It's the 60th anniversary of NASA. So what gift do you get for an organization that already landed on the moon? Landing on the moon again would be nice—but in the absence of that, I suggest a video analysis from the Apollo 17 mission, the last time humans were on the moon. We'll look at […]
Tuesday’s midterm elections offered voters across the US the chance to move decisively to slow down the global ecological disaster of climate change. As the votes were tallied, however, one thing became clear: Americans remain as divided as ever on climate change. During his tenure, President Trump has moved to roll back Obama-era emissions standards, […]
The little humanoid robot’s name is Meccanoid, and it is a scoundrel. The well-meaning human test subject asks the robot: If you were to make a friend, what would you want them to know? “That I’m bored,” Meccanoid says. Alright, let’s start over. A new participant asks Meccanoid the same question, but now the robot […]
That quantum mechanics is a successful theory is not in dispute. It makes astonishingly accurate predictions about the nature of the world at microscopic scales. What has been in dispute for nearly a century is just what it’s telling us about what exists, what is real. There are myriad interpretations that offer their own take […]
West Virginia is second only to Wyoming in both coal production and President Trump’s winning vote percentage in the 2016 general election. So it was no surprise that Trump flew to the Mountain State on Tuesday to stump for his new plan to boost coal-fired power plants by cutting regulations on planet-warming carbon emissions. “We […]
Respect where respect is due: we humans may be mighty, but there’s still a foe that regularly dodges our best efforts to kill it: the fruit fly. Over millennia of evolution, fruit flies have adapted to burn their pursuers with enviable agility. Now researchers have built a robotic doppelganger that can twist and bank with […]
At 6:30 am on November 8, a wildfire of astounding proportions and speed broke out in Northern California. Dubbed the Camp Fire, at one point it was burning 80 acres a minute. When it hit the town of Paradise, home to 27,000 people, those buildings became yet more fuel to power the blaze. It destroyed […]
On June 5, 2014, Kenyan police entered a Fuji Motors car yard in the port city of Mombasa, where they found a two-ton stash of ivory. The discovery led them to a middle-aged Kenyan named Feisal Mohamed Ali, who two years later was sentenced to 20 years in jail. Conservationists hailed it as a major […]
When Kim Schrier campaigns in central Washington farm towns, she talks about protecting health care, reforming immigration laws, and the harmful effects of new White House tariffs on the region’s hay, cherry, and apple growers. But she says she also brings up climate change and what it means for local businesses. “Our farmers have a […]
Two billion people can’t be wrong—at least, not about the nearly 2,000 species of insects that make for good eatin’ around the world. But nobody has to pitch you on the benefits of insectivory, right? Easier on the environment, full of weird nutrients, and whoa, check out that feed conversion ratio: It takes half as […]