Science

The sun threw off a pair of solar flares as the 2013 turned into 2014. The above image from New Year’s Day shows a variety of wavelengths of light with the lighter colors representing higher temperatures. It’s also totally face-melting. [NASA]

This Gecko-Inspired Wall-Crawling Robot Will Someday Repair Spaceships

In the future, science fiction told us, we’ll be able to save astronauts from the risk of spacewalks with a little robot that can scoot around the ship’s hull, clinging to the surface with some futuristic sticky feet. Well, that robot has now arrived and its name is Abigaille. The European Space Agency teamed up…

How the Circumference of Earth Was Accurately Estimated 2000 Years Ago

Born around 276 B.C. in Cyrene, Libya, Eratosthenes soon became one of the most famous mathematicians of his time. He is best known for making the first recorded measurement of the Earth’s circumference, which was also remarkably accurate. (And, yes, people at that point had known for some time that the world wasn’t flat, contrary…

5 Tricks for Sticking to Your New Year’s Exercise Resolutions

Raise your hand if you kept all of your New Year’s resolutions in 2013. Good, okay, now only raise your hand if you weren’t lying just now. Ahh, nice to see both of you. We always start the new year with the best intentions but, man, old habits die hard. Let’s see if we can…

How Gravity Would Be Different If the World Were a Cube

Perhaps the main difference if the earth were a cube would be that students would become much more frustrated trying to calculate the gravitational field. For a uniform cube with side length L and density rho, the gravitational force on mass m at position (x,y,z) is given by with where alpha, beta, and gamma are…

Why Is Time Slower in Space Rockets?

You’ve probably heard that if you get in a rocket ship and fly fast, time will slow down. But, unless you’ve majored in physics, you probably don’t quite know why. Fortunately this video does a great job of explaining the phenomenon. Perhaps one of the most famously odd physical phenomenon, time dilation might not be…

Australian Sharks Will Now Be Tweeting Their Locations

There’s a great, bloody shark war going on in Western Australia right now. After six deaths in two years—making Western Australia the deadliest place on earth for shark attacks—the state has ratcheted up its side of the war by deciding to kill sharks. Lots of ’em. Any shark within one kilometer of the beach will…

Why These Bison in California Were Put on Birth Control

This is a story about bison, Hollywood, and a glycoprotein. A rocky outpost off the coast of Los Angeles, Santa Catalina Island was originally home to exactly zero bison. In 1924, however, when the island was owned by William Wrigley Jr. of chewing gum fame, a film crew imported 14 buffalo for a movie shoot.…

Glowing “Meteor Smoke” Clouds Appear Over Antarctica

NASA reports that rare, electric blue noctilucent clouds have reappeared over the South Pole, where the clouds are often spotted for five to ten days every year. NASA calls the clouds “a great geophysical light bulb” that are visible during the darkest nights. The clouds were spotted by NASA’s AIM spacecraft, which observed a “vast…

Sorry, Astronauts: It’s Impossible to Fry Food in Zero G

Astronauts have hard jobs. And like anyone with hard jobs, they deserve some french fries and a nice, deep-fried turkey after work. Don’t we all? But there’s bad news. According to a new study, it’s impossible to fry food in zero g. Nooooooooooo! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s not practical…

Cloudy With a Chance of Space Weather

Worried about an important satellite transmission? The UK’s Meteorological Office will begin offering daily space weather forecasts to warn against solar storms that can knock out power grids, radios, and satellite-based tech like GPS. Solar storm activity follows a 11-year cycle, and we’re approaching a maximum right now. [BBC] Image courtesy of NASA

The Naked Metal Core of a Dead Planet Is Circling the Sun

You know about those plans to visit an asteroid in the next few years? Well, a select group of astronauts would like to sweeten the deal. Why visit a regular asteroid, when there’s a planet’s solid metal floating up there and it’s likely magnetic? https://gizmodo.com/white-house-nasas-next-big-mission-will-be-to-capture-5993908 Asteroid 16 Psyche is the intriguing candidate in question. Linda…

This Squishy NASA Rover Is Mostly Empty Space

Naturally, NASA’s a big fan of light and portable things, so this rover made of poles and cables represents a way forward. No wheels. No bulk. All agility. It’s called the Super Ball Bot, and it weighs only a few pounds. This contraption is light enough and agile enough to make its way around Saturn’s…

How Your Christmas Presents Were Shipped—As Seen in Clouds From Space

Today’s as good a day as any to ponder how massive amounts of stuff gets moved around the world. iPhones from China, sweaters from Bangladesh, chocolates from Switzerland—they all make the intercontinental journey in containers stacked like Lego blocks on cargo ships. And these ships can seed their own clouds, tracing out their paths across…

Watch Today’s ISS Spacewalk Live, Right Here, Right Now

It may be Christmas Eve, but today’s a working day for the astronauts on the International Space Station. NASA’s Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are conducting the second spacewalk in four days to repair the ISS’s cooling system, and you can watch it live right here. https://gizmodo.com/15-awesome-facts-about-the-international-space-station-1468236778 Today’s mission is the second half of a…

​The Flu Shot Is Less Effective in Men With High Testosterone

For years, Sabra Klein has been trying to start a conversation about sex. The Johns Hopkins immunologist studies why women have stronger immune systems than men—a phenomenon that underlies the fact that women are three times more likely to develop autoimmune diseases—but are also better protected by vaccines. The latter, however, has gotten very little…

Science Proves That Rudolph’s Nose Really Does Glow

It might not be bright red, but Rudolph’s nose really does go glow. These thermal images of reindeer acquired by scientists show that Santa’s flying friends have incredibly warm noses. Because they live in cold climates, the noses of reindeer have adapted to have an increased blood to prevent them from freezing. In turn, that…

Relive Man’s First Launch to the Moon, 45 Years Ago Today

On December 21st, 1968, three men left earth and became the first humans to orbit the moon. Their entire journey was legendary, and even 45 years later watching Apollo 8 launch is almost heart-stopping. Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders were the first men to leave our…

Crazy Hacker Wants to Save Bitcoin by Blasting a CubeSat into Space

Jeff Garzik is a dreamer. You know, the kind of guy who probably thought that he could fly with his red cape when he was younger. (Note: As a toddler, I unsuccessfully tried to fly several times.) But now Jeff Garzik is looking higher. He’s looking to space, and he wants Bitcoin to live there.…

The Government’s War on E-Cigarettes

It’s here, folks. The battle royale between the regulators and the people over e-cigarettes is upon us. It started a few years ago, calmly, but with New York City banning vaping in public places, the knives are about to come out. It’s widely understood that 2014 will be the year when local and federal governments…