That said, he expects that the futuristic project could take more than a half-century to realize. It poses a few ambitious physics and engineering challenges, including the development of such a massive laser, the construction of a lightsail that can handle that much power without disintegrating, and the design of the minuscule spacecraft and an…
Each year, hundreds of mountaineers camp at the South Col on Mount Everest’s southern side in preparation for their attempt to reach the roof of the world. While these adventure seekers may be taking home some well-deserved bragging rights, a new study shows they may also be leaving behind some tenacious microbes that seem capable…
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Tuesday that it was withdrawing a land swap deal that would have helped to clear the way for construction of a road through a wildlife refuge in Alaska. The move is a reversal of the government’s position and one that could put an end to a project that would…
Sound Agriculture CTO Travis Bayer (L) and CEO Adam Litle (R). Sound Agriculture California startup Sound Agriculture is launching a pilot project with its new tomato, which it says has been bred quickly using epigenetic techniques to be both flavorful and durable. If you take the seeds of a grape from France, transport them across…
In a Universe that comes to be dominated by dark energy, there are four regions: one where everything within it is reachable and observable, one where everything is observable but unreachable, one where things will someday be observable, and one where things will never be observable. The numbers correspond to our consensus cosmology as of…
Humans aren’t the only primate messing around with their state of mind for fun. Footage online appears to show gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans deliberately spinning themselves around to get dizzy with it. While few of these animals were filmed in the wild, the findings suggest our primate relatives may have a similar proclivity for…
The Science Near Me blog is a partnership between Discover magazine and ScienceNearMe.org. It’s almost March 14, better known as Pi Day – the only date on the calendar that looks like the first three digits of the mathematical constant, pi (π = 3.14). Not only does Pi Day give you an excellent excuse to…
In 2021, Campbell published another paper based on the same principle: If California spanned 4,000 miles of its canal system with panels, it would save 63 billion gallons of water from evaporation each year and provide half the new clean energy capacity the state needs to reach its decarbonization goals. Because the US has so many…
Administration officials are moving ahead with the Willow project despite the fact its environmental analysis raised “substantial concerns” about emissions, danger to freshwater sources and threats to migratory birds, caribou, whales and other animals that inhabit the region. According to the two people familiar with the deliberations, the administration concluded that it doesn’t have the…
The Beehive Cluster is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer. It is one of the nearest open … [+] clusters to the Solar System, and it contains a larger star population than most other nearby clusters. getty Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but…