News about space, physics, archaeology, animals, health, and more
This image shows the rare sight of Saturn’s moons Mimas and Pandora aligning in the night sky—and they couldn’t look more different. Seeing them both together makes you realise just how varied moons can be. Pandora, the smaller of the two—just 50 miles across—lacks the mass, and hence sufficient gravity, to pull itself into the … Continued
Those nifty Fuelbands and activity trackers can measure pretty much anything you do and even knows when you’re having sex. So why not use similar technology to try and understand mysterious animals like the Polar Bear. That makes so much sense! And even better, why not add a GoPro camera to see what life is … Continued
No man is an island. If anything, every man is a sentient, mobile farm for the countless quadrillions of bacteria that colonize us. And by introducing the right bacteria into that equation, you can give your body one heck of a boost. Every person on this planet could reasonably be considered a superorganism given that … Continued
For those of us who are normal, non-scientist people, an image of a virus doesn’t necessarily hold any meaning. Which floating orb is a healthy cell? And which one is the actual virus? The CGSociety recently invited artists to create renderings of the HIV virus in blood—and the winning images are as educational as they … Continued
Among animals you don’t want sucking sucking your blood, ticks are near the top of the list. These hemophilic arachnids don’t just help themselves to your vital fluids, they are also host to nearly a dozen human pathogens including Lyme disease, which afflicted more than 24,000 people in 2011 alone, and the Rocky Mountain Spotted … Continued
NASA clearly loves 3D printing as much as we do—to the extent that it’s decided to take an entire 3D printer into space as early as next year. https://gizmodo.com/nasas-3d-printed-rocket-injector-test-a-beautiful-infe-746527818 The space agency has co-designed a custom shoe-box sized 3D printer, made specifically to work in micro-gravitational conditions. The hope is that it will make it … Continued
The average human lifespan is a lot longer than it used to be. But we’re barely into triple digits here and if we individually want to see anything awesome we’re gonna have to stick around for a few degrees of magnitude longer. That immortality thing or whatever. Why haven’t we done that again? Luckily Vsauce … Continued
Ever wonder why roller coasters can make even the strongest of stomachs feel like they’re turning inside out? Or why, as you seemingly dangle dangerously upside down, you never quite feel like you’re actually upside down? And did you know that some of the force you feel along the way has the potential to “cause … Continued
Buttercup the duck was born with his left foot turned backwards, making it nearly impossible and extremely painful to walk. But now he’s waddling again with a 3D-printed foot. Buttercup was born in a high school biology lab in November. Because of his bum foot he was given to Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary in Arlington, … Continued
The North Pole is just at the top of the Earth, right? Well, not really: there isn’t really a ‘top’ of a sphere spheroid and, anyway, depending on how you measure things the pole can be in one of many different spots. So which one’s right? This video tries to explain the difference between geographic, … Continued
Remember that time you mixed vinegar and baking soda and decided you wanted to be a scientist? Maybe you should have followed through. Then you could have been one of the guys that just developed a tabletop “gun” that creates positrons by shooting lasers at gold. A team of physicists working at the University of … Continued
While it’s still questionable whether or not humans could really thrive in space, we now know that, even if our own bodies are doomed to become weak and decrepit, any bacteria we tote along has every chance of living a full, happy life. Because according to new research, space might be exactly what bacteria needs … Continued
Just imagine what it would be like if we could generate free energy. No need to worry about pollution, or fuel, or effort, or anything. It’s no wonder so many people have tried their hands at building perpetual motion machines. And thanks to the magic of GIFs, none of them ever has to fail. The … Continued
Pacemakers are designed to compensate for a condition known as bradycardia, where the heart beats too slowly to provide sufficient amounts of oxygen to the body. And to allow patients with pacemakers installed to continue healthy pursuits like exercise, a company called Boston Scientific is introducing a new line with a feature called RightRate technology … Continued
As babies, it doesn’t take long for us to realize that—as fun as it is to grab on to everything within our reach—it’s even more fun to chuck those things as far and as hard as we can. And now, thanks to a new study, we know the reason behind that delightfully destructive pitcher’s instinct—and … Continued
This map may look like a fairly reasonable representation of the world—but that’s all the more impressive when you realise it’s actually made up of microscopic cells from parts of the body that cause problems for people who live in each country. Accordingly, North America is built from fat cells because of obesity, while Europe … Continued
The Sun actually gets hotter as you travel away from its surface, jumping from 6,000 K there to over 1,000,000 K a few million kilometers above in the corona. This effect contributes to solar flares that can damage earthbound electronics and we have no idea how it does this. But NASA is about to find … Continued
While it’s the International Space Station that tends to take all the glory, there is in fact another: China’s Tiangong-1, which went into low-Earth orbit in 2011. In this amazing pictures, you can see it silhouetted against the Sun. Captured by astrophotographer Thierry Legault on June 16 in southern France, the image shows the H-shaped … Continued
We’ve known for awhile that certain illnesses can have a very, er, special smell for the olfactory-inclined, but even us humans (with the help of smell-sensitive technology) could soon be diagnosing diseases with nothing but our nose. Thanks to a nanotechnology-based sensor, we’re now able to differentiate between normal skin cells and melanoma cells based … Continued