's tech micro-multinationals?

You used to have to make it big domestically before you dared to go global. Now, Web-based startups can think big right away. But some in Europe are struggling with the concept.

Radio

Image of a car designer inventor

Spectrum

A weekly radio program that covers sci-tech news around the world.

Listen to the whole program

Know your app rights!

Irresponsible breakthrough?

Bible of disorder

#Ecigs are "unsafe"

Internet

Digital Life

Read more on social media, Internet and smartphones from Germany, Europe and beyond.

Shift

More on the Internet and digital life

The US could snoop on data in 'the Cloud,' study warns

Digital Europe (20.05.2013)
A helicopter on a beach in Perth (Copyright: Surf Life Saving)

turn it up - bring the noise?

German researchers reducing helicopter noise

Helicopters make a lot of noise - and their rotors and engines are to blame for it. Researchers in Berlin want to change that and cut the noise levels caused both by air turbulence and the machinery.

Disease detection

New method for early cancer diagnosis

Latvian lab technicians use a special scanner to analyse antigens printed on small slides. (Photo: Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre)

Latvian scientists are close to inventing a non-invasive blood test for early detection of gastric cancer. The disease is often only diagnosed when it is too late for treatment.

'no need for a name'

Pharma sector changes as generic market grows

Medicine can save lives if you can get it and afford it. But now, generics are a cheaper alternative to more expensive brand name drugs.

  • Threat from above

    European early warning system

    About 10,000 asteroids loom close to Earth. They could be dangerous. The European Space Agency (ESA) is building an early warning system in Frascati, Italy. Data from telescopes like this one on Tenerife will be collated there.

  • Threat from above

    Passing blast

    If you're wondering how important early warning systems are, think of the meteorite that struck Earth near Chelyabinsk in Russia on 15 February 2013. The blast was estimated to have been as strong as between 100 and 1000 kilotons of TNT explosives. Almost 1500 people were injured.

  • Threat from above

    A big splash

    Before it had burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, the meteorite is estimated to have had a diameter of 20 meters. All that was left was a piece weighing only about a kilogram. But it still managed to smash a six meter wide hole in the ice.

  • Threat from above

    Bigger and badder

    But an asteroid named "2012 DA14" was much more dangerous. It weighed 130,000 tons. On the same day as the Chelyabinsk strike, 2012 DA14 flew passed our planet at a distance of just 27,000 kilometers. That is closer than some satellites.

  • Threat from above

    Whizz by Earth

    A number of other asteroids and comets are expected to come close to Earth this year. Scientists are keeping a close eye on them because even the smallest rocks can be dangerous.

  • Threat from above

    Comets and shooting stars

    Comets consist of a cloud of gas and a huge tail of gas, stones and particles of dust. When the tiny grains of dust from a comet scrape the Earth's atmosphere, they can get as hot as 3,000 degrees Celsius. They start to glow and become a shooting star.

  • Threat from above

    The most famous meteor shower

    The Perseids are a prolific meteor shower, associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. Every summer, the meteor shower crosses the Earth's orbit. The Perseids are named after the constellation they are closest to when they can be seen. It is derived from Perseus, a character from Greek mythology.

  • Threat from above

    When meteoroids don't burn up

    Meteors dust burns up in our atmosphere. Most meteorites (meteoroids that survive falling through the atmosphere) are harmless and are often no bigger than a stone. But large meteorites can cause a lot of damage. One of the largest meteorite craters is the Barringer Crater in Arizona. It has a diameter of 1,000 meters and is 50,000 years old.

  • Flash-Galerie Meteorit

    Threat from above

    End of an era

    About 65 million years ago, a giant meteorite slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula (simulated in the image to the right). It led to the creation of the Chicxulub Crater, which is more than 180 kilometers in diameter. Experts believe the impact wiped out the dinosaurs. More recent evidence suggests that debris from a collision between two asteroids 160 million years ago led to the event.

  • Threat from above

    Burnt rocks from outer space

    Meteorites look like burnt rocks. Their crust is formed when the meteorite melts upon entering the Earth's atmosphere. Other planets are also struck by meteorites. NASA's Opportunity Rover discovered the first extraterrestrial meteorites on Mars in 2005.

  • Threat from above

    Dust and gas

    It's not just the dust from comets that reaches Earth - but the comets do, too. Experts believe comets to be bits leftover from the creation of planets. They may also hold secrets about the beginnings of our solar system.

  • Threat from above

    Large chunks of rock

    Almost all of meteorites found on Earth have come from asteroids - that is 99.8 percent of the more than 30,000. And just like comets, asteroids are created when a planet is being formed. They have no permanent atmosphere and hardly any gravity.

  • Threat from above

    And after all that...

    ... that chance of a large asteroid hitting Earth in the next 100 years is (said to be) quite small.


    Author: F. Schmidt / J. Hartl / jbr | Editor : G. Benzow / Z. Abbany