Science

Dashing New Species of Peacock Spider Just Wants to Get Funky

He’s got a bright blue mask, flashy racing stripes, and dance moves he’s ready to use on some lucky lady. Say hello to Maratus personatus, a newly-named species of peacock spider from Western Australia. Like all other known peacock spiders, this blue-faced guy has a distinctive courtship dance. But unlike other peacock spiders, he doesn’t…

Biology Diane Kelly

Look at This Gorgeous Ghost of a Dying Star

This giant cosmic bubble may seem an unusual sight, but in fact it’s pretty common across the Universe—because its the remnants of a dying star, otherwise known as a planetary nebula. This one in particular is called object ESO 378-1 — or the Southern Owl Nebula to its friends. The image was captured by the…

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe

Scientists Created the World’s Quietest Gas to Hear Quantum Effects

If you want to hear something very quiet, you need to reduce the ambient volume of your surroundings. For quantum physicists, though, that meant creating the world’s quietest gas. That’s exactly what a team from the University of California, Berkeley, has done, cooling a gas to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero. It’s…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

A Magical View of Saturn’s Ring, Side-On

This image shows two moons of Saturn, Mimas on the right and Dione om the left. And though you might find it hard to believe, that dark line running through the center is in fact Saturn’s ring. The image was captured looking towards Saturn at a distance of 634,000 miles but from less than 1…

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe

Take a Sightseeing Flight Over Mars’s Atlantis Chaos

The Atlantis Chaos is a region on Mars splattered with small peaks and troughs, the result of erosion of a once-flat plateau. Thanks to the magic of technology (and the ESA’s hard work), you can take a virtual flight over the area. The ESA’s ride-along description paints an impressive picture of the area: Explore the…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

How Do Astronauts Sleep In Space?

The brief answer to your question? I slept fine! There is really no specific training that astronauts receive with regard to sleeping and sleeping conditions. As a matter of fact, the best advice I got for sleeping was from my STS-117 Shuttle Commander C.J. “Rick” Sturckow. He told me to bring a good book and…

Space & Spaceflight Clayton C. Anderson - QUORA

Meanwhile in the Future: The Earth Is Falling Into the Sun

The Earth, right now, is revolving around the sun at about 62,000 miles per hour. But what would happen if we slowed to a stop? At that point, the planet would have exactly 64 1/2 days before it crashed into the sun. In this week’s episode, we find out what would happen during those 64…

Physics & Chemistry Rose Eveleth

32 Totes Adorbs Photos Of Your Cats

The house cat is amongst the noblest of all creatures. Or at least that’s what they’ve fooled us all into thinking. Here are your cats from this week’s Shooting Challenge. Winner: Martta We took the photo with my cat Martta on our secret shady summer spot when sun was setting down. Martta is photogenic sacred…

Biology Mark Wilson

This Robot Is a Loom For Weaving Carbon Fiber Into Rocket Parts

When one robot leaves the world, another enters it. There’s plenty of carbon fiber in space right now. It’s the best bet we have for making spacecraft lighter—and it’s going to be key on deep space missions where every gram of food, water, and fuel is carefully planned. But making these parts isn’t easy, or…

Space & Spaceflight Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Go Inside a Museum’s Animal Dissection Lab, If You Dare

There’s always a lot going on behind the scenes at museums. For example, in the basement of Chicago’s Field Museum, researchers prepare the specimens that will be studied and displayed at the museum—and then they post that gnarly goopiness on YouTube through a channel the museum maintains. It’s a science channel called The Brain Scoop…

Biology Bryan Lufkin

New Graphene-Based Material May Transform Night Vision and Cameras

When physicists Swastik Kar and Srinivas Sridhar were tasked by DARPA to modify graphene so that it provided thermal sensitivity like that of infrared imaging devices, they didn’t know what they’d end up with. Now, through hard work and a little luck, they have a new kind of super material on their hands. PhysOrg explainsthe…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

Algal Bloom is Turning the Great Lakes Green

The algal bloom in Lake Erie is particularly bad this year, thanks to a combination of agricultural runoff, sunlight, and warm water. The result, as seen by NASA’s Landsat 8, is the Great Lakes turning slowly green. Algal bloom peaks in September, but the level is already high, and rising. Algae can make drinking water…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

Enjoy This Gorgeous Image of the Lagoon Nebula

At this very instant, five thousand light years from Earth, near the center of our galaxy, new stars are forming in a region of interstellar gas and dust called the Lagoon Nebula. Bright, hot young stars blaze amid dark clouds of dust and bright streaks of glowing gas. Remember that some of those stars are…

Space & Spaceflight Kiona Smith-Strickland

This Is How to Find the Spiders That Are Staring At You in the Dark

Have you ever looked out into your backyard at night and wondered how many spiders are lurking out there? If you have a flashlight, you can spot them by the creepy green glow of their eyes. Most spiders have eight eyes. In some species — mostly those that hunt for their prey, like wolf spiders…

Biology Kiona Smith-Strickland

Watch Glass Explode at 130,000 Frames Per Second

If you drop molten glass into a bucket of cold water, it cools into a weird tadpole shape: a round head with a long, thin tail. It’s called a Prince Rupert’s Drop, and no matter how hard you hit the head with a hammer, it won’t break. But if you nick the tail even slightly,…

Physics & Chemistry Kiona Smith-Strickland

Buzz Aldrin Proves the Federal Government Has A Form for Everything

This may be the only exciting piece of government paperwork you’ll ever read. Buzz Aldrin conquered Throwback Thursday forever last week when he shared his travel voucher from the Apollo 11 mission on Facebook and Twitter. It’s an unassuming document: a travel voucher for Col. Edwin E. Aldrin for a round trip originating in Houston,…

Space & Spaceflight Kiona Smith-Strickland

Go Ask an ISS Astronaut All Your Questions

Astronaut Scott Kelly is spending a year on the International Space Station as the hamster in NASA’s giant research wheel. While he’s up there, he’s been busy getting some stunning photos, and right now, doing a live Q&A on Twitter. So far, the questions he’s answering are the usual mixture of the interesting, the arcane,…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

Whisky Is Being Sent to the ISS, But It Won’t Get Astronauts Drunk

The best whisky on Earth is headed into space. Yesterday, Japanese distillery Suntory announced it’s shipping booze to Kibo, Japan’s module on the International Space Station. Unfortunately, astronauts aren’t going to pound shots of the earthly delight. The whisky’s being experimented on, instead: Scientists want to know how microgravity might make alcohol age faster. It’s…

Space & Spaceflight Bryan Lufkin

Here’s How a 13-Foot Wide Egg Mass Fits Inside a 5-Foot Squid

On July 9th of this year, divers off the coast of Turkey ran across an enormous lump of gelatinous goo which turned out to be one of the largest squid egg masses ever found. That inspired science writer and squid expert Danna Staaf to make this video explaining how all that goo fit inside a…

Biology Diane Kelly

Libya’s Dunes Look Like a Rusty Steel Plate From Space

It’s only a month since the the European Space Agency lofted its Sentinel-2A satellite started beaming back images from space—but it’s already producing some amazing images, like this one of Libya. In this stunning image, you can see the deep, rustry red-and-orange sand dunes of the country. [ESA]

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe

Dashing New Species of Peacock Spider Just Wants to Get Funky

Look at This Gorgeous Ghost of a Dying Star

Scientists Created the World’s Quietest Gas to Hear Quantum Effects

A Magical View of Saturn’s Ring, Side-On

Take a Sightseeing Flight Over Mars’s Atlantis Chaos

How Do Astronauts Sleep In Space?

Meanwhile in the Future: The Earth Is Falling Into the Sun

32 Totes Adorbs Photos Of Your Cats

This Robot Is a Loom For Weaving Carbon Fiber Into Rocket Parts

Go Inside a Museum’s Animal Dissection Lab, If You Dare

New Graphene-Based Material May Transform Night Vision and Cameras

Algal Bloom is Turning the Great Lakes Green

Enjoy This Gorgeous Image of the Lagoon Nebula

This Is How to Find the Spiders That Are Staring At You in the Dark

Watch Glass Explode at 130,000 Frames Per Second

Buzz Aldrin Proves the Federal Government Has A Form for Everything

Go Ask an ISS Astronaut All Your Questions

Whisky Is Being Sent to the ISS, But It Won’t Get Astronauts Drunk

Here’s How a 13-Foot Wide Egg Mass Fits Inside a 5-Foot Squid

Libya’s Dunes Look Like a Rusty Steel Plate From Space

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine Hits Its Lowest Price of the Year for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, Cut Your Daily Coffee Costs at Home

Amazon Clears Out Govee LED Smart Light Bulbs (2-Pack) at a Record Low, Each Bulb Costs Just a Few Dollars

The First Proper ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Trailer Is a ’90s Anime Fever Dream

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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