Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Author at Gizmodo

Physicists Measure Precise Value of Proton’s ‘Weak Charge’ for the First Time

Scientists at Jefferson Lab in Virginia have precisely measured an important and innate property of the ubiquitous proton for the first time, according to a new paper. The proton property, called its “weak charge,” determines how strongly this subatomic particle interacts with one of physics’ four fundamental forces. It could potentially guide physicists toward ways…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 9 '18

The US Will Fund Another Super-Sensitive and Expensive Dark Matter Experiment

The US Department of Energy will fund the most sensitive search yet for theorized dark matter particles. It will sit over a mile underground, in a nickel mine near the Canadian city of Sudbury, according to a release. The proposed Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search at SNOLAB, or SuperCDMS SNOLAB, would be a detector held…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 8 '18

Grab Your Telescope: Jupiter Will Shine Its Brightest Tonight

This weekend I got to experience the dark skies over a nameless lake somewhere between Grand Forks, North Dakota and Bemidji, Minnesota. It was my first time seeing the faint band of our own Milky Way. But we had our telescope pointed on something we could have seen just as easily from a Brooklyn stoop:…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 8 '18

Simulated Moon Dust Kills Cells and Alters DNA, Signaling Trouble for Future Lunar Colonists

Astronauts hoping stay on the moon for long-term missions have another reason to worry about moon dust: It could be quite harmful if inhaled, as demonstrated in a new study. We’ve long known that moon dust could cause trouble. During the Apollo missions, astronauts complained of sneezing and watery eyes after tracking dust from their…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 7 '18

Scientists Find Time Crystals in Fertilizer

Scientists have created time crystals out of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, a chemical commonly found in fertilizers and fire extinguishers. Time crystals are the silly-but-sensical name for a rather simple physical concept. In regular crystals, atoms arrange themselves in lattices, so you could say that they prefer to be located in a certain point of space—space…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 3 '18

Mistletoe Somehow Survives Without Protein Needed by All Other Multicellular Life

Mistletoe might be a nice yuletide decoration, but it’s also a nefarious, parasitic badass that preys upon a series of hosts. Apparently one species has decided it no longer needs a protein that every other multicellular organism on Earth requires to live. European mistletoe seems to survive without a protein indispensable for life called “complex…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 3 '18

Toshiba Has a Plan to Extend Quantum Security to Record-Breaking Distances

Toshiba has devised a feasible new way to use the laws of quantum mechanics to send secure messages using present-day technology. Now it just has to build it. There are plenty of ways that companies and scientists are attempting to integrate the weird effects of quantum mechanics into everyday technology. One potential use is a…

Privacy & Security Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 2 '18

Stephen Hawking’s Final Paper Published

Stephen Hawking may have passed away in March, but his final work has now been published in a scientific journal. The paper, “A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation?,” was recently published by the Journal of High Energy Physics. The paper first went online as a preprint last year, and there’s not much new between the versions—just…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 2 '18

NASA’s Mini Fission Reactor Could Help Humans Survive on Mars, and It Just Cleared Early Tests

NASA announced today that it has completed tests of its Kilopower portable nuclear fission reactor, a device designed to one day power bases on Mars or the moon. The tests met or exceeded expectations on all metrics, which means the device can now go on to more serious flight testing. The Kilopower device is still…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 2 '18

Why NASA’s Next Mars Lander Will Launch from California Instead of Florida

NASA is set to launch its next Mars lander, InSight, early Saturday morning. But something’s different about this launch. It’s taking place on the West Coast, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Rockets typically launch from NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the Earth’s rotation can give them a velocity boost…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 1 '18

Internal Documents Show Philip Morris Knew More About Addiction Science Than It Let On

A new analysis of internal documents from tobacco company Philip Morris demonstrates that what the firm said publicly about tobacco dependency differed from what it knew to be true about the science of addiction. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco compared previously secret documents from Altria (formerly called Phillip Morris Companies, Inc. and parent…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 1 '18

Image: NASA/Evan-Amos/Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Boeing Brags About Size of Its Rocket, Says SpaceX’s Is Too Small for NASA’s Needs

SpaceX’s rocket just isn’t big enough to please NASA, Boeing says. Shouldn’t a big, important space agency be looking for a longer, more powerful rocket to fulfill its deep-space desires? Ars Technica’s Eric Berger reports: Recently, Boeing created a website called “Watch US Fly” to promote its aerospace industry—a grab bag of everything from Chinese…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum May 1 '18

The Earth’s Magnetic Poles Are Not About to Flip, and Here’s Why

Despite recent panic surrounding the potential reversal of our planet’s magnetic poles, new evidence suggests it’s probably not the impending doom it sounds like. Implausible as it sounds, public worry about the poles flipping seems to be ever-present, typically backed by real evidence of the Earth’s magnetic field weakening. These outbreaks of concern almost always…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 30 '18

Our Galaxy Was Walloped by a Neighbor in Its Not-So-Distant Past, New Analysis Suggests

Space is a chaotic, ever-changing place. But that’s not limited to exploding stars and colliding black holes. Even our own Milky Way galaxy could have recently received a massive jolt from which it is still recovering. Since the Gaia mission’s massive data drop last week, scientists around the world have been hard at work crunching…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 30 '18

What’s the Best Astronomical Object in Your Zodiac Sign?

It’s true that astrology is not science—there is no evidence to support that personal traits or mystical truths have anything to do with the Sun and the planets’ locations in the sky at the time you were born. But there is an intersection with astronomy, the real science behind the Sun, the stars, and what…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 27 '18

Gorgeous Photo of Martian Landscape Is Just the Beginning for ExoMars Mission

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has released the first images from its new orbit, taken on April 15 from 400 kilometers above the Martian surface. Here’s the uncropped composite image: The image reveals 40 kilometers of dust, dirt, and ice (seen in white) along the Korolev impact crater in the planet’s Northern Hemisphere, according to…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 27 '18

I’m Seriously Hoping Audubon’s New App Will Make Birding the Next Pokémon Go

If spotting birds is like catching Pokémon, then Central Park is New York’s Safari Zone. It hosts 200 bird species with other rarities occasionally making an appearance. I recently joined the Audubon Society and Postlight (who built the app) on a walk through the park to try out their new app. It’s good—and I think…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 26 '18

Spooky Experiments Bring Quantum Weirdness to Nearly Macroscopic Scales

Experimenters around the world are trying to harness perhaps the most perplexing property in physics: quantum entanglement, which Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” A few teams of scientists have succeeded in bringing this eerie behavior, which normally only exists between pairs of particles, to much bigger systems. Two of science’s most prestigious journals…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 26 '18

Record-Breaking Laser Experiment Could Teach Us About the Cores of Super-Earths

An enormous laser targeted for shutdown by proposed federal budget cuts has just done some record-breaking science in order to understand the centers of faraway exoplanets that scientists call “super-Earths.” There’s a whole lot we don’t know about our own planet, like the exact nature of its interior that leads to its magnetic field and…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 26 '18

Asteroids Really Could Have Brought Water to Earth, Experiment With Giant Rock Blaster Shows

You may have heard the theory that asteroids are responsible for Earth’s water. You may also have thought, hah, there’s no way that asteroids could have brought all that water to Earth. But fake asteroid impacts are now demonstrating that, yeah, maybe they did. Scientists from Brown University have found that the melted rocks from…

Space & Spaceflight Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 25 '18

Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Physicists Measure Precise Value of Proton’s ‘Weak Charge’ for the First Time

The US Will Fund Another Super-Sensitive and Expensive Dark Matter Experiment

Grab Your Telescope: Jupiter Will Shine Its Brightest Tonight

Simulated Moon Dust Kills Cells and Alters DNA, Signaling Trouble for Future Lunar Colonists

Scientists Find Time Crystals in Fertilizer

Mistletoe Somehow Survives Without Protein Needed by All Other Multicellular Life

Toshiba Has a Plan to Extend Quantum Security to Record-Breaking Distances

Stephen Hawking’s Final Paper Published

NASA’s Mini Fission Reactor Could Help Humans Survive on Mars, and It Just Cleared Early Tests

Why NASA’s Next Mars Lander Will Launch from California Instead of Florida

Internal Documents Show Philip Morris Knew More About Addiction Science Than It Let On

Boeing Brags About Size of Its Rocket, Says SpaceX’s Is Too Small for NASA’s Needs

The Earth’s Magnetic Poles Are Not About to Flip, and Here’s Why

Our Galaxy Was Walloped by a Neighbor in Its Not-So-Distant Past, New Analysis Suggests

What’s the Best Astronomical Object in Your Zodiac Sign?

Gorgeous Photo of Martian Landscape Is Just the Beginning for ExoMars Mission

I’m Seriously Hoping Audubon’s New App Will Make Birding the Next Pokémon Go

Spooky Experiments Bring Quantum Weirdness to Nearly Macroscopic Scales

Record-Breaking Laser Experiment Could Teach Us About the Cores of Super-Earths

Asteroids Really Could Have Brought Water to Earth, Experiment With Giant Rock Blaster Shows

The First Look at ‘Alien: Isolation 2’ Calls You Back for More

Scare Your Neighbors With This Incredible Life-Size ‘Alien’ Halloween Decoration (Exclusive)

A Dangerous Bacteria Is Moving Up the East Coast. Here’s What That Means for You

Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone Robot Vacuum and Mop Drops $250 Off, All-in-One Cleaning Solution at Its Lowest Price Yet

Soundcore Space 2 Review: A Shockingly Stellar Value for Budget ANC Wireless Headphones

Largest 3D Map of the Universe Is Adding Serious Fuel to the Cosmology Crisis

SpaceX Becoming a Publicly Traded Company May Rob Elon Musk of a Cool Source of Easy Cash

Xbox’s Big Turnaround Hedges Everything on Gamers’ Nostalgia

The First Trailer for ‘Strange New Worlds’ Season 4 Teases a Weird and Scary Galaxy

The ‘Invincible’ Game’s Story Brings Action and New Voices

Anker’s UV Printer Can Handle Almost Anything… If You Know What You’re Doing

HP’s EliteBoard Keyboard-Computer Proves We Can Stick a PC in Anything

Sleep-Tracking Earbuds Didn’t Fix Me, but They Did Open My Eyes

I’ve Tested a Lot of Bad Smart Glasses and These Are the Worst Yet

Roborock’s Qrevo Curv 2 Flow Is the Ultimate Robot Mop—If You Don’t Have Corners or Walls

Alienware’s $350 QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Nixes Everything for a Pretty Screen

Sony Inzone H6 Air Review: A Perfect Case for Open-Back Gaming Headsets

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

The Soundboks Mix Is Going to Make You the Most Popular Guy at the Park

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real