Watching a kitten fumbling around, it might feel as if you’ve never encountered anything so devastatingly adorable in your mortal life. You may want to pet its soft fur and kiss its tiny head. But you may also feel the conflicting urge… to squeeze or smush the kitten, maybe even stuff it in your mouth. […]
Among the artifacts housed at The Royal Society is a curious device purporting to be a perpetual motion machine. The creation of the late British scientist and author David Jones (aka Daedalus), the secret of how this machine gives the illusion of perpetual motion has yet to be revealed. Archivist Virginia Mills shares the backstory […]
Artist’s impression of Starship cruising past the Moon. Space Exploration Technologies Corp./SpaceX Flickr, CC BY-SA Gareth Dorrian, University of Birmingham and Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University It’s been an eventful year for space exploration, with successes including the completion of Nasa’s Artemis 1 mission (finally), the inauguration of the James Webb Space Telescope, and the […]
From NileRed: Thioacetone is something that I’ve been wanting to make for a while, and now, I finally get to experience its horror. Will it be as horrendously stinky as it is claimed to be? Will it make me pass out and vomit? [NileRed]
Death is a natural part of life, and it has always been a part of human history. However, the causes of death have changed over time, depending on the era and the technological and medical advancements of the time. Here is a brief overview of the most common causes of death in different eras. [MinuteEarth]
Have you ever seen a ball that bounces higher than its drop height? It may sound like magic, but there’s actually a trick behind this seemingly magical ball. Watch this video demonstration by Youtuber The Action Lab to learn more about how he did it! [The Action Lab]
The target chamber at the National Ignition Facility has been the site of a number of breakthroughs in fusion physics. U.S. Department of Energy/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Carolyn Kuranz, University of Michigan American scientists have announced what they have called a major breakthrough in a long-elusive goal of creating energy from nuclear fusion. The U.S. […]
Mars is a disappointing hellhole lacking practically everything we need to stay alive. It looks like we’ll only ever have small crews spend a miserable time hidden underground. Except, we could terraform it into a green new world. But to solve the planet’s problems, we first need to make it worse and turn it into […]
Trees are a super-efficient way to sequester carbon, but since planting the wrong trees in the wrong place can do more harm than good, we need to go about tree planting more carefully. [Minute Earth]
Though the common ancestor of all modern birds could fly, many different bird species have independently lost their flight. Flight can have incredible benefits, especially for escaping predators, hunting and traveling long distances. But it also has high costs: consuming huge amounts of energy and limiting body size and weight. Gillian Gibb explores what makes […]