Imagine keeping a laser beam trained on a dime that’s 200 miles away. Now imagine doing that continuously for 24 hours, while riding a merry-go-round. Seem difficult? Well, that’s basically what the Hubble Space Telescope does.
After months of technical issues, NASA announced June 4 that Hubble would shift into one-gyroscope mode[1]. This...
Microbiome research to date has been much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant[1]. How much can be said about an elephant by examining just its tail? Researchers have studied what is most readily available – stool rescued from a flush down the toilet – but have been missing the microbial masterminds upstream in the small...
Quantum computing is like Forrest Gump[1]’s box of chocolates[2]: You never know what you’re gonna get. Quantum phenomena – the behavior of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic levels – are not definite, one thing or another. They are opaque clouds of possibility or, more precisely, probabilities. When someone observes a...
NASA has set its sights on the Moon, aiming to send astronauts back to the lunar surface[1] by 2026 and establish a long-term presence there by the 2030s. But the Moon isn’t exactly a habitable place for people.
Cosmic rays from distant stars and galaxies and solar energetic particles from the Sun bombard the surface, and exposure to...