Scientific observations often has to do with being in the right place at the right time, whether intentionally or not. In a stroke of good luck last Thursday the sun's rotation, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, and a sizeable M 3.6 class solar flare all lined up to
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There's no escaping it: though the tractor beam is a staple of sci-fi space-faring scenarios, it's also extremely counter-intuitive. How does one pull something in via an outward propagating beam? Now a few Chinese researchers think they've found
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It's getting crowded up there
The Space Shuttle Discovery is fueled and waiting on the launchpad for its 4:50 p.m. EST liftoff for the International Space Station on what will be the veteran
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There are aspects of science that lend the subject its reputation, at least among schoolchildren, for being "boring" (Punnett squares come to mind). Then there are things like lasers that are completely awesome, regardless of whether you're eight years old or 80. Which
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It appears Tuesday's massive solar eruption is already impacting communications in southern China and may disrupt satellites in orbit
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Talk about upping your shutter speed. A new X-ray laser method is able to image a single mimivirus (that's a large virus, sure, but it's still
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Images from the Stardust-NExT mission's Valentine's Day rendezvous with comet Tempel 1 began hitting the Web yesterday--there are 72 total images, but each one took a dial-up-worthy 15 minutes to download--with most of them depicting a grainy rock at a distance. Now NASA
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Electrical engineering grad students Jung Il Choi and Mayank Jain (along with fellow grad student Kannan Srinivasan, not pictured here) developed the tech along with their professors at Stanford.
Radio communications devices can either send or receive wireless signals
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It seems like everyone in the twitterverse, the blogosphere, and tumblrdom is getting fed up with so-called content farms--those mostly-useless text generators that turn out articles based on the terms people most commonly search for. Now the Googleplex is getting
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Satellites, step aside
To map the earth's magnetic field, scientists usually take readings from one of a number of satellites, a process that is expensive and often less-than accurate. Physicists at UC Berkeley have a better idea: measure
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Everyone is talking about the A380 today. Find out why here
I live in the upper North Shore
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Also: The Sky is Blue, Water is Wet?
An overseas study into the differences between the
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A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the BeetleCam, a remote-controlled roving camera that lets photographers take pictures of wild animals up close. While clawed critters present one sort of obstacle to a great photo, the perfect shot is often blocked by something
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Just refrain from trying to touch the screen
NASA launched one of its boldest space missions in 2009 to repair and save the aging Hubble Space Telescope. Now everyone can get a glimpse of astronaut derring-do in a preview trailer for the upcoming Hubble 3D IMAX film
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Need to disarm an IED? Make sure you've got your Super Soaker handy. Sorry, make that your "Fluid Blade Disablement Tool."
The Stingray, the military's newest bomb-fighting tech, is a small water gun developed
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In the days leading up to the industry-stopping Photokina event, the major players have lifted the lid on all-new and exciting camera bodies that are sure to command the attention of conference attendees when it finally kicks off.
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As particle physicists gather this week for a conference in Paris, they're reporting progress toward finding the elusive Higgs boson, with two groups suggesting a Higgs discovery may not be far off.
Physicists from Fermilab in Illinois announced they combined the results of two experiments
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A young German guy has a detailed Instructable online this week that explains how you can exercise your inner narcissist and make a 3D paper clone of yourself.
It's worth checking out
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Good dog parents might think they're doing their part by using biodegradable baggies to pick up after their pooches. But after Fido's feces go in the trash can and to a landfill, they release methane gas, a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect. A dog
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Meanwhile a motorcycle enthusiast with a passion for the unusual has smashed one of the world's weirdest speed records. Colin Furze of Britain has claimed the new top speed record for a personal mobility scooter, usually driven by the elderly. The rules are
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I was recently reinformed that the word ‘science’ is derived from the Latin word ‘scientia’ which translates simply to ‘knowledge’. This is a rather apt name for science as it is, at its core, concerned with the gathering of knowledge. We can attribute this gathering of knowledge
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When we’re knee-high to a grasshopper, our dream jobs are often more impractical than we understand at the time. Doubtlessly, many of us can relate to playing the “When I grow up I wanna be…” game, with common responses often along the lines of “Hollywood movie star”, “Prime Minister”,
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It was only last week that I was looking for suggestions for science-fiction technologies that could help to advance science actual. But upon reading
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Regardless of whether you’re a football (read: soccer) fan, you’ll doubtlessly have some awareness that the World Cup is scheduled to kick off this year. And even though the thought of the 2014 World Cup is far from most minds, it hasn’t stopped news cropping up about a World Cup that
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You’ve got to hand it to Apple and their cunning marketeers; put simply, they’ve got the formula right. Once upon a time the humble Mac used to be a niche computer when compared to the dominance of the PC, but now it’s difficult to walk into a university or office without seeing a plethora
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For years now I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that I find it hard to resist the urge to walk through the so-called ‘kids’ section of your average K-Mart, Target or Big W to check out the toys. Toys have always been of interest to me and even though I’m no longer an adolescent,
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At one point or another in our lives, most of us would have had the hypothetical conversation surround which era of time we’d like to visit or have been born in. For some, living at the time of knights and fair maidens has chivalrous appeal. For others, living at a time when technology was
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You know you’re destined to spread your opinions on a larger scale than your average Joe when you find yourself capable of coming up with a darker/weirder/funnier real-life story when partaking in story swapping. I’m sure that most people can relate to having that one friend who seems to
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Dr Peer Bork, a bioinformatician from
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Welcome to the new popsci.com.au – bigger and better than ever! Apologies for any issues you may have encountered during the last few days while we have been testing the site. Hopefully we have now resolved all the glitches and you will enjoy our new look and many great new features. Make
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