An abundance of microbial life has been found in Chile’s Atacama Desert, lurking up to 4 meters (13 feet) below the surface of one of the most arid and inhospitable places on the planet. The Atacama is the driest nonpolar desert – but not the driest place on Earth, that title belongs to somewhere you might … Read moreHidden Bacteria “Biosphere” Found Lurking 4 Meters Beneath Earth’s Driest Hot Desert
NASA’s Psyche mission is on its way to study a peculiar asteroid and during its cruise, the mission team has been testing a new communication system. The new approach doesn’t use radio waves but an infrared laser and it has now shown that it works successfully from the most distant place yet. Psyche was 226 … Read moreNASA Just Received Laser Message Beamed From A Colossal 226 Million Kilometers Away
Plants are not just able to survive in low gravity such as on the Moon, two new papers suggest – they may prefer it, at least based on the only species to sprout. When Chang’e 4 landed on the Moon in January 2019 it carried with it a payload that could dictate the future of … Read moreGroundbreaking “Lunar Farm” Shows Plants Can Grow On the Moon
NASA has released two new movies showcasing changing observations of two well-known sources in the sky: Cassiopeia A and the Crab Nebula. Both headliners are the leftovers of massive stars going supernova in our galaxy. The time-lapse videos condense 20 years of the Chandra X-ray telescope’s data into just 20 dramatic seconds. The explosion that … Read moreNASA Releases Gorgeous Time-Lapses Of Supernovae Showing 20 Years In 20 Seconds
If you’ve been on the Internet you’ve probably heard of the Slow Mo Guys, the YouTubers dedicated to filming everything from guns firing bullets at other bullets to Will Smith wielding a big flamethrower in slow motion. After doing it for over a decade, the team wondered whether they could attempt to film “the fastest … Read moreTwo Creators Filmed The Speed Of Light At 10 Trillion Frames Per Second
It’s easy to laugh at the alchemists of yesteryear, with their spotty understanding of science and dogged determination to discover nuclear transmutation five centuries before the discovery of the nucleus. But can we really blame them? After all, it’s only now, after 400 years of advancements in chemistry and physics, that we’ve finally solved the … Read moreSolving A 400-Year-Old Alchemical Enigma: The Mystery Behind Purple Gold Explosions?
A new method for making diamonds bypasses the high temperatures and pressures, opening the door to making them at a fraction of the existing cost. The world of fine crystal control called The Diamond Age in science fiction may be closer than we think. Although we have known how to make synthetic diamonds since the … Read moreSynthetic Diamonds Made In Minutes Not Days Could Upend Gemstone Economics
Tuesday, April 23, was the last day of my class for the semester at Barnard College, Columbia University’s sister college, and I woke up to several emails from my students that morning. “I don’t want to come to campus,” they said. “I don’t feel safe.” I didn’t blame them. Police in riot gear lined up … Read moreWhat Professors Owe Our Students Right Now
Adolf Hitler never won a majority in a free and open national election. He never received more than 37% of the vote in a free and open national election, but he argued that 37% represented 75% of 51%, and demanded political power. It was the political calculus by which the Nazi leader disabled, then dismantled, … Read moreHow Hitler Used Democracy to Take Power
I spent three years among dogs with bloodlines like British royalty. In our world, they would be earls and duchesses. Their names are in stud books that go back countless generations. They are the product of centuries of careful breeding to make them the most perfect versions of themselves. Eh. I like mutts better. [time-brightcove … Read moreWhy the Westminster Dog Show Made Me Appreciate Mutts