Enlarge / The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft aboard. (credit: NASA) Weather permitting, a Falcon 9 rocket will launch a key asteroid-deflection mission for NASA on Tuesday night from California. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART mission, will seek to demonstrate the capability to change an […]
Enlarge / A health care worker prepares to administer Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines at an elementary school vaccination site for children ages 5 to 11. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg ) Cases of COVID-19 are increasing in children, and they continue to account for an out-sized proportion of infections, according to the most recent data compiled by […]
Enlarge / Do these people look prone to motivated reasoning? (credit: Getty Images) A new study lays out a bit of a conundrum in its opening paragraphs. It notes that scientific progress depends on the ability to update what ideas are considered acceptable in light of new evidence. But science itself has produced no shortage […]
Enlarge / LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 19: Travelers at the United Terminal 7 at LAX airport as people prepare to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday. (credit: Getty | Al Seib) Cases of COVID-19 are high and getting higher in the US as Americans head into a holiday week, marked by nationwide travel and jam-packed […]
Enlarge / Technician standing near some of the segments of the James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror. (credit: NASA) A short update on the projected launch date of the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope came out of NASA on Monday, and it wasn’t exactly a heart-warming missive. The large, space-based telescope’s “no earlier than” […]
Enlarge / A painted lady butterfly lands on a flower. The bright iridescent colors in its wings don’t come from pigment molecules but from how the wings are structured. Chitin scales essentially form a diffraction grating tuned to specific wavelengths of light. (credit: Mark Rightmire / Getty Images) One of the best-known poems by Gerard […]
Enlarge / LV0007 leaves the ground on Nov. 20, 2021. (credit: Astra) Astra never sought to build the best rocket, the biggest rocket, or the safest rocket. The California-based space company simply wanted to build a rocket that was just good enough, and to do it fast. Early on Saturday morning, Astra proved the value […]
Enlarge / Herpes viruses getting ready to infect new cells. (credit: Thierry Work, USGS ) One of the defining features of viruses is that they rely on host proteins in order to reproduce. A host cell will often copy viral genes into RNAs and then translate those RNAs into proteins, for example. Typically, a mature […]
Enlarge / False color image of bacteria on a human tongue. (credit: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/ Getty Images) An altered microbiome has been associated with—and thereby either implicitly or explicitly implicated as a partial cause of—a wide range of human maladies. These include immune disorders like celiac disease, asthma, and diabetes; obesity; cancers; psychiatric disorders like depression […]
Enlarge / The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters stands in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 14, 2020. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now signed off on offering booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to all adults, allowing expanded boosting to begin nationwide […]