Enlarge / The James Webb Space Telescope lifts off from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket upon December 25. (credit: ESA – S. Corvaja) Nine days after the launch of the particular James Webb Space Telescope, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) says it has made good progress deploying the $10 billion instrument and […]
Enlarge / A health worker administers a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to an elderly resident at Ichilov medical center in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg ) As the ultra-transmissible omicron coronavirus variant bears down on the US, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced […]
Enlarge / A picturesque view of a Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in December 2021. (credit: SpaceX) More rockets made orbital launch attempts during 2021 than in any previous year in history, breaking a record that dates back to the space race. There are no official records of such matters, but […]
Enlarge / Two recovered and restored portraits of 19th century Portuguese physician Vicente Urbino de Freitas, suspected of poisoning several of his wife’s family members in the particular “Crime of Flores Street”—Portugal’s first major forensic case. (credit: Ricardo Jorge Dinis-Oliveira, 2019) On January 2, 1890, a Portuguese man named Jose Antonio Sampaio, Jr., died in […]
Enlarge / This electromechanical machine, used in the 1890 U.S. census, was the first automated data processing system. (credit: Michael Hicks (CC BY 2.0)) The US Constitution requires that a population count be conducted at the beginning of every decade. This census has always been charged with political significance, and continues to be. That’s clear […]
Enlarge / The Tomb of Caecilia Metella is a mausoleum located just outside Rome at the three mile marker of the Via Appia. (credit: ivioandronico2013/CC BY-SA 4. 0 ) Among the many popular tourist sites in Rome is an impressive 2000-year-old mausoleum along the Via Appia known as the Tomb of Caecilia Metella , a […]
Enlarge / Actor J. G. Hertzler, dressed as his character Martok from the Star Trek television franchise speaks during the “STLV19 Klingon Kick-Off” panel at the 18th annual Official Star Trek Convention at the Rio Hotel & Casino on July 31, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (credit: Gabe Ginsburg | Getty Images) Most languages develop […]
Enlarge / The physics behind champagne’s bubbly delights is surprisingly complex—including the source of its distinctive crackling sound. (credit: Jon Bucklel/EMPICS/PA/Getty Images) There’s rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we’re once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science […]
(credit: MIT Press) “What makes machines, animals, and people smart?” asks the subtitle of Paul Thagard’s new book. Not “Are computers smarter than humans? or “will computers ever be smarter than humans?” or even “are computers and animals conscious, sentient, or self-aware (whatever any of that might mean)?” And that’s unfortunate, becausethough most people are […]
Enlarge / A 1960s Southern California gas station being restored. (credit: FarukUlay | Getty Images) On the frosty morning of Dec. 9, 1921, in Dayton, Ohio, researchers at a General Motors lab poured a new fuel blend into one of their test engines. Immediately, the engine began running more quietly and putting out more power. […]