An Old Abstract Field of Math Is Unlocking the Deep Complexity of Spacecraft Orbits
Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets.Read More
A Company Is Building a Giant Compressed-Air Battery in the Australian Outback
Hydrostor, a leader in compressed-air energy storage, aims to break ground on a 200-MW plant in New South Wales by the end of this year. It wants to follow that with a 500-MW facility in California.Read More
What Kind of Battery Would You Need to Power a Lightsaber?
On Star Wars Day, we use some basic physics to measure the power of the Force. It’s strong!Read More
No One Knows How Far Bird Flu Has Spread
With little incentive for US farmers to test their cattle, and many undocumented laborers on dairy farms, the full scale of the outbreak is unclear.Read More
NASA Selects Students for Europa Clipper Intern Program
4 min read NASA Selects Students for Europa Clipper Intern Program NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team for a 10-week program to conduct [...]
Get Ready for Monster Hurricanes This Summer
Scientists are forecasting 11 North Atlantic hurricanes this year, five of them being major. Here’s what’s turning the storms into increasingly dangerous behemoths.Read More
China Has a Controversial Plan for Brain-Computer Interfaces
China's brain-computer interface technology is catching up to the US. But it envisions a very different use case: cognitive enhancement.Read More
NASA Grants Support Academic Collaborations for STEM Student Success
Credit: NASA NASA has awarded $3.9 million to 13 teams at under-resourced academic institutions across the country, to support collaborative projects with NASA that offer students mentorship and career development in science, technology, engineering, and math. This is the second round of seed funding awards given through the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Bridge Program, [...]
The Uncomfortable Truth About the UK’s Climate Policies
Britain’s former climate adviser says the country’s future plans are weak, climate protests are no longer helpful, and working closely with Big Oil is a jarring necessity.Read More
The Mysterious ‘Dark’ Energy That Permeates the Universe Is Slowly Eroding
Physicists call the dark energy that drives the universe “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.Read More