Scientists are using funhouse images of faraway galaxies to learn how dark matter shaped the cosmos we see today.
Richard Pell, who teaches electronic media at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has a new museum, the Center for PostNatural History. With it, Pell endeavors to create a curiosity cabinet from the Anthropocene period – the age of man. The only criteria for inclusion in Pell’s Wunderkammer are that the organisms have been intentionally altered…
President Barack Obama promised to take action on climate change in his inaugural speech, putting the issue at the forefront of his agenda for the second term. Americans’ obligations are not just to self, “but to all posterity,” Obama said. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do…
Two studies shed additional light on a murky question: How did the cosmic fog that enveloped the universe in its early days dissipate? Author Metanexus Editors
Even if you think your voting decisions emerge from thoughtful considerations about each candidate’s strengths, studies show that superficial traits have powerful influences on us, too. From their height to the attractiveness of their facial features to the pitch of their voices, according to accumulating evidence, candidates win or lose based on far more than…
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks help solving new technical challenges in an existing program aimed at refurbishing satellites that are already in orbit. DARPA’s Phoenix program is exploring the feasibility of harvesting components from retired satellites, sometimes called space junk, and reusing them. The agency will hold a conference on Feb. 8 in…
People have been asking questions like “How did we get here?” and “Are we alone?” since the time of Epicurus, around 300 B.C., if not earlier. And Dimitar Sasselov, an astrophysicist, says we probably won’t have a definitive answer in the next century either. But new tools and new data in a range of fields…