Cells are the fundamental units of life, forming the variety of all living things on Earth as individual cells and multi-cellular organisms. To better understand how cells perform the essential functions of life, scientists have begun developing synthetic cells – non-living bits of cellular biochemistry wrapped in a membrane that mimic specific biological processes. The […]
By Jessica Barnett After months of preparation and years since its last flight, the upgraded High Resolution Coronal Imager Flare mission – Hi-C Flare, for short – took to the skies for a never-before-seen view of a solar flare. The low-noise cameras – built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama – are […]
This Dec. 21, 2002, artist’s concept of NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer imagines what the space telescope would look like during its mission. Launched April 28, 2003, it studied the shape, brightness, size and distance of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history. By observing ultraviolet wavelengths, the telescope measured the history of star formation […]
Earth planning date: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 Today’s planning was a little out of the ordinary. Not in terms of the plan itself, Curiosity’s team built an exciting plan utilizing much of its science toolkit. Today’s plan was unusual rather due to my role as APXS PUDL Reverse Shadow (PUDL = Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead). While I normally staff […]
As human populations grow, habitat loss threatens many creatures. Mapping wildlife habitat using satellites is a rapidly expanding area of ecology, and NASA satellites play a crucial role in these efforts. Tigers, jaguars, and elephants are a few of the vulnerable animals whose habitats NASA is helping track from space. “Satellites observe vast areas of […]
Congrats to NASA partner Zooniverse for being named winners in the White House’s Year of Open Science Recognition Challenge! The White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) designated 2023 as the year of Open Science, and invited innovators to submit stories of how they’ve advanced equitable open science. OSTP and its federal partners selected five challenge project submissions as […]
NASA has awarded nearly $1.5 million to academic, non-profit, and business organizations to advance state-of-the-art technology that will play a key role in the agency’s return to the Moon under Artemis, as well as future missions to Mars. Twenty-four projects from 21 organizations have been awarded under NASA’s Dual-Use Technology Development Cooperative Agreement Notices, or […]
NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC) has selected six visionary concept studies for additional funding and development. Each study has already completed the initial NIAC phase, showing their futuristic ideas – like a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes – may provide fresh perspectives and approaches as NASA explores the unknown in space. The NIAC […]
NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team for a 10-week program to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the mission to Jupiter’s […]
As NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore launches aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station Monday, May 6 on its first crewed flight, one of his best friends will have played a key role in getting him there. Billy Stover, chief safety officer for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and Wilmore have been friends for more […]
Driven by a childhood marked by war and environmental devastation, marine scientist Dyhia Belhabib developed an innovative technology to combat illegal fishing
Our byways are an unnatural incursion into the natural world, especially when they’re allowed to fall into disuse. Meet a roadkill scientist and a journalist tracking how roads mess with nature—and what we can do about it
For the first time, the developmental stages of the deadliest human malaria parasite have been mapped in high resolution, allowing researchers to understand this ever-adapting adversary in more detail than previously possible.
Early education programs are widely believed to be effective public investments for helping children succeed in school and for reducing income- and race-based achievement gaps. However, a new study conducted by a team of investigators from Teachers College, Columbia University, University of Virginia, University of California-Irvine, and the University of Delaware finds mixed evidence on the long-term effectiveness of today's preschool programs for helping children succeed in school.
A bemused fishmonger at a seafood market in Portsmouth, N.H., weighed and packaged a dozen filets of fish and three lobster tails for his unusually exacting customers, Dartmouth researchers Celia Chen, Guarini, a research professor of biological sciences, and Nathan Giffard on a warm afternoon in May 2022.
Artificial intelligence analysis of data gathered by acoustic recording devices is a promising new tool for monitoring the marbled murrelet and other secretive, hard-to-study species, research by Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service has shown.
A POSTECH research team have crafted a material aimed at swiftly staunching kidney bleeding and facilitating wound recovery. Their research featured in the online edition of Biomaterials.
A mixed diet including native algae gives Australia's prized cultured abalone the colors and appearance preferred by lucrative Asian markets, new research shows.
Two NASA pathfinding missions were recently deployed into low-Earth orbit, where they are demonstrating novel technologies for observing atmospheric gases, measuring freshwater, and even detecting signs of potential volcanic eruptions.
Precisely measuring the energy states of individual atoms has been a historical challenge for physicists due to atomic recoil. When an atom interacts with a photon, the atom "recoils" in the opposite direction, making it difficult to measure the position and momentum of the atom precisely. This recoil can have big implications for quantum sensing, which detects minute changes in parameters, for example, using changes in gravitational waves to determine the shape of the Earth or even detect dark matter.
Many new drug candidates end up failing because they cause serious side effects in clinical trials even though lab tests involving cell cultures have been successful. This is a common occurrence if the cells used come from animal tissue, for example.
Nucleic acid-based medications such as mRNA vaccines offer tremendous potential for medicine and are opening up new therapeutic approaches. These active ingredients must be enclosed inside nanoparticles to ensure that they get to where they are needed inside the body's cells.
For some years now, the trend in the cosmetics and skincare sector has been toward transparency and natural, sustainable ingredients. A growing number of consumers are rejecting cosmetics that contain petroleum-derived mineral oils and silicone oils. As a result, manufacturers are increasingly turning toward plant-based oils, fats, and waxes as substitutes.
Scientists are forecasting 11 North Atlantic hurricanes this year, five of them being major. Here’s what’s turning the storms into increasingly dangerous behemoths.
Britain’s former climate adviser says the country’s future plans are weak, climate protests are no longer helpful, and working closely with Big Oil is a jarring necessity.
Physicists call the dark energy that drives the universe “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.
Amsterdam is experimenting with roofs that not only grow plants but capture water for a building’s residents. Welcome to the squeezable sponge city of tomorrow.
In an unprecedented deal, a private company purchased land in a tiny Arizona town—and sold its water rights to a suburb 200 miles away. Local residents fear the agreement has “opened Pandora’s box.”
The world is already committed to warming that will undercut the global economy by 20 percent between now and 2050. That’s six times the price of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
Farmers around the world are reigniting the less intensive agricultural practices of yesteryear—to improve soil health, raise yields, and trap carbon in the atmosphere back down in the soil.
WIRED spoke with US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg about recent grants to fix ancient roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure before it’s too late.
