Enlarge / The launch-vehicle stage adapter for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is integrated with the core stage in June 2021. (credit: NASA) NASA said Wednesday that it is now targeting “mid-February” for an initial rollout of the Space Launch System rocket to the launch pad. The space agency set the new date after engineers […]
Enlarge (credit: Sahoglu et al. 2021) Archaeologists working in what is now western Turkey recently unearthed the rubble left behind by a series of powerful tsunamis that will slammed into a Bronze Age city. The giant waves were triggered by the eruption of the volcano Thera on the island associated with Santorini, hundreds of kilometers […]
Enlarge (credit: Lesley Cherns et al.) Researchers created a highly detailed 3D model of a 365-million-year-old ammonite fossil from the Jurassic period by combining advanced imaging techniques, revealing internal muscles that have never been previously observed, according to a paper published last month in the journal Geology. Another paper published last month in the journal […]
Enlarge (credit: Getty | Joe Amon) Misinformation about the pandemic and the health measures that are effective against SARS-CoV-2 has been a significant problem in the US. It’s led to organized resistance against everything from mask use to vaccines and has undoubtedly ended up killing people. Plenty of factors have contributed to this surge of […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) Perhaps the favorite thing I wrote in all of 2019 was about a research study that taught rats to drive, an activity that the rats appeared to enjoy. Today, we have another tale of lab animals learning to drive, but this time the motorists in question weren’t mammals—they […]
Enlarge / On Jan. 4, 2022, engineers successfully completed the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshield, seen here during the final deployment test on Earth in December 2020 at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. (credit: NASA) NASA has not finished deploying the James Webb Space Telescope yet, but the scientists and engineers […]
Enlarge / Long lines at a mobile COVID-19 testing tent in Queens, New York, on December 29, 2021. (credit: Getty | Universal Images Group ) The United States reported over one million new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, setting a global record for a single-day total as the ultra-transmissible omicron coronavirus variant continues its savage […]
Enlarge / An Angara A5 rocket launches in December 2020 on its second test flight. (credit: Russian Ministry of Defense) The Russian space program has spent more than two decades developing the Angara family of rockets, and government officials have expressed high hopes for the Angara A5 heavy lift variant. It is hoped that the […]
Enlarge / Airmen operating SAGE radar consoles. (credit: Computer History Museum) It’s not unusual to hear that a particular military technology has found its way into other applications, which then revolutionized our lives. From the imaging sensors that were refined to fly on spy satellites to advanced aerodynamics used on every modern jetliner, many of […]
Enlarge / Royal mummy of Amenhotep I, the second pharaoh of the 18th dynasty,, at Cairo Museum, Egypt. (credit: Patrick Landmann/Getty Images) Amenhotep I was an Egyptian pharaoh best known for building numerous temples and inspiring the formation of a funerary cult after his death. His mummy, first discovered in 1881, has never been opened, […]