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ScienceHealth
Google’s Neural Network Is Now Being Used to Fight Blindness
DeepMind made a name for itself by building a computer that beat the world champion at Go (and freaked everyone out) but now it’s moving on to a project more likely to help the common man: diagnosing blindness. DeepMind has teamed up to work with the National Health Service, England’s publicly funded healthcare system, to … Continued
By Angela Chen -
ScienceSpace
How to Watch the Juno Spacecraft Arrive at Jupiter [Update: We Made It!]
Tonight is the night, my fellow space nerds. After five years and 445 million miles, NASA’s Juno mission is about to arrive at Jupiter, becoming the second spacecraft in history to orbit the gas giant. We hope. First, Juno has to perform a high-risk sequence of maneuvers culminating in a 35-minute main engine burn at … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace
A NASA Scientist Answers Your Questions About Juno Mission to Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will be entering Jupiter’s orbit later tonight after a very long journey, kicking off the next phase of its mission. And we’ve got NASA JPL scientist Glenn Orton with us today to answer your burning questions about Jupiter, the Juno mission, what the team hopes to learn about our solar system, and … Continued
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ScienceAnimals
Turns Out, Hedgehogs Are At Home in Cities
Researchers at the University of Hamburg noticed that urban areas have higher populations of hedgehogs than rural areas, so they asked the question: what gives? It turns out these cute, little, pointy buggers are highly flexible and have adapted to humans living in their environments very well. Even when they were nesting next to populated … Continued
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ScienceSpace
NASA’s Juno Mission Is About to Perform Its Most Dangerous Maneuvers
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been spinning through space on its way to Jupiter for five years and 445 million miles, and now it’s less than 10 hours away from entering the gas giant’s orbit—the equivalent of a single rotation of Jupiter. If all goes well, scientists will finally be able to learn what lies beneath … Continued
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ScienceSpace
Why Halley’s Comet Has Such a Wacky Orbit
Halley’s Comet pays us a visit every 76 years or so, but its exact arrival date cannot be predicted. A team of European astronomers has finally come up with an explanation for this comet’s erratic behavior. The last time Halley’s Comet swung by was in 1986, and it’s scheduled to make a return at some … Continued
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ScienceSpace
China Finished Building Its Alien-Hunting Telescope
Good ol’ ‘Murica may be ahead of China in development, GDP, and political clout, but China just finished building the world’s largest radio telescope and is now better-equipped at searching for aliens. According to Xinhua, about 300 “builders, experts, science fiction enthusiasts and reporters” watched the installation of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, … Continued
By Angela Chen -
ScienceSpace
NASA’s Giant Super Balloon Mission is Called Off Early
NASA’s most recent test flight of a super pressure balloon ended prematurely, but was still able to set some records along the way, including one for flight duration. The agency announced Saturday that while the original goal was to keep the balloon aloft for 100 days at just over 100,000 feet, it was successful in … Continued
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ScienceAnimals
Sea Lion Pup, Too Pure For This World, Born at National Zoo
This post was very difficult to write. Every time I managed to get a few words on the page, I would start making ridiculous noises. Look at its little flippers! Its face! Those large eyes! It was announced that on Sunday, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo welcomed a new California sea lion pup into the world, … Continued
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ScienceSpace
Five Amazing Facts About NASA’s Mission to Jupiter
After five years and 445 million miles, NASA’s Juno mission arrives in orbit around Jupiter on Monday to begin an unprecedented scientific study of the behemoth planet that shaped our solar system. https://gizmodo.com/nasas-mission-to-jupiter-will-tell-us-earths-origin-sto-1782284448 In addition to doing amazing science, Juno itself is an amazing machine, built to fly risky maneuvers in an unimaginably hostile environment. … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace
Expect to See New Data From the Kuiper Belt in 2019
In 2015, NASA’s New Horizons mission made history when it captured the first detailed images of Pluto at the far edges of our solar system. Now, it’s set to go even further after the NASA mission received an official green light to extend its mission into 2019. The spacecraft is off to an object deep … Continued
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SciencePhysics
Entropy Explains How Life Can Come From Randomness
Scientists are scouring the universe for evidence of extraterrestrial life, but have you ever wondered how life began on Earth? Let physicist David Kaplan explain in the latest installment of Quanta’s “In Theory” video series. Hint: it’s all because of increasing entropy. As Natalie Wolchover wrote for Quanta last year, an MIT professor named Jeremy … Continued
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ScienceSpace
The Sound of a Spacecraft Entering Jupiter’s Magnetic Field Is Nightmare Fuel
As NASA’s Juno mission continues to hurl itself toward Jupiter, the terrifying reality of flying close to the biggest and baddest planet in our solar system is starting to set in. Yesterday, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory dropped recordings the spacecraft created based on data it collected as it crossed Jupiter’s “bow shock” and entered the … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceSpace
NASA and Apple Collaborate on Short Film Inspired by Juno Mission
NASA has teamed up with Apple on a short film, “Visions of Harmony,” celebrating the imminent arrival of its Juno probe at Jupiter this Monday, July 4. It’s available for free on iTunes and Apple Music, and features music by former Nine Inch Nails frontman and current Apple Music executive Trent Reznor, as well as … Continued
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ScienceSpace
Researchers Spotted Something Very Strange in the Sands of Mars
No, it’s not aliens writing messages in the sand. But there is something weird happening on Mars’ surface—and it’s something that hasn’t been seen anywhere else in the universe. Researchers looking at images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Curiosity rover spotted a strange combination of almost wave-like ripples forming in the sands of … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceHealth
Marijuana Shown to Protect Brain Cells From Alzheimer’s
A new study suggests that compounds found in marijuana can stave off the brain damaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a promising discovery, but claims that pot can prevent this age-related brain disorder are premature. Put the pipe away, man. Researchers from the Salk Institute have shown that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other compounds found in … Continued
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ScienceSpace
Fly Straight Into One of the Rarest Galaxies Hubble Has Ever Spotted
The galaxy we’re zooming in on in the video above is LEDA 36252. It’s a tadpole galaxy 82 million lightyears away that has been steadily turning out new stars at an incredible rate for billions of years. Tadpole galaxies are so rare that only 20 of them exist for every 10,000 galaxies in the universe. … Continued
By Ria Misra -
ScienceHealth
We Can Finally Stop Demonizing Butter
An analysis by Tufts University researchers has failed to find a link between butter consumption and cardiovascular disease. And hallelujah to that—the ongoing hysteria against butter can now finally come to an end. For years we’ve been told to reduce the amount of butter in our diets. Health guidelines, many of which have been around … Continued
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ScienceSpace
Jupiter’s Northern Lights Look Absolutely Incredible
If you want to see beautiful auroras, forget Alaska, Canada, and Iceland—check out Jupiter. At the gas giant’s north pole, the most powerful and luminous northern lights in the solar system shimmer and glow in an endless geomagnetic storm that’s larger than our entire planet. Jupiter’s glorious auroras—caused by the gas giant’s enormous magnetic field … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
SciencePhysics
Scientists Are Redefining the Kilogram
Stop the presses! Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have made a new measurement of Planck’s constant to a highly accurate degree. It’s the latest step toward improving the official definition of the kilogram, the unit of mass that underpins our entire international system of weights and measures. Um… yay? Let’s just … Continued