Last year, astronomers discovered an unusual Earth-size exoplanet they believe has a hemisphere of molten lava, with its other hemisphere tidally locked in perpetual darkness. And at about the same time, a different group discovered a rare small, cold exoplanet with a massive outer companion 100 times the mass of Jupiter. Meet Tylos [embedded content] ..
Tag : Science
Public trust in science has been in the spotlight in recent years: After the US presidential election in November, one Wall Street Journal headline declared that “Science Lost America’s Trust.” Another publication called 2024 “the year of distrust in science.” Some of that may be due to legitimate concerns: Public health officials have been criticized ..
That mission, and the 2020 Chang’e-5 robotic mission before it, are the first to return lunar rocks to Earth since the 1970s. Together they are building on what scientists learned from Apollo-era missions, helping to unravel mysteries about how the Moon was formed and why it looks the way it does today, and providing clues ..
ULA crews at Cape Canaveral have already stacked the next Vulcan rocket on its mobile launch platform in anticipation of launching the USSF-106 mission. But with the Space Force’s Space Systems Command still withholding certification, there’s no confirmed launch date for USSF-106. So ULA is pivoting to another customer on its launch manifest. Amazon’s first ..
Grants paid by the federal government have two components. One covers the direct costs of performing the research, paying for salaries, equipment, and consumables like chemicals or enzymes. But the government also pays what are called indirect costs. These go to the universities and research institutes, covering the costs of providing and maintaining the lab ..
The researchers showed that this setup allowed them to teleport with a specific gate operation (controlled-Z), which can serve as the basis for any other two-qubit gate operation—any operation you might want to do can be done by using a specific combination of these gates. After performing multiple rounds of these gates, the team found ..
Gecko feet have inspired many intriguing applications, including a sticky tape, adhesives, a “stickybot” climbing robot, and even a strapless bra design. Now, scientists have developed a new kind of anti-slip polymer that sticks to ice, inspired by the humble gecko. Incorporating these polymers into shoe soles could reduce the number of human slip-and-fall injuries, ..
A lot of human society requires what’s called a “theory of mind”—the ability to infer the mental state of another person and adjust our actions based on what we expect they know and are thinking. We don’t always get this right—it’s easy to get confused about what someone else might be thinking—but we still rely ..
According to Amazonian folklore, the area’s male river dolphins are shapeshifters (encantade), transforming at night into handsome young men who seduce and impregnate human women. The legend’s origins may lie in the fact that dolphins have rather human-like genitalia. A group of Canadian biologists didn’t spot any suspicious shapeshifting behavior over the four years they ..
These actions followed pre-established protocols. However, it highlighted the small but non-zero risk of rocket debris falling to Earth after a launch failure. “The potential for a bad day downrange just got real,” Lori Garver, a former NASA deputy administrator, posted on X. Public safety is not sole mandate of the FAA’s commercial space office. ..
