592 articles on Science

  • Happy Birthday, OpenStack: Now Get to Work
    It's hard to believe that OpenStack is just two years old and has become such a ubiquitous part of public cloud infrastructure in such a short time. Year three will be a critical one for OpenStack to move beyond a collection of different efforts into a well-understood and directionally driven platform, writes Alexander Haislip.
    07.16.12
  • What It's Like to Be an Astronaut: Amazing Videos of the View From Space
    If you're the sort of person who enjoys looking out of airplane windows, watching landscapes pass and Earth unfold, then take a look at these videos from the International Space Station. Assembled from photographic sequences captured in April and May, the videos show Earth from an orbital perspective, with continents passing in minutes. Glories like the northern lights and a solar eclipse fit in their entirety within a camera lens.
    07.16.12
  • The Solar Eclipse Marathon ... and Other Ways to Make Running More Interesting
    What better way to endure a grueling 26.2 mile race than with the excitement of a total solar eclipse in the sky above? That's what the city of Port Douglas in Queensland, Australia is planning with the first-ever Solar Eclipse Marathon. The next total solar eclipse will occur on 13-14 November 2012, with the event crossing the International Date Line such that those in Australia will see it on very early on the 14th, while those in Chile will see a partial eclipse near sunset on the 13th. There is a very narrow strip on the planet that will be under a total eclipse. Of that very narrow strip, only a very small percentage will be on land, including Port Douglas.
    07.16.12
  • A Visit to the Space Shuttle Discovery
    I looked into her face for a very long time, and nearly started to cry. There she was. The shuttle that flew into space more times than all the rest.
    07.15.12
  • NASA Tests Robotic Gas Station Attendant for Outer Space
    Satellites use solar energy to power their electronics, but they rely on gas to maintain orbit or change position. Once tapped out, dead satellites become space junk, which threatens new orbital ventures. To prevent this, NASA is testing the feasibility of using robots to fuel and repair satellites on the fly or tow them to a new job site.
    07.13.12
  • XKCD Answers Your Hypothetical Questions With Physics
    If you're reading this blog, chances are you're probably quite familiar with the webcomic xkcd created by Randall Munroe. It's everything a geek could dream of in a web comic: It's funny, it's smart, and it's quirky. Over the years, the talented Randall has covered an amazing number of topics, from programming to math, science to fruit. It's become a habit for many of us to check xkcd for the latest comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.
    07.13.12
  • Hurricane Hunters Fly Into the Eye of the Storm for Science — And TV
    To gather information on violent storms, the National Hurricane Center relies on tools like sensors and satellites. And some badass Air Force Reserve pilots. The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flies directly into the world's worst storms to collect meteorological data.
    07.13.12
  • Amazing Alex: Hands-On with Rovio's Newest Game That Isn't Angry Birds
    Raise your hand if you're sick of Angry Birds. Yeah, we thought so. Now that Rovio has saturated the market with Angry Birds-branded games, toys, clothing and even fruit snacks, the developer has set its sights on a boy named Alex and his Rube Goldberg-esque shenanigans.
    07.13.12
  • New Federal Ban on Synthetic Drugs Already Obsolete
    A federal ban on synthetic drugs, signed into law by President Obama on July 9, was obsolete before the ink of his signature dried. Drug formulations not covered by the law's language are already on sale. If synthetics are supposed to be part of the War on Drugs, then this battle may already be lost.
    07.12.12
  • Fin-de-sie¿cle Physics and the Turmoil of Scientific Knowledge
    While science proceeds in understanding our world, it's not always a path of unremitting forward progress. Sometimes, there are some missteps. The regularities behind how knowledge grows and changes is discussed in my upcoming book The Half-Life of Facts, but doing a deep dive into a single time period in order to understand how this ...
    07.12.12
  • Watch Your Back, CERN! Designer Builds Particle Accelerator in His Garage
    CERN's Large Hadron Collider is a study in superlatives: the world's largest particle accelerator, housing some of the coldest places in the universe, causes incredibly powerful beams to collide, giving us a glimpse into the nature of the smallest particles. It takes a special kind of designer to see it and think, "I wonder if I could make a home version?"
    07.11.12
  • Doubt Is Good for Science, But Bad for PR
    The world appears suddenly engulfed in an epidemic of uncertainty. Uncertainty plagues banks and the economy, the Middle East, elections in the U.S. and other countries, the Euro, and of course the weather. But now it has cropped up in a most unexpected place: science.
    07.11.12
  • Global Warming Linked to 2011 Weather Extremes
    A first attempt to dissect climate and weather extremes only months after they happen is confirming more leisurely analyses of earlier heat waves, droughts, and flooding. Human-induced global warming is indeed increasing the chances that Texas will be hit with record heat and dryness or that the United Kingdom will have an unusually mild winter.
    07.11.12
  • Every Girl Should Go To The Science Fair
    A couple of weeks ago, our family's main babysitter, an undergraduate chemistry major, made a depressing -- and depressingly accurate -- observation: She has several female friends who are chemistry majors, all of whom are smart and technically proficient and genuinely interested in the subject. But when she goes to research-intensive summer programs, and meets graduate students from a variety of institutions, the women aren't there anymore.
    07.11.12
  • Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla!
    I was wearing my newest Tesla t-shirt when a guy on the street stopped me to say "Tesla? Didn't he invent, like, everything?" Yes. Yes, he did. Today marks Tesla's birthday. Please join me today in celebrating the life of Nikola Tesla! Alright class, gather around as we go over some of his many many accomplishments and then I'll give you some assigned reading to take home.
    07.10.12
  • Programmable Cardboard Robotic Arm Hits Kickstarter
    Ken Ihara got started playing with robots during his time as an assistant in the Harvard Robotics Lab. Ken recently started a kickstarter for his latest creation The Cardboard Robotic Arm. With a reach just shy of six feet this is a work of cardboard engineering art.
    07.10.12
  • Traditional Sexual Values Challenged in Classic Animal Study
    From peacock tails to stag antlers, the idea that animal evolution is shaped by males boasting and fighting to win female favor is a central biological dogma. Under closer scrutiny, however, the dogma doesn't seem to hold. A new replication of a foundational mid-20th century mate-choice study by English geneticist Angus Bateman came to very different conclusions than the original.
    07.09.12
  • Observation Deck: Science vs. Politics Edition
    Which is more important: The presidential election or the discovery of the Higgs boson? I suppose the answer depends on what we mean by "important," and individual temperament. In this week's Observation Deck, I try to figure out the answer, by way of some thinking about the differences between science journalism and political journalism as I've practiced them.
    07.09.12
  • NASA's New (Astronaut-Carrying) Spacecraft Is Retro-Modern
    This week at Cape Canaveral -- not far from where NASA launched the first American into space 41 years ago, and the last Americans one year ago -- the space agency welcomed its next generation of manned spacecraft. The first space-bound Orion capsule arrived in Florida, where final construction will take place before its first test flight planned for 2014.
    07.05.12
  • What if Steve Jobs Had Discovered the Higgs Boson?
    Ever wonder what Steve Jobs would have done if he'd gotten into experimental physics? When CERN scientists announced that they'd probably found the Higgs boson, they got more than their fair share of smack talk from the design community for presenting their discovery in Comic Sans. Even the font's creator, Vincent Connare, wasn't impressed.
    07.05.12


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