The Week: Most Recent Science & Tech:Science

SpaceX's successful launch: 4 predictions for what's next

The Week — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:25:00 -0400

For the first time ever, a privately owned spacecraft successfully blasted off Tuesday, representing a monumental transition in the future of space travel. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying a cone-shaped space capsule, named Dragon, filled with supplies headed for the International Space Station. Here, four predictions about what it all means:

1. We'll soon welcome a new generation of rocketeers...
"NASA isn't the only game in town anymore," says Pete Spotts at The Christian Science Monitor. Rocket scientists, aerospace engineers, and aspiring...

SpaceX's historic launch: By the numbers

The Week — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:20:00 -0400

All nine of the Falcon 9 rocket's engines were roaring and ready to blast off on Saturday when a valve malfunction caused SpaceX's computers to pull the plug at the last possible second. The privately-owned, California-based company will attempt a second launch early Tuesday morning at Florida's Kennedy Space Center where, if all goes well, the rocket and attached Dragon cargo capsule will officially begin a two-week trek to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission potentially marks the dawn of a new era for space travel, in which a resource-strapped NASA leans more heavily on the private...

The ambitious plan to build Star Trek's USS Enterprise

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:40:00 -0400

If Elon Musk's space exploration company SpaceX is any indication, the future of space travel is in the hands of people with big imaginations. And nobody's vision is quite as ambitious as one engineer who has outlined an elaborate plan to build Star Trek's USS Enterprise, which he says could be ready to fly within the next 20 years. "We have the technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship... so let's do it," writes BTE Dan on his website, BuildTheEnterprise.org (which has been loading intermittently because of heavy traffic). The website includes conceptual blueprints...

SpaceX: Should we cheer private space flight?

The Week — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:42:00 -0400

On the same day that a teary-eyed NASA crew powered down the last space shuttle, Endeavor, for the last time, the U.S. space agency greenlit the May 19 launch of the shuttle fleet's first private successor, the SpaceX Dragon. If all goes according to plan, the unmanned Dragon cargo capsule will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, orbit the Earth, then dock at the International Space Station, whose crew will unload the enclosed supplies and send the capsule back for a splash landing off the coast of California. SpaceX, owned by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, has also announced a partnership with...

Dopamine: The difference between slackers and go-getters?

The Week — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:41:00 -0400

Why are some people willing to put in the hard work needed to succeed while others are content not getting ahead? The answer, claims surprising new research, might be found in an evolving understanding of a brain neurotransmitter called dopamine. Here's what you should know about the chemical that could be making you look lazy:

What is dopamine?
It's a brain neurotransmitter that has a variety of responsibilities. "Our understanding of dopamine has gone through several iterations," study co-author Michael Treadway tells WebMD. It was long known colloquially as "the pleasure chemical,...

The dark matter pelting your body right now: A guide

The Week — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:38:00 -0400

Particles known as dark matter are flying through your body as often as once a minute, claims new research. Old theories suggested that these particles collided with particles in our body maybe once in a lifetime, but now, a team of experts argues that the previous estimates were way too low. Here's what you should know:

What is dark matter?
Think of dark matter as the invisible glue that holds the cosmos together, allowing things like fast-spinning galaxies to retain their shape. Evidence of dark matter's existence first emerged in the 1930s, when researchers tried to calculate the total mass...

Why so few people are left-handed

The Week — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:40:00 -0400

Only one out of every 10 people are predisposed to favor their left hand instead of their right, "a ratio that has remained constant for more than 5,000 years," says Rick Nauert at PsychCentral. Why isn't there a 50-50 righty-lefty split? Why aren't all of us right-handed? New research from Northwestern University may have the answer. Here's what you should know:

What exactly is this new theory?
Researchers say the steadily low percentage of lefties "is a result of the balance between cooperation and competition in human evolution." Humans have long had an evolutionary need to cooperate...

NASA's dwindling budget: Why has America stopped reaching for the stars?

The Week — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:35:00 -0400

I STUDY THE universe for a living. I've served on two presidential commissions that studied space exploration, but at heart I'm an academic. Being an academic means I don't wield power over person, place, or thing. I don't command armies; I don't lead labor unions. All I have is the power of thought.

And here's my thought: As a nation, we need to keep reaching for the stars, to push back our boundaries and stake out new frontiers. In the current economic and political climate, it might be difficult to imagine much support for a renewed commitment to space — even in the face of a direct...

Coming soon: Waterproof magnetic paper?

The Week — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:12:00 -0400

Believe it or not, paper is "the material of the future," says Rebecca J. Rosen at The Atlantic. Scientists from the Italian Institute of Technology have developed a technique that imbues otherwise ordinary sheets of paper with water-repellant properties, potentially meaning no more soggy newspapers delivered to your doorstep. (At least for those of us who still have newspapers delivered.) Here's how they did it:

How can paper be waterproof?
The team discovered a way to treat paper with a chemical monomer to make it water-repellant. Instead of covering the entire sheet, the tiny monomer forms ...

Asteroid mining: Is there money to be made in space?

The Week — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:47:00 -0400

An intriguing new company called Planetary Resources Inc. has some questions to answer at its public unveiling on Tuesday, not least of which is: What does the firm do, anyway? Given its somewhat cryptic pledge to "overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources," most are assuming that the company hopes to pioneer the field of mining asteroids for metals and minerals. If that sounds like a ridiculous "page out of a sci-fi novel or a Hollywood movie scene," says Amir Efrati in The Wall Street Journal, Planetary Resources boasts enough space experts and deep-pocketed...

The space shuttle Discovery's bittersweet final flight over D.C.

The Week — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:25:00 -0400

Applause erupted on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning as a space shuttle mounted on the back of a modified 747 airplane flew over the nation's capital. The space shuttle Discovery was en route to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex near Dulles Airport, its new permanent home. (Watch the video below.) It marked the final flight for the shuttle, which NASA retired in March 2011. Here, a guide to the "extraordinary sight" and the Discovery's legacy:

Why is Discovery important?
Discovery first flew in August 1984, completed 39 trips into space, and remains...

Are there human remains at the Titanic wreck site?

The Week — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:45:00 -0400

When the RMS Titanic sank 100 years ago, about 1,500 passengers and crew went down with it. Some 340 of these victims were found floating in their life jackets in the days following the shipwreck. But what happened to the other 1,160 is still a mystery. Newly released photos suggest that at least some of the unlucky travelers' remains are mixed in with the wreckage of the ship. The question is controversial — after 33 trips to the ship, "I've seen zero human remains," a "visibly miffed" Titanic director James Cameron tells The New York Times — and a lot may ride on the answer. Here...

Coming soon: A telescope that crunches more data than the entire internet?

The Week — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:40:00 -0400

When it comes to telescopes, bigger is always better. That's why IBM is partnering with Netherlands-based astronomy institute ASTRON to develop the largest and most powerful telescope system the world has ever seen. Here, a look at the massive undertaking:

How big would this telescope be?
The supercomputing radio telescope, called the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), wouldn't be a traditional telescope. Instead, it would be a system of thousands of dishes spread across 3,000 kilometers, and linked together to get an enormously rich view of our universe. IBM and ASTRON, with the aid of an...

Why conservatives increasingly distrust science: 4 theories

The Week — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:02:00 -0400

One of the big losers this election year? Science. Only 35 percent of conservative voters have "a great deal of trust in science," according to a new study by Gordon Gauchat, a University of North Carolina sociologist. By comparison, 48 percent trusted science as a discipline in a 1974 survey. What accounts for the dramatic decline? Here, four theories:

1. Science has become politicized
Forty years ago, says Red Orbit, the media and educators spotlighted scientific achievement that all Americans could be proud of, like space exploration and defense. Today, those who promote scientific data are often...

The gigantic solar tornado that could devour five Earths

The Week — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:53:00 -0400

The video: For the first time ever, a massive solar tornado was caught on camera, dramatizing the hellish power of the sun. This isn't a garden variety twister: This gargantuan writhing mass of super-scorching gas, many times the width of our planet, extended 125,000 miles from the sun's surface, or about half the distance between the Earth and the moon, and its temperature ranged from 90,000 to 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit. And while our tornados top out at 150 miles per hour, this monster — referred to by scientists as a "beast" — reached an estimated speed of 186,000 miles per...

James Cameron's 'eerie' deepest-sea odyssey

The Week — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:19:00 -0400

Filmmaker and explorer James Cameron, 57, has pulled off a feat never before accomplished: He traveled solo to the Earth's deepest point, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. How did the Avatar and Titanic director get there, and what did he find? Here, a brief guide to his "eery" voyage:

How far down did Cameron go?
He traveled 35,756 feet, or nearly seven miles, under the sea. At that depth, the water pressure is so great that Cameron's 12-ton, lime-green sub — a "vertical torpedo" called the Deepsea Challenger — actually shrank by 2.5 inches. It took him two hours, 36 minutes...