An Air Force satellite launched into orbit this week via SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket carries an instrument built by UMass Lowell researchers to conduct experiments in space. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-spacex-umass-lowell-orbit.html…
Tag: experiments
SpaceX launches hefty rocket with 24 satellites, experiments
SpaceX launched its heftiest rocket with 24 research satellites Tuesday, a middle-of-the-night rideshare featuring a deep space atomic clock, solar sail, a clean and green rocket fuel testbed, and even human ashes. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-spacex-hefty-rocket-satellites.html…
Unusually high methane levels detected on Mars
Last week, the Curiosity rover detected its largest yet measurement of methane. It’s exciting because microbial life is an important source of methane on Earth, though it can also be created in other ways. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/unusually-high-methane-levels-detected-mars…
Are Universal Basic Income Proponents Making the Wrong Arguments?
An assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University criticizes the argument that technology “is quickly displacing a large number of workers, and the pace will only increase as automation and other forms of artificial intelligence become more advanced,” specifically calling out Universal Basic Income proponents Elon Musk, Andrew Yang, and YCombinator Chairman Sam Altman: The problem is, there’s no indication…
Gaining a better understanding of what happens when two atoms meet
An international team of researchers has demonstrated a new way to gain a detailed understanding of what happens when two atoms meet. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their experiments, which involved observing closely as two atoms came into contact with one another. …
Has the ball lightning mystery been solved?
What is ball lightning? Scientists have been trying to figure that out for hundreds of years, and now it seems they may finally be close to solving one of Earth’s most intriguing natural mysteries. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/ball-lightning-lightning-atmosphere-earth-optik…
Rockets, evaporating droplets and X-raying metals
Years of preparation, and the finale is over in six minutes. This month a sounding rocket will launch two ESA experiments to an altitude of 260 km to provide six minutes of weightlessness as they free-fall back to Earth. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-06-rockets-evaporating-droplets-x-raying-metals.html…
We’ve seen signs of a mirror-image universe that is touching our own
New experiments are revealing hints of a world and a reality that are complete reflections of ours. This mirrorverse may be able to solve the mystery of the universe’s missing dark matter Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24232330-200-weve-seen-signs-of-a-mirror-image-universe-that-is-touching-our-own/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Use of Male Mice Skews Drug Research Against Women, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The male mind is rational and orderly while the female one is complicated and hormonal. It is a stereotype that has skewed decades of neuroscience research towards using almost exclusively male mice and other laboratory animals, according to a new study. Scientists have typically justified excluding female animals from experiments — even…
A fungus weaponized with a spider toxin can kill malaria mosquitoes
In controlled field experiments in Burkina Faso, a genetically engineered fungus reduced numbers of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes that can carry malaria. Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fungus-weaponized-spider-toxin-can-kill-malaria-mosquitoes4…