This could be a special year for human spaceflight. Europe and the US are collaborating and progressing with the Orion spacecraft, and next week, SpaceX inaugurates a revamped launch site in part for human cargo. To call it a space race at this stage would be odd, not to mention misleading. What we're seeing now is more like a sprint, or a dash, where all the competitors are holding hands to the finish.

Yelling, corporal punishment or verbal threats of physical consequences, or "harsh parenting," as it was defined in a new long-term study, causes children to perform poorly in school and to behave badly outside of it. According to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh in the US state of Pennsylvania, children raised in a severe parental environment are more likely to skip homework to play with friends and more willing to break rules in order to maintain those friendships - at the consequence of academic performance.

Data-Guru Hans Rosling died on February 7, 2017. His organization Gapminder sent out a tweet with the information late Tuesday evening Swedish time. Rosling was a scientist who made an art form out of explaining the world to us while never losing his hope for humanity.

At a Vatican conference on organ trafficking, China's top official on transplantation said on Tuesday that the country was working on improving the way it handled organ transplants. "China is mending its ways and constantly improving its national organ donation and transplantation systems," said Dr. Huang Jiefu, the director of China's transplant program.

DW: Have you ever been bitten by a shark? Erich Ritter: Yes, I have - several times. One of these accidents was a bit worse than the others. But most of the time, I experienced only harmless nips, which didn't even bleed much. Why do accidents with sharks happen? Eighty to 90 percent of all bites are only the shark's way of checking out what we are. It takes, for example, a hand into its mouth and presses it shut only slightly. The really bad wounds originate when you try to pull out your hand from the shark's mouth.

Life under the new US president isn't easy for scientists and science reporters. Donald Trump is a denier of man-made climate change and has called global warming a Chinese-propagated myth. He has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services not to send out any press releases or update their website content for the time being. And he banned the National Parks Service from tweeting.

Social media companies Facebook, Google and a group of news organizations launched an initiative dubbed "Cross Check" on Monday to tackle fake news stories in France, with the media in the spotlight as the country's presidential election approaches.

One-year-old stray Pooh is back on all fours after groundbreaking surgery carried out for the first time in continental Europe. The black-and-white feline is thought to have lost his hind legs in a mishap involving either a car or train in April last year. Pooh and another cat, Stiven, were taken to Sofia's Central Vet Clinic by the animal charity Let's Adopt Bulgaria.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is currently working on an app for streaming TV boxes (such as Apple TV). It's thought that the social network could use it to deliver exclusive content.

Recent images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite offer a new perspective to the ice cap on the planet's north pole. Using 32 separate shots collected over a six-year period, the images show dark, spiraling troughs cutting up a million square kilometers of ice-covered terrain.

As the first new German astronaut after Alexander Gerst there are going to be comparisons, and even here today (2.2.2017) at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, you were almost introduced as Gerst. How are you going to jump that shadow? What do you bring to the table? Matthias Maurer: Well, you said it: Alexander Gerst is very well known in Germany - he's famous here. That's because he did an outstanding job. He flew the 2014 Blue Dot mission. And next year he flies again and then it'll be as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). So I believe he did an outstanding job, and I want to follow his example. But I also want to try to find my own profile.

Going in search of people who will speak on the record about artificial sweeteners like Aspartame at a sweets fair is like going to a tobacco convention to talk about cancer. Everyone can see the elephant in the room but no one wants to chew it. And there's a palpable sense of anxiety. No one wants to say the wrong thing.

Scientists have developed a brain-computer interface that reads the brain's blood oxygen levels and enables communication by deciphering the thoughts of patients who are totally paralyzed and unable to talk.

Apple could be the next big tech company to take legal action against President Trump's travel ban. The iPhone maker is considering legal options regarding Trump's executive order, which has affected hundreds of its employees, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has not addressed the multiple issues surrounding its iOS 10 software update, particularly with the issue of iPhones dying down despite having more than enough battery life. The company has admitted there is a battery problem with a small batch of iPhone 6s units, but so far it has not addressed the battery concerns of those who have different iPhone models.

BlackBerry Mercury is shaping up to be one of the most impressive phones of the year, if the latest rumours are to be believed.

Researchers at the University of Exeter exposed Escherichia coli (also known as E.coli) bacteria to eight rounds of antibiotic treatment over a period of four days. In the process, the germs, which usually cause stomach pain and diarrhea and in worse cases kidney failure, increased antibiotic resistance with each treatment.

The first telecommunications satellite developed in Germany in over 25 years reached geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers (21,500 miles) above Earth on Friday night. A Russian-built Soyuz-2 ST-B rocket launched from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana at 10:03 p.m. local time, carrying into orbit the Hispasat 36W-1 satellite.

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has entered into a digital partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will see it customise the Olympic Channel for a Chinese audience.

Andreas Lindenthal: Yes, it is true, unfortunately! In the 1970s and 80s there was a strong push from German operators, like Deutsche Telekom, and the relevant ministries for research and technology, to develop the capabilities for launching, designing and producing telecommunications satellites. It was seen as a potential market for German industry. Then after the first satellites were launched - and the last was in the early 90s - the biggest industry group at the time (now known as Airbus) decided to share work on an international, European basis. That led to all systems responsibilities moving to France. And since then France has produced these telecommunications satellites for the global market, the European market and the German market.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization granted young Egyptian tourism expert Mohamed Youssef its most prestigious award for 2016 for his contributions to the development of the tourism industry, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Thursday.