Spacecraft made of carbon-foam bubbles could zoom from Earth to Alpha Centauri in 185 years, driven solely by the power of the sun, a new study finds. A swarm of these probes might help discover and study our solar system’s mysterious Planet Nine, if this hypothesized world exists, scientists added. Conventional rockets driven by chemical reactions are currently […]
There is a multicountry moon rush in progress. NASA is orchestrating the Artemis program of robotic and human lunar exploration, due to launch human explorers in 2024 at the earliest. China is preparing to hurl a sample-return mission to the moon this year, joining a Chinese lander and rover that are now on the lunar […]
Scientific American August 2020 A new process could help conservationists save imperiled species Determining turtle hatchlings’ sexes is a challenging but critical task. For many species the embryo’s sex development depends on environmental temperatures, and rising heat is producing overabundances of females and shortages of males. Unchecked, this mismatch could push some species toward extinction. […]
As COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations remain high across the country, our weakened public health system has never been more frustrating to front line clinicians. While it’s tempting to blame politicians, it’s also insufficient. To understand why this pandemic has had such deleterious effects, we must examine why the study of diagnosis and treatment of disease separated […]
As COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations remain high across the country, our crippled public health system has never been more frustrating to front line clinicians. While it’s tempting to blame politicians, it’s also insufficient. To understand why this pandemic has had such deleterious effects, we must examine why the study of diagnosis and treatment of disease […]
South Korea’s grip on the coronavirus faltered this month when a large church in Seoul had an outbreak—involving 915 cases as of 25 August. The government has reinstated restrictions in the city to prevent a surge, but it’s also reporting details of the outbreak publicly. For instance, it has shared that 120 people infected at […]
The Hubble Space Telescope turned its powerful eyes to a celestial visitor to our skies—Comet NEOWISE, which put on a stunning show in the Northern Hemisphere earlier this summer. On Aug. 8, the famed telescope obtained images of the comet’s coma, which is the cloud of gas and dust bleeding off the icy comet as the sun’s […]
Once again California is ablaze. A combination of hot, dry weather and a relatively rare lightning storm sparked hundreds of fires in the northern half of the state in recent weeks. Several of them exploded into major conflagrations—the kinds of intense, destructive fires that some research suggests will become more likely as temperatures rise and […]
Rosey has lived with bulimia for more than a decade. The 31-year-old resident of Melbourne, Australia, started therapy for her eating disorder six years ago. Although she says she had never considered herself “cured,” she had reached a point in her recovery that felt hopeful and manageable. Then along came the novel coronavirus. When mandatory […]
If Hurricane Laura shifts west and lands squarely on the Texas coast, it will be the fifth deadly hurricane to strike the Lone Star State since 2000. That’s far too soon for Texas and federal partners to complete a storm surge protection system designed to shield the Lone Star State from major hurricanes. But they’re […]