Science and Tech

Science and Tech

hyperloop
The Hyperloop is physically possible, but engineering challenges will make its construction very difficult. Also, accidents would be catastrophic.
Hyperloop
The hyperloop would be a great idea for a completely flat planet. With topography and infrastructure, it's a very different story.
"The pulsar sort of consumes the thing that recycled it, just as the spider eats its mate.”
biological age
Your old-fashioned chronological age is just a number. Your biological age can tell you how healthy you really are.
big crunch
13.8 billion years ago, the hot Big Bang gave rise to the Universe we know. Here's why the reverse, a Big Crunch, isn't how it will end.
Now they're pointing the way to future battery technologies.
atom
Atomic clocks keep time accurately to within 1 second every 33 billion years. Nuclear clocks could blow them all away.
But does Amazon know when you're tired or hungry?
What you need to know about this smallpox cousin.
Voyager 1
In all of human history, only 5 spacecraft have had the right trajectory to exit the Solar System. Will they ever catch Voyager 1?
Credit: CNSA
Data from the Zhurong rover suggests the Red Planet was wet more recently than we thought.
The site will be the first working example of a geological disposal facility.
crystallization
Crystallization is an entirely random process, so scientists have developed clever ways to investigate it at a molecular level.
mars sound
The high pitches from the flute and the harp would reach your ears before the notes from the tuba and the cello.
black hole spacetime
Everything is made of matter, not antimatter, including black holes. If antimatter black holes existed, what would they do?
population latitude
In 100 years, perhaps this map showing humanity clustering around the equator will seem “so 21st century.”
advanced civilization
Do the laws of physics place a hard limit on how far technology can advance, or can we re-write those laws?
blue sky
The sky is blue. The oceans are blue. While science can explain them both, the reasons for each are entirely different.
financial bullshit
"A cheap loan is beyond all new destiny." Does that mean anything to you?
taboo science
Science has come a long way since Mary Shelley penned "Frankenstein." But we still grapple with the same questions.
A digital, wireframe illustration of a DNA double helix strand is displayed against a black background, evoking concepts from quantum biology.
Are physicists about to decode a mysterious field of science that could have huge implications for your health?
John Templeton Foundation
runaway black hole
At four million solar masses, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole is quite small for a galaxy its size. Did we lose the original?
gene editing alcoholism
An experiment in rats suggests that gene editing may be a treatment for anxiety and alcoholism in adults who were exposed to binge-drinking in their adolescence.
A recent advance in 3D imaging techniques helped spark the biggest ever discovery of North American cave art.