Technology

By Jennifer Berglund In late 2012 NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spotted what appeared to be plumes of water vapor spewing from the frozen surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Another observation last year provided more evidence this was not a fluke. It is likely that below that distant world’s ice is an ocean larger than all …

By Alison Abbott Leading neuroscientists are joining forces to study the brain — in much the same way that physicists team up in mega-projects to hunt for new particles. The International Brain Lab (IBL), launched on 19 September, combines 21 of the foremost neuroscience laboratories in the United States and Europe into a giant collaboration that …

By Sarah Kaplan In 10 days, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will nose-dive into Saturn and burn up in the planet’s atmosphere. It’s the final, suicidal step of a months-long dance through Saturn’s rings that has given scientists an unprecedented view of the sixth planet from the sun. It’s also the end of a mission that has revolutionized …

By Dennis Overbye The Cassini spacecraft that has orbited Saturn for the last 13 years would weigh 4,685 pounds on Earth and, at 22 feet high, is somewhat longer and wider than a small moving van tipped on its rear. Bristling with cameras, antennas and other sensors, it is one of the most complex and sophisticated …

By Adrian Cho Atomic physicists tend to tinker away on their own, preferably in dark, hushed labs. When Eric Cornell started as a postdoc with Carl Wieman at JILA, an institute run jointly by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder, in 1990 he did his best to …

By Katherine Kornei U.K. soccer star David Beckham was known for “bending” his free kicks over walls of defenders and around sprawling goal tenders. Now, the physics behind such curving kicks is set to be used to propel ocean ships more efficiently. Early next year, a tanker vessel owned by Maersk, the Danish transportation conglomerate, …

This thread has been created for open discussion on themes connected to reason and science for which there are not currently any dedicated threads. Please note it is NOT for general chat, and that all Terms of Use apply as usual.

By Haym Hirsh Whether it’s reports of a new and wondrous technological accomplishment or of the danger we face in a future filled with unbridled machines, artificial intelligence (AI) has recently been receiving a great deal of attention. If you want to understand what the fuss is all about, Max Tegmark’s original, accessible, and provocative …

By Timothy Revell Tiny robotic drug deliveries could soon be treating diseases inside your body. For the first time, micromotors – autonomous vehicles the width of a human hair – have cured bacterial infections in the stomachs of mice, using bubbles to power the transport of antibiotics. “The movement itself improves the retention of antibiotics on …

By Daniel Clery From exoplanet atmospheres to the dynamics of galaxies to the stretch marks left by the big bang, the three finalists in a $250 million astrophysics mission competition would tackle questions spanning all of space and time. Announced last week by NASA, the three missions—whittled down from nine proposals—will receive $2 million each …

By Mike Wall You can now feast your eyes on the first up-close photos of Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot ever taken. On Monday night (July 10), NASA’s Juno spacecraft zoomed just 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) above the mammoth storm’s cloud tops — closer than any probe had gotten before. “For generations, people from all over the …

This thread has been created for open discussion on themes connected to reason and science for which there are not currently any dedicated threads. Please note it is NOT for general chat, and that all Terms of Use apply as usual.