Can Technology Open Spaceflight to Disabled Astronauts?
What would it be like to have a spaceship with a truly diverse crew—not the mix of alien species seen…
Twinkling Black Holes Reveal an Invisible Cloud in Our Galaxy
“The reason that rapid variability is interesting is because it’s usually a sign of something extreme going on,” says Murphy.…
Researchers Are Studying These Worm Blobs to Build Robots
While bees, birds, and ants swarm together to mate or protect themselves against predators, these worms are able to braid…
Scientists Accidentally Discover Strange Creatures Under a Half Mile of Ice
But because the researchers couldn’t collect specimens, they can’t yet say what exactly these sponges and other critters could be…
A New Way to Restore Hand Mobility—With an Electrified Patch
The proverbial story of overcoming paralysis tends to start with the legs: Superman vows to walk again; a soap opera…
Virgin Orbit Just Launched a Rocket From a 747
On Sunday morning, Virgin Orbit became the third privately funded American rocket company to reach orbit—and the only one to…
Can an AI Predict the Language of Viral Mutation?
Viruses lead a rather repetitive existence. They enter a cell, hijack its machinery to turn it into a viral copy…
Climate Change Is Turning Cities Into Ovens
Whichever side of the subjective city-versus-rural debate you’re on, the objective laws of thermodynamics dictate that cities lose on at…
This Drone Sniffs Out Odors With a Real Moth Antenna
Anderson and her colleagues went a step further and programmed the Smellicopter to hunt for odors just like an actual…
30 Years Since the Human Genome Project Began, What’s Next?
In 1987, when researchers first used the word genomics to describe the newly developing discipline of mapping DNA, Eric Green…