Enlarge / The polygons of Sputnik Planitium. (credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI ) Expectations for active geology on Pluto were pretty low prior to the arrival of the New Horizons probe. But the photos that came back from the dwarf planet revealed a world of mountains, ridges, and… strange lumpy things that don’t have an obvious Earthly analog. […]
Enlarge / Detail of Michelangelo’s unfinished painting The Virgin and Child with Saint John and Angels (tempera on wood, ca. 1497), aka The Manchester Madonna. The outlines of two angelic figures on left are rendered in green earth tempera underpaint. (credit: The National Gallery London/Public domain) Tempera is a painting medium that has been used […]
Enlarge / A demo version of the new thruster in operation. (credit: ThrustMe) Most people are probably familiar with iodine through its role as a disinfectant. But if you stayed awake through high school chemistry, then you may have seen a demonstration where powdered iodine was heated. Because its melting and boiling points are very […]
Enlarge / Either of two reaction chambers (bottom) can be targeted by concentrated sunlight. (credit: ETH Zurich) Carbon capture. Hydrogen production. Synthetic fuels. All of these technologies have been proposed as potential resources for dealing with the crises created by our carbon dioxide emissions. While they have worked in small pilot demonstrations, most of them […]
Enlarge / Many kids (and adults) don’t much like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and other types of cruciferous vegetables. Taste perception is complicated, but per a new study, our unique oral microbiomes might be one reason why. (credit: DNY59/Getty Images) For many people, nothing is less tantalizing than a big plate of steamed cruciferous vegetables […]
Enlarge (credit: Makiko Tanigawa / Getty Images ) Island Press is “the nation’s leading publisher on environmental issues. ” In its latest release, Thicker than Water , Erica Cirino, a photojournalist and licensed wildlife rehabilitator, explores what becomes of plastic—all 8 billion or so tons of it that humans have manufactured in the last seventy-ish […]
Enlarge / Stanley Miller with the original laboratory equipment used in the 1952 Miller-Urey Experiment, which gave credence to the idea that organic molecules could have been created by the conditions of the early Earth’s atmosphere. (credit: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images) In 1952, a University of Chicago chemist named Stanley Miller and his adviser, Harold Urey, […]
Harvard researchers have developed a data-storage approach based on mixtures of fluorescent dyes that are printed onto an epoxy surface in tiny spots. The mixture of dyes at each spot encodes information that is then read with a fluorescent microscope. Optical disks, flash drives, and magnetic hard disk drives can only store digital information for […]
Enlarge / X-ray tomography visualization showing two quasicrystals as they start to meld together during cooling. University of Michigan scientists have discovered that quasicrystals exhibit a self-healing phenomenon that could reduce defects. (credit: Shahani Group/University of Michigan) Quasicrystals are a unique class of materials with considerable promise for practical applications because associated with their unusual […]
Enlarge / Proline is a common amino acid. It’s also an effective catalyst. (credit: Wikimedia Commons ) Platinum is a ferociously expensive metal that is difficult to obtain and purify. Most of the small supply we produce every year isn’t put to use for its properties as a metal. Instead, it’s used as a catalyst […]