The lost city of Atlantis — rumored to be discovered in a Google Earth map — is once again lost, thanks to a maps update from the search giant. A grid-like pattern on a Google Ocean — a Google Earth extension — map raised speculation in 2009 that Google had discovered the sunken streets of the legendary city. However, [...]
After 20 years of drilling, Russian scientists have finally punched a hole in the bottom of the planet to reach the ancient lake 13,000 feet beneath Antarctica. The scientists had been radio-silent for about a week, which prompted some concern, but is generally the price of doing business in Antarctica. More pressing was the concern that [...]
Canada. America’s neighbor to the North where men are men, women are women, and Lego minifigs are astronauts. In case you missed it last week, a pair of Canadian highschool students had a bit of fun with a few pounds of electronics and a handful of Lego bricks. With a total spend of around $600, [...]
A helicopter’s rotor design may allow for vertical takeoffs but that comes at a price—the backwards moving blade counteracts the helicopter’s forward momentum, causing it to stall at high speeds. But one German firm believes that outfitting the blades with bumps inspired by the fins of humpback whales will speed whirly-bird flights significantly. A humpback [...]
Dr. Evil will really like this new development by team of scientists at the Menlo Park SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The team has created the world’s first atomic x-ray laser. The project resulted in the shortest, purest x-ray laser pulses ever achieved. These x-ray laser pulses were created when the researchers aimed the SLAC Linac [...]
This feat has brought fourth the attention of Lego themselves, who sent a congratulatory letter to the boys complimenting their ingenuity and thanking them for using Lego to do the deed. “We are always amazed by the creative ways in which Lego fans use our products, and humbled by how many unsuspecting places we appear, [...]
Astronomers are saying that we shouldn’t be concerned about 2012 BX34, the asteroid they were surprised to detect on Wednesday. After all, it’s only passing by at less than a fifth of the distance to the moon, “one of the closest approaches ever recorded.” Those are the words of Gareth Williams—associate director of the Minor [...]
Earth never ceases to amaze me. Look at this sandstorm taking over the east Atlantic from the coast of Africa on January 19, 2012. At more than a million square kilometers, it could engulf the entire Northeastern United States. In fact, it would consume Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia and parts of North Carolina. This natural [...]
NASA has released a new Blue Marble image, showing the United States of America. According to them, it’s the “most amazing, highest resolution image of Earth ever.” Blue Marble 2012 bests the 2010 edition and the original one. The original one—the default background image in the iPhone—was 2048 x 2048 and was made combining different images. [...]
It’s important to test our space gear before it heads upwards—otherwise these things tend to break. But simulations can only go so far. This crazy looking rocket test gives scientists the full experience right here on Earth. The method above, developed by non-profit tech firm Draper Laboratory and NASA, is essentially tying a firecracker to a string. By locking [...]
That, my fellow Suburban Men, is the 2,065 miles-long border fence between India and Pakistan: A striking feature is the line of lights, with a distinctly orange hue, snaking across the center of the image. It appears to be more continuous and brighter than most highways in the view. This is the fenced and floodlit [...]
After six Apollo missions that delivered astronauts to the surface of the moon, the people of Earth have pretty much left the thing alone. Now, Russia’s national space agency, Roscosmos is talking with NASA and Europe’s ESA about establishing a permanent manned presence on the moon. Not only is Russia planning to put boots on [...]
It never fails. Every month or so, the astronauts at the International Space Station capture Earth in the most amazing, astonishing, rock-your-socks-off way imaginable. Every time it’s better than the previous one. This one is the current winner by far. This one shows Africa’s lightning storms and something else: the Milky Way rising over the [...]
Snow. The frozen precipitation that’s anxiously anticipated by “White Christmas” fans, plow operators, winter tire dealers, skiers and snowboarders. It’s great for building forts, rolling snowmen and covering up those leaves you didn’t get around to raking, but all that white stuff has a dark side: Shoveling. Sure, it can be great exercise, and when [...]
Between 1968 and 1971, researchers Edwin L. Murphy and Doris H. Calloway published three, count ‘em, three studies on flatulence. The 1969 paper was about astronauts and their farts, specifically a study to determine the level of flatulence produced by difference astronaut space diets. Picturing how the study went brings into focus the many indignities [...]
Chalk this up under things that sort of seem like terrible ideas: geothermal energy developers are planning to pump millions of gallons of water into an active volcano in Oregon to see if they can somehow generate electricity without angering the gods. You may not realize that most of the western United States is covered with [...]
Firefighters say one of the world’s oldest cypress trees has caught fire and collapsed in central Florida. It’s unknown what caused a 118-foot-tall bald cypress tree named “The Senator” to catch fire early Monday. Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright tells the Orlando Sentinel the tree burned for several hours from the inside out. [...]
This is exciting. If everything goes well, we may get the first-ever photo of a black hole really soon. A big number of astronomers are getting ready to achieve this feat using a global network of telescopes: Given the rapid pace of technical progress in the field of (sub)mm Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the [...]
I was running around the night of December 22nd and the temperature was 52 degrees. Being from Chicago, I admit I was thrilled to not be shivering. But the responsible part of my brain also found it disconcerting. It’s even moreso when you look at the numbers. Discovery News reports: Bellingham, Wash., for example, saw a high [...]
We may sing about purple mountains and amber grains, but one of America’s most vital resources is its vast amount of carbon-catching, oxygen-spewing trees. Now, after six years of effort, NASA knows how many we’ve got. Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of NASA’s Woods Hole Research Center worked in conjunction with the National Geological Survey [...]
