NASA successfully gives Voyager 2 another year of life
Voyager 2 recently experienced its own āBig Bangā moment, allowing NASA scientists to squeeze a bit more life out of the intrepid space probe. Nicknamed after the universeās origin story,…
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The ultimate eclipse chase: A Concorde raced against the Moon’s shadow
A walk down the tarmac at the National Air and Space Museum of France is guaranteed to thrill aviation enthusiasts. Several civilian and military aircraft of the past and the…
How snails engineer their slime
Snails are well-known for their mucus. The slime is highly valued as an anti-inflammatory and anti-aging ingredient in certain skin care products, and snails can secrete different kinds of mucus…
19th century real estate agents used āpeepshowā technology to sell glitzy mansion
People looking to buy or rent a new home expect to get a good look at the place before writing out a check. Online listing makes this easier with room…
The world’s biggest solar telescope caught vortexes on the Sun’s surface
Wherever two fluids slide past each other at different speeds, the boundary between them buckles, then curls, then rolls up into vortexes. Itās called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and the physics…
Man builds fire-spouting propane pipe organ
Pipe organs generate their sound thanks to fluid dynamics, but the āfluidā that makes the music is up to whomever builds the instrument. A traditional organ usually blows air through…
Large genome models used to design new viruses
A lot of the AI work in biology has been focused on designing proteins. That’s partly because proteins do most of the business of life, catalyzing the interesting chemistry and…
Hard-to-recycle PVC turned into sustainable lubricant
Polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC, is most frequently found in pipes, credit cards, plastic bottles, electrical cable insulation, and other everyday items. PVC demand is high, too, with around…
Parasitic zombie-ant fungus thrives in mosses, too
The parasitic fungi in the Cordyceps genus are a favorite subject of nature documentaries. They’ve also infiltrated popular culture via the zombie-apocalypse video game The Last of Us (2013) and…
Infrared glasses could push the boundaries of human eyesight
A team of engineers created new, Blade Runner-esque eyewear that gives wearers a glimpse into the hidden world of infrared light. Though itās literally all around us, humans canāt naturally…