Mika McKinnon

What Drives an Astronaut to Strike?

Astronauts work incredibly hard, putting in long hours in unnatural, difficult conditions. But sometimes they get pushed too hard, and reach a breaking point. This is the story of Skylab 4, the astronaut crew that kicked off the holidays with a mutiny. November 16, 1973: A time exposure photograph transforms a mundane pre-launch task into…

Winter is Coming to Winnipeg

Environment Canada confirms what we always suspected: Westeros is part of Canada. A special weather alert for Winnipeg ominously begins: “Winter is coming.” But unlike the forecast from Game of Thrones, Winnipeg, Manitoba’s warning is a lot more literal than metaphorical as the alert goes on to describe an intense low pressure system, a plummeting…

This Chemist Discovered How to Salvage Useless Photos with a Dash of Radioactivity

When NASA hired chemist Barbara Askins to salvage the photos they were getting back from astronauts, they never expected she’d revolutionize how to restore details to underexposed photographs. In 1975, NASA hired Barbara S. Askins to work at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. She was tasked with researching how the space agency used…

How did the First Crewed Orbital American Spaceflight get its Name?

When John Glenn blasted off in Friendship 7, he created history as the first American to orbit our planet. But how did his historic craft earn such an unusual name when the previous two names were decidedly more patriotic in nature? John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the planet on February 20,…

Explore the Wonderful World of Tiny Mink Toes

Every swirl on these tiny toes, coarse curved hair, and sharp little claw is part of what makes this mink distinctly different from every other mink slinking around the countryside. This American mink was found near Bowie, Maryland. American mink. Image credits: Brooke Alexander

A Flock of Hawaiian Shirts Invaded the Space Station

April 26, 2001: It’s casual Friday on the International Space Station, and none of us are invited. It’s a bit unnerving that the entire crew of both Expedition Two and STS-100 managed to pack a Hawaiian shirt into orbit, but it makes for a surreally awesome photo in the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Starting at…

No Mystery is More Intriguing than Morland Holmes on Elementary

In this week’s Elementary, Joan is the protective big sister Sherlock never had, the FBI are disruptively controlling, and the looming presence of Sherlock’s father Morland Holmes dominates everything. Bail out now before the spoilers take control! Need to catch up first? Here’s our recap of last week’s season premiere. Surely this time they’ll convince…

The More You Look, the More Science You Spy in This Glorious Astrophotograph

Oh, wow. Look, and ye shall see all the science spread out before thee. This beautiful nighttime panorama in New Zealand is a composite image of 11 separate 20-second exposures. The digital fusion created a wee bit of wonkiness in the clouds, but otherwise this is a fantastic image where the longer you look, the…

That Time a Mechanical Mosquito Hovered Far Above the Earth 

What happens when you pair a space station with a space shuttle and tuck them in orbit far above our planet? This oddly insectoid monster machine. On May 24, 2011, the Endeavour space shuttle docked with the International Space Station as it coasted approximately 350 kilometers (220 miles) above the Earth. The photo was captured…

Glacial Research Captured a Moment of Pure Tranquility in this National Park

Research cameras pointed at glaciers are inevitably bearers of depressing news, tracking the crumble of ice rotting over the years. Yet soft moonlight and misty mountains framing blue ice transform this datapoint into a moment of pure beauty. About 51% of Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska is covered in ice, and the rest bares…

First Rule of Spacewalking: Love Thy Spacesuit

A spacesuit is all that stands between an astronaut and certain death in the cold void of space, so no wonder some astronauts develop a certain bond of affection with their gear. Fully suited up for the fit test. This is European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano at NASA’s Johnson Space Center preparing to for…

Mount Saint Helens May Share Magma with an Entire Field of Volcanoes

It took 2,500 seismometers, 23 explosive blasts, and countless earthquakes, but researchers now have a much better idea of what the magma chambers look like deep below Mount Saint Helens. The weird bit? It looks like it shares a magma chamber with a whole field of local volcanoes. The iconic volcano of the Pacific Northwest…

Tiny Sensors Phone Home When Their Plant Needs Water

Wouldn’t it be nice if your plants could email you when they’re thirsty? Thanks to a NASA spinoff, they can! This tiny sensor measures electrical pulses, creating a proxy for determining leaf rigidity and thus its general health and need for water. Originally developed for astronauts to take the guesswork out of watering (because yes,…

Squishy Astronauts Get Custom Seats to Protect Them From Bone-Shattering Landings

Before you can send an astronaut to space, you need to be certain you won’t destroy fragile human bodies during a harsh launch and reentry. To do this, astronauts get custom-molded seats tailor-made for their bodies. Each of the Mercury 7 had custom-molded seats for the first crewed NASA spaceflights. But before seats could be…

Are These Ice Volcanoes on Pluto?

Pluto is home to a pair of spiky mountains with holes on the top. That sounds an awful lot like we just found a pair of cryovolcanoes on the distant frozen world! The informally-named Wright Mons and Piccard Mons look like cryovolcanoes we’ve found on icy moons around the gas giants, volcanoes driven by the…

This Poor Plane is More Ice than Aircraft After an Extreme Icing Test

Holy crap. Testing how aircraft ice in extreme cold weather makes sense, but surely this is going too far?! This 1983 test at NASA’s Icing Research Tunnel dropped this commuter transport engine into its own special torment, spraying it with water to observe freezing on the test model. Image credit: NASA Contact the author at…

This Space Shuttle Test is Serious Science Wrapped in Pure Visual Extravagance

A mahogany wind tunnel for testing spacecraft aerodynamics is just too delightfully steampunk for real life. Or is it a real-life simulation of a 1980s-style overly-exuberant display of photographic superposition? Take a tiny space shuttle, suspend it with magnets, and you have this beautiful low-speed wind test in a transparent hexagonal tunnel wrapped in mahogany.…

Sherlock’s Father Makes Recovery Miserable in Season Premiere of Elementary

Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson are back in the season 4 kickoff of Elementary, and it’s all about mistakes, forgiveness, and recovery. Holmes relapsed on heroin in the finale last season, and now he has to cope with the fallout with his daddy issues on full display. Ready to brave the many, relentless spoilers to…

Aurora and solar panels seen from the International Space Station are even more beautiful in combination than they are apart. Image credit: NASA/Alex Gerst

That Time a Chunk of the Moon Went to the Space Station

Meteorites transport rocks all around this giant solar system of ours, but no rock’s journey is quite as strange as the lunar sample 10072,41 that went from the moon to the Earth, up to the space station, then back to Earth to await a return to the Moon. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the…