Science

NASA’s Using Space Laser to Download Video From Orbit at Gigabit Speeds

NASA’s latest data download just covered way more distance, and contained way more awesome, than any earthbound file transfer: the agency beamed a high-def video down from the International Space Station this week using a high-powered laser. Go ahead and give your WiFi router a good stern look. The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science project,…

How Atomic Bombs Help Unmask Counterfeit Wine

As long as rich men are willing to pay exorbitant amounts for old, fermented juice, there will be schemers willing to dupe them out of their money. But if you’re dropping a cool half million on four bottles of wine supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson (true story), you want to make sure you have the…

Friday Physics

It’s Friday, which means FlowerGirlPhysicist is running an open session for physics questions on the Observation Deck. ‘Tis the time for estimates, order-of-magnitudes, and general fun with numbers! Just make sure to bring adorable kitten-gifs as a Thank You.

Clever Tree Frogs Shout For Sex By Using Storm Drains As Megaphones

Human males try all kinds of things to seduce females. Some show off their fancy cars, some learn to play the guitar, some drive big trucks. The male Mientien tree frog scoffs at our puny human tricks. All it needs is a nice storm drain. Like many frogs, the male Mientien tree frog (Kurixalus idiootocus),…

This Is a Star Exploding 12.1 Billion Years Ago

You’re looking back in time. A long, long, long way back in time. This is an image of a star exploding just after the Big Bang happened. This gamma ray burst was detected by Southern Methodist University in Dallas on April 19th, and because of the vast size of the Universe it’s taken a staggering…

Mystery Illnesses Could Now Be Diagnosed With a Rapid DNA Test

When we think of medicine, we usually think of the treatment: drugs, surgery, therapy. But before all that comes the diagnosis—a tricky proposition when symptoms are confusing and information scant. Now for the first time ever, doctors were able to use rapid DNA sequencing to identify an obscure bacterium in time to save a boy’s…

The Next Version of Healthcare.gov Will Be Stupid Simple (Thank God)

Wired’s Steven Levy managed to get a sneak peak at the next iteration of the government’s online healthcare exchange, and you will not believe what he reported back. Brace yourself: Levy says the new Healthcare.gov is elegant, functional, and easy-to-use. I’ll believe it when I see it. Although the new site won’t be public until…

Chimps Are Better at Strategic Reasoning Than Humans Are

Imagine that your boss wants you to work, but you’d rather watch cat videos. Your best strategy is to learn your boss’s patterns so that you’ll appear hard at work only when she’s watching. New research shows that chimpanzees are better than humans at making this kind of Machiavellian deduction. Caltech behavioral economist Colin Camerer…

No, this isn’t the Eye of Sauron: it’s an amazing image of the ringed star HR 4796A, captured by the new Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE) instrument at the Very Large Telescope atop Cerro Paranal in Chile. The newly installed SPHERE filters out light to acquire exceptionally sharp images like these—unlike any telescope before it.…

How Boomerangs Work

Non-returning boomerangs have been used for at least 20,000-30,000 years, with the oldest known example carved from a mammoth’s tusk. These non-returning boomerangs were used for hunting and were carved for straight flight and to stay in the air as long as possible when thrown correctly. The hunter was then able to throw the primitive…

Report: NASA Can’t Afford Manned Missions to Mars

A large-scale review of NASA’s human spaceflight program has revealed that it doesn’t have the budget to successfully undertake manned missions to Mars. The report—a 286-page monster by the National Research Council—took 18 months and, ironically, $3.2 million to perform. The main conclusion: the space agency currently has an unsustainable strategy for landing human feet…

Antiques Roadshow Update: They’ve Stopped Appraising Ivory!

Last month, I wrote of an effort by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and others to urge the PBS series Antiques Roadshow to stop appraising ivory, given the devastating toll that poaching has on elephant populations. The WCS announced today that the show has agreed to their requests. A statement put out by the WCS…

Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder: Why Do People Get SAD in Summer?

By now you’ve probably heard of SAD, or seasonal affective disorder. Each winter, some people become a little bit melancholy, perhaps owing to the decrease in daylight hours. But there’s a second group of people who become sad in the summer. How does that work? When I tell my friends that I prefer dark, cold,…

Walruses Are Deadly Hunters, Not Cute and Squishy

Despite their tusks, walruses seem cute. Indeed, most marine biologists think they use their massive chompers just to eat clams and other shellfish. But walruses have a secret: they sometimes indulge in meatier meals. The first clue that walruses used their tusks for more than breaking through clamshells came in 2008, when the BBC revealed…

This Beautiful Bench Has a Real Sense of Balance

If you like to challenge gravity, the Leaning Bench might be just the ticket for you: it uses physics to stay upright, but fans of sudden movements may find that they need to sit a little more carefully if they’re to remain seated. Created by Izabela Boloz, the bench features just two legs, and relies…

Cadmium Arsenide: A 3D Alternative to Graphene That’s Way More Useful

There’s no denying that graphene is a wonderful material—strong, flexible, and highly conductive—but it’s taking a long time to become a commercial reality. Now, scientists working with a material called cadmium arsenide believe it offers many of the same benefits—but could actually be far easier to use in the real world. Researchers from Oxford, Stanford…

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter sunshield undergoes thermal testing. The infrared image on the right shows the temperature of the surface; the red region is at a toasty 380 Celsius or 715 Fahrenheit. [ESA]

Did Dolphins Really Save A Girl From Drowning?

According to one researcher, dolphins intentionally led a group of scientists to rescue a suicidal girl in the ocean near Los Angeles. Could that really be true? Last week, Ocean Conservation Society President Maddalena Bearzi published an article in National Geographic Newswatch, adapted from her book, on a moving experience she had while conducting dolphin…

Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Everything Wrong With the Movie Gravity

Gravity is a positively stunning, occasionally horrifying cinematic masterpiece. Of course, that said, it’s got its share of problems. And no one has been more irked by these discrepancies than everyones favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Now, you can listen to the man himself sound off on every single scientific inaccuracy in delightful detail. And…

Can You Supercharge Your Brain With Electricty?

Applying mild electrical currents to your head could take away pain, help memory and improve attention – and the US military is very interested. Emma Young reports. In the summer of 2010, Ryan Clark twisted his ankle during a gym class. It was painful, but inconvenient more than anything. He was put on crutches for…