For a brief, non-shining moment on Monday, August 21, the moon will be the most important object in the daytime sky. Not that you’ll get a good look at much besides its backlit outline. And sure, it is uncanny and […]
Last September, SpaceX was fueling its Falcon 9 for a routine test fire before launch when a composite liner inside the upper-stage fuel tank failed, letting oxygen seep in. Friction between the tank’s aluminum liner and carbon overwrap ignited a […]
WHEN Episode IV, opening scene WHERE The galaxy CHARACTERS Before their time PHYSICS CONCEPTS Gravity, big bang theory When watching a Star Wars film, you have to suspend your disbelief. Characters use magic brain powers to move things around, lightsabers […]
If you're not already excited about the total solar eclipse that will be visible in the United States on August 21, maybe you haven't been paying attention. During a solar eclipse, the shadow of the moon falls on the Earth's […]
Woe be to the Environmental Protection Agency. If President Trump gets his way, the federal agency will lose 31 percent of its annual budget—about $3 billion. Supporters of Trump’s 2018 budget proposal call it a “back to basics” approach, carving […]
Before he rocketed off to spend a year in space, one of Scott Kelly’s final acts on Earth was peeing on the back tire of a van. Not because you can’t pee in space (you can—it just requires some suction). […]
One of the many perks of being human (upright walking, big brains, we can win awards) is our ability to transcend the limits of our senses. Take vision, for instance. Just because something is too small to see with the […]
In March, when Netflix began streaming its original teen suicide mystery series 13 Reasons Why, it took a few days for people to start freaking out. But soon, schools started sending home notes warning parents about the show’s graphic depictions […]
Look down on Buenos Aires from the sky, and you can learn a fair bit about the city. It's got a lot of concrete. Also a lot of trees. There's a bright green river delta to the north, which probably […]
Five years ago, Daniel MacArthur set out to build a massive library of human gene sequences—one of the biggest ever. The 60,706 raw sequences, collected from colleagues all over the globe, took up a petabyte of memory. It was the […]