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Quote of the day by John Cockcroft: Human progress has always depended on the achievements of - a Nobel laureate's tribute to the father of India's nuclear age

Spanish conquerors described a terrifying tower made of thousands of human skulls, historians thought it was propaganda, then archaeologists found it beneath Mexico City

Astronomers discover salt-rich clouds in the atmosphere of the Pink Planet

Helium was discovered in the Sun 27 years before it was found on Earth

Florida's Burmese python challenge can't wipe out invasive snakes from the Everglades. Awareness is the real victory, officials say

California's earthquake stress levels are now the highest seen in 1,000 years, study finds

A comet from another star system flew through our Solar System and scientists checked it for alien signals

NASA launches high-stakes mission to save ageing telescope Swift from falling to Earth

The mission will be carried out by US startup Katalyst Space Technologies, which won the NASA contract last September. Its three-armed robotic spacecraft, named Lift, will launch aboard an air-launched Pegasus rocket from the Marshall Islands before spending about a month chasing down Swift in orbit. Swift has been observing the universe since 2004.