Beginning in the 1950s, the US government conducted hundreds of atomic weapons tests at a remote site in Nevada, in efforts to ramp up nuclear capabilities amid building Cold War tensions. But, nuclear fallout from reckless experiments prior to 1963 had grave and unintended consequences - and, new research reveals they may have been far more extreme than ever suspected. Above-ground tests on US soil left millions of Americans exposed to 'tremendous' amounts of radioactive pollution, which made its way into the environment and the food supply (shown in the map), leading to as many as 695,000 deaths from 1951-1973. Las Vegas used the tests as a tourist attraction (pictured left).
Do you want to build a snowman? NASA shares stunning image of festive-looking impact site on the side of an asteroid
As asteroids hurtle through space, collisions with other objects can leave them speckled with craters of varying shapes and sizes, creating a pock-marked surface with no apparent organization. Sometimes, however, these impact craters align in just the right way. NASA has shared a remarkable image of an asteroid that appears to have a snowman imprinted on its surface, thanks to three ‘well-placed impacts’ stacked atop each other.
The giggling gorilla! Adorable moment orphaned ape laughs as she's tickled by one of her rescuers
This is the moment an orphaned baby gorilla rescued from cruel animal traffickers starts giggling uncontrollably while being tickled. Lulingu, whose parents were killed when she was just eight months old, can be seen laughing while playing with one of her rescuers at a sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The tiny ape rolls around in excitement and can be heard grunting as the carer tickles her under the armpits.
2017 from space: Satellite images show the year's most headline-grabbing events from the solar eclipse to the Women's March, the California wildfires and the devastating hurricane-induced floods
The past 12 months have seen some of the most dramatic news stories in recent memory. From hurricane-induced floods to wildfires to genocide to solar eclipses, journalists were kept busy trying to chronicle it all. DigitalGlobe, a satellite-imaging company, released stunning images on Thursday of some of 2017’s biggest events as seen from space. The image on the top shows the aftermath of the devastating hurricanes that hit Texas. The image on the bottom left shows the Women's March in Denver. The image on the bottom right shows hundreds of thousands gathering in Oregon in August to watch the total eclipse.
- America's own-goal nuclear holocaust: How hundred above-ground Nevada A-bomb tests during the 1950s exposed MILLIONS to 'tremendous' amounts of radiation and may have killed up to 695,000
- The snowman in space: NASA release stunning image of festive looking triple impact crater on the side of an asteroid
- 'Glory bears and asses the air the angels sang': The neural network attempting to write carols wishes everyone a 'hurry Christmas'
- Checkmate humanity: In four hours, a robot taught itself chess, then beat a grandmaster with moves never devised in the game's 1,500-year history and the implications are terrifying
- The Siri inside your head: Scientists pinpoint the tiny spot in our brain that lets us recognize voices
- The AI that can choose the perfect picture: Google's software is learning what humans look for in photographs
- Did YOU fall for a Russian propaganda post? Facebook releases tool to tell people if they engaged with controversial 'Internet Research Agency' accounts
- Has the mystery of how the moon was formed finally been solved? Results of two billion simulations show protoplanet Theia was far smaller than thought when it slammed into Earth
- The Christmas blood transfusion that saved Little Buddy: Reindeer given blood transfusion from his brother Moose in rare lifesaving operation
- Would you kill Deidre? Take the test to check if your reaction time on the road is quick enough, as experts warn about the dangers of 'drowsy driving' this Christmas
- The giggling gorilla! Adorable moment orphaned ape laughs as she's tickled by one of her rescuers
- Auctioneers Christie's admit Leonardo Da Vinci painting which became world's most expensive artwork when it sold for £340m has been retouched in last five years
- Now that's a room with a view! Russia wants to build a five-star luxury HOTEL on the International Space Station by 2022 (but it will cost £30 million for a one week stay)
- Can solar tags save the snowy owl? Birds wintering in the US set to get tiny trackers as researchers warn only 30,000 are left
- Sonic boom or bust? The hi-tech planes competing to bring back supersonic travel
- How to beat your family at board games this Christmas: Go for orange to win at Monopoly and use your ARMS to triumph at Jenga, experts say
- Humidity could worsen the impact of global warming by increasing severity of heatwaves for millions of people worldwide
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Prosthesis explained: A look at the racing anti-robot at CES
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Would you ride this? 'Jyro' is a one-wheeled electric rideable
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Icaros the virtual reality fitness & gaming machine at CES 2017
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LG shows off their next generation robots at CES 2017
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Kérastase and Withings unveil the world's first smart hairbrush
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Cringeworthy moment driverless demo goes wrong during reveal
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Latest gadgets on display at Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas
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LG reveals their ultrathin 'wallpaper' TV at CES 2017
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Daily Mail tries out portable, immersive Royole headset
The horrifying alien creatures of the deep: Russian fisherman reveals his latest strange catches, including a bearded seadevil and fish with 'human teeth'
The Murmansk-based fisherman Roman Fedortsov has revealed a trove of terrifying catches, from eight-legged arthropods to fish with dagger-like teeth. These creepy images could make you think twice before dipping your toes at the beach again. These incredible creatures live in the 'twilight zone' of the ocean. This is the area between 660 to 3,300 feet (200 to 1,000 metres) below the surface which is known as the Mesopelagic zone. Some of these strange fish baffled even Mr Fedortsov. Pictured clockwise from top left; unidentified fish; an Angler fish; unidentified fish; unidentified fish; bearded sea devil and a frilled shark.
Can YOU tell what's real? Amazing video reveals a mind-bending optical illusion that makes flat objects look 3D
Not everything on this table is real, and what you’re actually seeing is a simple ‘anamorphic’ illusion created by Sage Hansen from Texas. The moment you move, the image becomes distorted and the viewer can see it is an illusion. Leonardo da Vinci was the the earliest known modern artist to use anamorphosis in 1485.
5,000-year-old eyeliner and scarabs inscribed with the titles of the elite reveal the rise of ancient Jericho
Archaeologists have discovered the remarkable remains of 5,000-year-old makeup at one of the world’s oldest cities. A decades-long dig at Tell es-Sultan, led by researchers from Italy and Palestine, has uncovered traces of manganese oxide inside ancient mother of pearl shells (pictured center) – and, they say this was once the basis of a substance used as eyeliner. The team has also found countless other artifacts that stand as testament to the growth of Jericho and its interactions with neighboring cities spanning centuries, including the remains of a child buried (left) with jewelry, scarabs (right) and ancient perfume jugs.
So how many have YOU seen? Giphy reveals the most popular GIFs of 2017, including a waving pug, a sleepy baby, and the blinking white guy
Giphy has released its round-up of the most popular GIFs of the year, and though some are no-brainers, others may come as a surprise. The website announced that 300 million people share over two billion of the moving image files every day, but not all GIFs are created equal. Some seem to tap into universal truths better than others, making them go-tos to express particular emotions. Others are just cute. But one thing that every GIF in the top 25 have in common? Each was shared at least 32 million times this year.
Is your phone listening to your every word or watching you through the camera? How thousands of people are convinced 'coincidence' adverts are anything but
We all know ‘targeted advertising’ has been prevalent for some years now, via our social media apps and search engines. Facebook was one of the first to introduce it four years ago. It’s no big secret: go on the John Lewis website and choose a blouse, or Google Nigella’s smart eye-level oven, and the next time you log on to Facebook or Instagram, there’s a good chance they’ll pop up as adverts there. But when writer Jen Lewis saw an advert on Facebook of a woman wearing exactly the same clothes she was at that moment (left and right), she started to believe businesses snooping on customers one step too far.
The internet's wittiest comments! The hilarious ripostes that are sure to raise a smile
These hilarious online ripostes and conversation threads show that the internet can bring out the witty and surreal side of the internet, not just the unpleasant trolls. The witticisms include in spoof review on Amazon (top left) and a discussion about legal alcohol age that morphs into a comment about five-year-olds buying houses (top right). What do you call a man from London? Rob, apparently, is one reply.
Where will NASA go next? Ambitious plan to fly over Saturn's moon Titan and a project to bring back samples from a comet are among finalists for the agency's new billion-dollar mission
NASA has picked two finalists to determine what its next missions will look like. One will search for signs of alien life on Saturn's moon Titan, pictured right, while the other will take samples from a comet, pictured top left. The missions were chosen under NASA's New Frontiers competition programme, aimed at launching a robotic exploration into space in the mid-2020s based around the research priorities of the wider scientific community. The concepts were chosen from 12 proposals that had been submitted starting as of December of last year. NASA will choose one winner from its New Frontiers programme in July 2019.
Elon Musk reveals his megarocket: Falcon Heavy set to blast off within weeks (and could be taking Musk's car along for the ride)
The vast rocket, which is ultimately three Falcon 9 rockets linked together, will have the combined thrust to eventually launch 140,000 pounds (63,500kg) of cargo into orbit. 'Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape. Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another,' Musk originally posted. 'Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity.
The battle of the space billionaires heats up as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin reveals it is aiming for a manned launch in 2018
The battle of the billionaires between Jeff Bezos (left), Richard Branson (middle) and Elon Musk (left) looks set to finally blast its first people into space next year. Speaking at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Colorado, Jeff Ashby, a former NASA astronaut who is director of safety and mission assurance for Jeff Bezos's space firm Blue Origin, said the firm is now 'a year out' from human flights. It comes as Richard Branson claimed in October he will travel to space on his Virgin Galactic craft within six months.
There IS water on Mars: Scientists say rocks on the red planet absorbed it under the crust ‘like a sponge’ killing all lifeforms and leaving the surface dry and desolate
Scientists at Oxford University's department of Earth sciences used modelling methods employed to understand the composition of Earth rocks to study the surface of Mars (inset). They believe that lava reacted with water to form porous rocks, which can absorb 25 per cent more water than those on Earth, which soaked up any remaining liquid. This would have been devastating to any forms of life that might have evolved on the planet's surface, around 3.5 billion years ago, experts say. The main image shows the transition from a wet to dry environment.
World's largest plane with a wingspan longer than a FOOTBALL FIELD taxis down the runway for the first time ahead of its 2019 test flight
Stratolaunch used the aircraft’s six Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines (bottom) to conduct a low speed taxi test (top right) at the company’s facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Stratolaunch successfully travelled down the runway at 25 knots (28 miles per hour/45km/h). Once low-speed taxi tests have been safely completed, the company will begin the next phase of taxi testing, which will include increased speeds. Once testing has been completed, the aircraft (top left) will be used to launch satellites and other objects into space. This could include a Dream Chaser spaceship, which could act as a mini-shuttle to reach low Earth orbit destinations and return astronauts or payloads to a runway within 24 hours.
The REAL blue planet: Incredible NASA image shows 'glowing' Antarctic iceberg
NASA’s airborne Operation IceBridge mission has captured a stunning image of an Antarctic iceberg surrounded by an otherworldly blue halo. At first glance, the striking neon color appears artificial – but, according to the space agency, the submerged layer of the eroded iceberg truly is ‘the bluest of ice.’ The remarkable effect was spotted during a flight to Victoria Land, as the aircraft passed over Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound.
Bell's Valor tiltrotor 'supercopter' that could replace the Black Hawk flies for first time
The new Bell Helicopter successfully achieved its first flight on Monday as it moves closer to replacing the famous Black Hawk. Bell released video of its V-280 Valor during take-off at the military base in Amarillo, Texas. The V-280 Valor is a next-generation tiltrotor that is designed to provide unmatched agility, speed, range and payload capabilities at an affordable cost, according to the company. This milestone brings Bell Helicopter one step closer to creating the next generation of vertical lift aircraft for the US military.
German WWI body armour and weaponry so barbaric it was banned under the Geneva Convention for inflicting incredible pain on soldiers set to sell for thousands in auction
The chilling items, set for auction in Ashford, Kent, include a rare German 'sawback bayonet' blade (pictured left in centre image, sheath pictured right). The weapon looks like a long dagger, but one side had a lethal serrated edge that caused horrendous wounds and even helped pull out a victim's insides. Another weapon up for sale is a wooden trench club dotted with metal studs (pictured left), which was used to quietly kill soldiers during night-time raids. Alongside the brutal weaponry, a rare steel body armour set (pictured right) worn by German troops placed in vulnerable fixed positions is up for auction. The suit was used by snipers and machine gunners, who came under heavy fire once their positions had been exposed.
Researchers fit baby turtles with mini swimsuits and put them on a treadmill to find out how they become 'crawling machines' after they hatch
Once a baby sea turtle hatches from its egg, the lure of the ocean is immediate; hatchlings make the trek from their nest to the water within the first 24 hours, in what’s known as a ‘frenzy’ period. The journey itself should take just minutes, but disorientation along the way can cause the freshly hatched turtles to spend hours crawling through the sand. In a new study using specially designed mini-treadmills and swimsuits, conservationists observed how hatchlings cope with disorientation – and, they were shocked to find the young turtles are ‘crawling machines.’
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