By Brandon Specktor In 1972, citizen scientist Sir Elton John hypothesized that Mars “ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.” While John’s remarks were never published in a peer-reviewed journal (though they did peak at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart), he’s not wrong about the Red Planet’s inhospitality. With its freezing climate, thin atmosphere […]
Read More Populating a Mars Base Will Be Dangerously UnsexyBy Lorenzo Tanos The thought of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures having proper names, working jobs to feed their families, and enjoying the trappings of technology is one that’s fueled many a children’s cartoon or fantasy story through the years. But with the proof of an intelligent civilization bound to get destroyed forever after millions […]
Read More The Silurian HypothesisI’m not sure I agree it will “save the earth” – still gotta worry about that climate change stuff. But it should help! And certainly, asteroid mining will bolster our access to technology and open up opportunities. Asteroid mining figures prominently in my work in progress, The Cloud.
Read More How Asteroid Mining Will Save EarthBy Jerry Useem If power were a prescription drug, it would come with a long list of known side effects. It can intoxicate. It can corrupt. It can even make Henry Kissinger believe that he’s sexually magnetic. But can it cause brain damage? When various lawmakers lit into John Stumpf at a congressional hearing last fall, each seemed to find […]
Read More Power Causes Brain DamageBy Andrew Masterson The technological challenges involved in sending a crewed mission to Mars are daunting, but new research highlights the need to focus on the psychology of spaceflight to prevent world’s first Mars explorers arriving at their destination stark raving crazy. A paper in the journal American Psychologist reviews the already extensive research done by NASA into […]
Read More How to Get to Mars Without Going MadBy Leslea Hlusko As biologists explore the variation across the genomes of living people, they’ve found evidence of evolution at work. Particular variants of genes increase or decrease in populations through time. Sometimes this happens by chance. Other times these changes in frequency result from the gene’s helping or hindering individuals’ survival, a phenomenon known as […]
Read More Evolution, the Ice Age, and Mother’s MilkBy Morgan Mcallister, NASA The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), a recent addition to the International Space Station, is the largest growth chamber aboard the orbiting laboratory. Roughly the size of a mini-fridge, the habitat is designed to test which growth conditions plants prefer in space and provides specimens a larger root and shoot area. This […]
Read More Advanced Space Habitat for PlantsWe have reached a turning point in society. According to renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, the next 100 years of science will determine whether we perish or thrive. Will we remain a Type 0 civilization, or will we advance and make our way into the stars? Experts assert that, as a civilization grows larger and becomes more advanced, its […]
Read More The Kardashev ScaleBy Peter Dockrill They found the first ones in Japan. Hidden in the soil at a plastics recycling plant, researchers unearthed a microbe that had evolved to eat the soda bottles dominating its habitat, after you and I throw them away. That discovery was announced in 2016, and scientists have now gone one better. While examining how the […]
Read More Scientists Accidentally Create Plastic-Eating Enzyme
