Space Shrapnel Space debris poses a serious threat to any satellites — or astronauts — orbiting the Earth. And new research suggests that it’s an even bigger problem than we thought. The U.S. Strategic Command manages a database of space objects, including orbital debris, but it can only monitor objects that are at least one …
Hitching a Ride The discovery of phosphine gas, a potential biomarker, in the atmosphere of Venus made a big splash earlier this month, suggesting that life could survive in the Earth-like conditions inside Venus’s clouds. In a recently uploaded preprint, head of Harvard astronomy department Avi Loeb and undergraduate student Amir Siraj argue that the …
Planned Obsolescence To protect crops from the pesky fall armyworm, a caterpillar that plagues farmers around the world, a team of scientists altered its DNA so that any eggs it lays will self-destruct. Unfortunately, the end result isn’t the dazzling explosion we’d hoped for. Rather, Wired reports, the caterpillar eggs are so overloaded with certain …
COVID Air A number of airports in Europe are working to bring 30 minute COVID-19 tests to airports, Bloomberg reports. The aviation industry is hoping it could persuade more travelers to resume air travel. Rome’s international airport was first to introduce rapid pre-flight screening earlier this month. Heathrow, the busiest airport in Europe, is also …
Feed Me, Seymour When we think of geoengineering the environment to counteract global climate change, we typically conjure the image of massive projects like blocking out sunlight. But a new report suggests that a biological approach to geoengineering — gene hacking the DNA of plants and animals to curb carbon emissions — could be a far …
Custom hearing aids can be prohibitively expensive to the millions of people around the world who are experiencing hearing loss. But thanks to a new invention, custom hearing aids could be closing in on a massive price drop. An open-source hearing aid built using off-the-shelf parts could slash the price to under a single dollar. …
Earlier this year, conservationists in Botswana came across something gruesome: hundreds of elephants were dropping dead — and details are slowly emerging about the horrific scene. Two flights over the Okavango Panhandle, a lush river delta, confirmed that about 356 elephants had mysteriously died, as The New York Times reported at the time. They could …
Lockdown Project As San Francisco went into pandemic lockdown and locals found new projects to pass the time, so too did birds in the area. New research shows that the white-crowned sparrow, a bird that lives in both urban and rural areas, responded to the sudden peace and quiet by learning a new song, Wired reports. …
No Thanks Ring, the Amazon-owned security company known for its smart doorbells, just unveiled a tiny drone called the “Always Home Cam” that flies around and records inside your home. The $250 drone autonomously takes off, flies around on patrol, and lands in its charging dock, The Verge reports — like the nightmare panopticon version …
Most people take some sort of stimulant every day to boost cognitive functions (concentration, focus, wakefulness, etc.). The most popular choice, of course, is caffeine. It’s estimated that some 200 million Americans drink at least one cup of coffee every day. However, in recent years, more and more people are turning to prescription stimulants to …