WEIRD SCIENCE
It’s red, it’s cold, it’s 4bn years old: NASA data from Arrokoth reveals ‘profound truths’ about the solar system. Hannah Devlin Science correspondent @hannahdev – An artist’s impression shows the New Horizons probe encountering Arrokoth in the Kuiper belt 1bn miles. beyond Pluto. …
By Michael Irving – Researchers have modeled how tomatoes growing in greenhouses would be affected by transparent solar cells installed on the roof. NoamArmonn/Depositphotos. Greenhouses and solar panels both need to be placed in areas with a lot of sunlight – so why …
By Ben Coxworth – A treated piece of wood resists absorbing water (left), while an untreated piece readily does so, changing color in the process (right). Allison Carter, Georgia Tech. – While lumber certainly has many desirable qualities as a building material, it typically …
Physicists propose using time crystals to bring about a quantum computing revolution. By Paul Ratner – Adobe stock. A team of scientists proposes using time crystals to power topological superconductors. The approach could lead to error-free quantum computers. Time crystals appear to break …
By Michael Irving – Researchers have found that treating drinking water with chlorine could produce previously-unknown byproducts. Shebeko/Depositphotos. – Adding chlorine is one of the most common methods of disinfecting drinking water, but just how safe is it? Researchers from Johns Hopkins have now …
By Michael Irving – From left, researchers on the study Zhiyong Xia, Matthew Logan and Spencer Langevin. Johns Hopkins APL. Clean water is all around us, and more literally than you might think – it’s floating around in the air most of …
By Nick Lavars – A breakthrough in battery architecture could lead to lithium batteries with far greater energy densities than those used today. Stillfx/Depositphotos. One of the many ways scientists hope to improve the performance of today’s lithium batteries is by swapping out some …
By Rich Haridy – New research suggests a very specific ultrasound frequency and pulse duration can kill cancer cells but leave healthy ones alone. Ugreen/Depositphotos. – A team of Caltech researchers is proposing a radical new technique for killing cancer cells using low-intensity …
Most people see weeds as a problem. But one farmer has found they can help make dry, damaged land lush again – not to mention absorb carbon from the atmosphere. By Georgina Kenyon – More than 60 years ago, when he was a …
How a killer flu spread from western Kansas to the world. By Beccy Tanner, The Wichita Eagle, February 19, 2018 – Ground Zero in one of the world’s deadliest influenza pandemics started quietly, inconspicuously. It was winter, 100 years ago. And it was …
