-
SciencePhysics & ChemistryA Plane Took a Wrong Turn and Ended Up in a Cloud of Antimatter
Where the hell did the antimatter come from? That’s what atmospheric scientist Joseph Dwyer has been trying to figure out for the past six years, after his research plane accidentally flew through a thunderstorm into a cloud of antimatter in 2009. Dwyer’s plane was outfitted to detect atmospheric gamma-rays (or γ-rays), high-energy photons that can … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
The Mysterious Bands Crisscrossing Jupiter’s Moon Europa May Be Sea Salt
The icy white surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa is streaked in yellow-brown, cracks made by the ocean below. These dark streaks hint at the chemical composition of the ocean, which is one of the top places to search for alien life. Here’s encouraging news: The dark color may come from sea salt—the same stuff in … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Scientists X-Rayed Chocolate To Figure Out How It Gets That White Film
Fat blooms, the white stuff you sometimes get on chocolate, have long been the bane of chocolate makers and chocolate lovers. It’s harmless but decidedly unappetizing. Now scientists at Nestle have X-rayed chocolate to figure out exactly what’s going on at a microscopic level. For a ubiquitous sweet, chocolate actually involves some pretty finicky chemistry. … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Trying to Buy Water Rights Shows How Backwards Our Water Policy Is
Amidst all the dire drought news, you’ve probably been hearing about “water rights,” which are as weirdly abstract as they sound. So what’s the deal with water rights? Can you buy some yourself? When reporter Ryan Bradley sets out to get $500 of water rights in The Adaptors podcast, it gets pretty hairy. First off, … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Icelandic Has the Best Words for Technology
When the University of Iceland got its first computer in 1964, Icelandic did not have a word for “computer.” So the guardians of the language invented one: tölva—a fusion of tala (number) and völva (prophetess) that adds up to the wonderfully poetic “prophetess of numbers.” Iceland is an isolated island of just 300,000 people, and … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
“Curtain Eruptions” on Enceladus Give Us a New Look at Saturn’s Moon
Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth largest moon, is a cold ball encrusted almost entirely in ice. One of its defining features are geyser-like jets of water vapor that shoot out of its surface. But a new analysis suggests those jets are not jets after all, but something odder: curtain eruptions. The jets may have just been an … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
These Artificial Muscles Are Made of Gold-Plated Onion Skin
While scientists have made extraordinarily strong artificial muscles, they hadn’t been to pull a subtler challenge: muscles that can contract and expand while also bending, just like human muscles. That’s until onion skin came along. That’s right, muscles made of onion skin, freeze-dried and plated in gold. Researchers have been tinkering with all sorts of … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsEverything You Need to Know About CRISPR, the New Tool that Edits DNA
CRISPR, a new genome editing tool, could transform the field of biology—and a recent study on genetically-engineered human embryos has converted this promise into media hype. But scientists have been tinkering with genomes for decades. Why is CRISPR suddenly such a big deal? The short answer is that CRISPR allows scientists to edit genomes with … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
NASA’s Radar Found 4 Men Trapped in Rubble in Nepal By Their Heartbeats
A couple years ago, NASA and DHS unveiled aportable radar unitbased on technology used to monitor spacecraft. This radar unit, though, would be used closer to home—to find people burried under rubble. In the first real-world demonstration of its use, the device helped save 4 men trapped under earthquake rubble in Nepal. After the earthquake … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
An Obscure African Plant Tells Miners Where to Look for Diamonds
Diamonds you’re familiar with. Pandanus candelabrum, not so much. And until recently, botanists didn’t pay much attention to this rare, palm-like plant from West Africa either. But the discovery that P. candelabrum grows only over rock that may harbor diamonds has vaulted the plant out of obscurity. Diamonds hunters are going to “jump on it … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
A Soviet Doctor Stranded in Antarctica Had to Cut Out His Own Appendix
In February 1961, Leonid Rogozov was one of 12 men wintering at a new Soviet base in Antarctica. He was also their only doctor. So when he came down with a bad case of appendicitis, well, there was only thing to do really: He had to remove the appendix himself. Over at BBC Magazine, Sara … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
A Total Solar Eclipse Makes the Arctic Look Like an Alien World
The solar eclipse in March has been photographed to death—from every which angle and even from space. But here’s a late contender for what may be the evocative photos of the eclipse yet: a glowing black dot over a barren snowscape, as captured by astronomers observing the sun’s magnetic field. Back in March, the Solar … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsWhy Scientific American‘s Predictions from 10 Years Ago Were So Wrong
Recently, we did an experiment: We took an outdated issue of a respected popular science magazine, Scientific American, and researched exactly what happened to the highly-touted breakthroughs of the era that would supposedly change everything. What we discovered is just how terrible we are at predicting the long arc of scientific discovery. The daily churn … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Boeing’s Dreamliner Has a Bug That Can Make It Lose Power Mid-Air
Here’s yet another snag for the embattled Boeing 787 Dreamliner: The Federal Aviation Administration today warned of an alarming software glitch, in which the AC power can cut out and cause the pilot to lose control in the middle of a flight. The bug was revealed by tests by the Boeing laboratory, thank god, and … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Space Radiation On the Long Trip To Mars Could Make Astronauts Dumber
Deep-space radiation is a serious but largely unquantified threat to astronauts making a long trip to Mars. A new study in mice is discouraging: Space-like levels of radiation exposure damaged their neurons, giving the mice cognitive problems. High-energy particles from blackholes and stars zip around deep space. We on Earth and even astronauts on the … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
How This Beetle Shoots Jets of Superheated Liquid Out of Its Butt
You do not want to piss off the bombardier beetle. When disturbed, it sprays noxious, near-boiling liquid out of its abdomen—an effective though confounding ability. After all, how does the beetle pull off such a violent chemical reaction without, well, damaging its insides? A newly published study inScience sheds some light the bombardier beetle’s peculiar … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
RIP Messenger: What the Spacecraft Taught Us About Mercury
Messenger’s fate was sealed from the beginning: When it ran out of fuel, the space probe would crash into Mercury, the planet it was sent to observe. What we didn’t expect is Messenger to last four years instead of one. After an unexpectedly long and fruitful mission, Messenger met its inevitable end today. It’s a … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
ScienceHealth
Scientists Are Trying to Change All Blood Into Type O
If you know anything about blood types, then you know how they add an extra wrinkle to blood donations. Match donor and recipient blood types incorrectly, and you could even kill a patient. That’s why scientists are working on artificiallychanging donated blood into type O, the universal donor. In the simplest terms, blood types refer … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Light Pollution Is Probably Messing With Ocean Life
The bright lights of cities have aclear and well-documented effecton urban wildlife. Less clear, though, is if lights from ports, ships, and offshore oil rigs affect marine creatures underwater. A recent study off the coast of Wales says yup, it’s probably happening. Ocean water is full of tiny larvae from a diverse set of sea … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityThe Trick to Cracking a Master Combo Lock in 8 Tries or Fewer
Look, we all know that Master combo locks, which go for $4 a pop, are not paragons of security. But damn, this looks easy. In a new video, hacker Samy Kamkar demonstrates a dead simple trick that he claims can break into most Master combo locks in just a few tries. It’s so easy because … Continued
By Sarah Zhang
Sarah Zhang
Sarah Zhang's posts