News about space, physics, archaeology, animals, health, and more
Two years ago, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceshipTwo, the space plane it hoped to use to send tourists into space, failed on a test flight and crashed in the desert. Now, it’s revealed a brand new version of SpaceShipTwo. Virgin Galactic rolled-out the new SpaceShipTwo—the VSS Unity, as named by Stephen Hawking—in its Mojave hangar late this … Continued
Shoving a bunch of fat penguins on to treadmills to monitor how weight influences their funny walk sounds like a dream sequence from a strange a cartoon. But it’s actually a real scientific study that’s just been published. Many penguins stock up on fish to forma a fatty coat to survive the cold—which is great … Continued
Using DNA analysis, researchers have shown that shelter workers frequently mislabel dogs as “pit bulls.” They say this is a serious problem given the social stigma surrounding the breed—which, technically speaking, doesn’t actually exist. The new study, published in The Veterinary Journal, shows that animal shelter staff—and even some veterinarians—consistently misidentify dogs, particularly those classed … Continued
A bunch of beachgoers in Argentina last week inadvertently killed an endangered baby dolphin when they scooped it out of the ocean and started taking pictures of it. Vida Silvestre, the local arm of the World Wildlife Fund, claims that tourists in the town of Santa Teresita found the dolphin in the ocean and brought … Continued
Not one week after physicists confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, the conspiracy theorists are out in force, shouting to the heavens that the “breakthrough” was a lie invented by fame-hungry scientists, supported by money-hungry institutions, and regurgitated by the traffic-hungry news media. All to keep you from seeing the bigger lie—gravity itself! The corporate … Continued
Watching paint dry is, obviously, deadly dull. But it turns out that watching blood dry is surprisingly interesting—and particularly useful. Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics explains that there’s a lot to be seeing going on in this accelerated footage of blood evaporating: As water from the blood evaporates, it causes relative changes in surface tension. These … Continued
Last week physicists finally succeeded in directly detecting gravitational waves, 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted them. Even before then, the phenomenon inspired modernist chef Nathan Myhrvold to design a unique soup bowl mimicking the pretty spiral patterns of these elusive ripples in the fabric of spacetime. Perhaps best known as the former chief technology … Continued
The Martian made space potato farming look, if not quite delicious or easy, then certainly plausible. But if we’re really going to live out in space, potatoes should absolutely not be our first farming choice. Even before The Martian, potatoes were a popular choice for researchers who were wondering what we might eat in space—and … Continued
Scientists have discovered eight new species of amblypygid—a special kind of arachnid with a pair of whip-like legs. This is a big deal. Amblypygids are not well-documented, which is a shame, considering we see them every evening in our nightmares. Amblypygids are found all over the world, but Brazil only had 17 known species—until recently. … Continued
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is urging people who’ve returned from places where the Zika virus is active to refrain from donating blood for at least a month, while also recommending against the collection of blood from any region with active transmission. The updated guidelines apply to people who have been to areas with … Continued
Inspired by the confirmation of gravitational waves, British composer Arthur Jeffes has taken data from the LIGO experiment and set it to music. Without a doubt, these billion-year-old ripples coursing through the fabric of spacetime never sounded so good. To create the music, Jeffes, in collaboration with NASA astrophysicist Samaya Nissanke, took the various chirps … Continued
In between doing real astronaut things like space walks, science experiments, and dressing up as a ghost, Commander Scott Kelly has found the time to show off his inner photographer. Under the hashtag #ColorsofEarth, Kelly’s been conducting a high-speed exploration of all the differently-colored natural phenomena he can see from the International Space Station. It’s … Continued
Here’s a question worthy of the ball boy at Wimbledon: if you have 128 tennis balls packed into a container, how many different ways can you arrange them? Answer: 10250 — more than the entire number of subatomic particles in the universe. That’s the conclusion of a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge … Continued
China is building the biggest radio telescope on Earth. And the country is displacing over 9,000 people to do it. As headlines like “China uproots 9,000 people for huge telescope in search for aliens” suggest, people are justifiably upset about. It’s especially egregious, considering that these folks are being paid a laughable pittance to move: … Continued
On December 3rd, the LISA Pathfinder, humanity’s first bold attempt to hunt for gravitational waves from outer space, blasted into orbit. Two months and a million miles later, the first phase of LISA Pathfinder’s scientific operations has begun. In what’s being called a “major milestone,” the LISA pathfinder spacecraft released both of its gold-platinum test … Continued
For the first time, astronomers have detected gases in the atmosphere of a super Earth, a planet larger than our own but small enough to be rocky. The fittingly named “55 Cancri e” is a broiling hellscape of a world, totally inhospitable to life as we know it. And yet, the milestone represents an important … Continued
There’s a lot of data in national records. And, if those records are anything to go by, there’s a lot of things inside the people of the US, too. Nathan Yau of the usually high-minded Flowing Data has turned his attention to records held in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Specifically, he’s taken a … Continued
A new kind of semiconductor is the first material with a 2D geometry to provide the electrical properties of silicon—but its shape could mean that it’s actually able to outperform the reliable old material. Like graphene, the new semiconductor is a 2D layer that’s just a single atom thick. Made up of tin and oxygen—or … Continued
Total solar eclipses are marvelous quirks of nature that occur once every 18 months or so. But unless you live in, or are about to travel to, the middle of the Pacific, you’re going to be sitting the next one out. On March 9th, a new Moon will sweep across the Pacific in the ecliptic … Continued
In 2018, a Martian rover will land on that planet’s surface to dig in the dirt for signs of past life—and some newly commissioned Martian roadmaps may have accidentally revealed more than intended about just where that site will be. These maps from the UK’s Ordnance Survey of the Martian plains were designed to take … Continued