Science

Paradox of choice: from improving electric cars to developing Facebook algorithms, physicists can apply their skills in a wide variety of roles. (Courtesy: iStock/Delpixart) Before I chose to study physics, I remember hearing more than once that ”you can do anything with a physics degree”. As encouraging as that statement sounds, it is also vague.

The question of what it means to behave responsibly in space has taken on increasing urgency following a series of Russian anti-satellite weapon tests. WASHINGTON — As more satellites are launched into space, there is a growing conversation about the need to keep the cosmos safe and establish rules of the road for orbital activities.

By: Hannah Pell I recently relocated from the bustling Washington, D.C. metro area back to my south-central Pennsylvania hometown. My new space is in a quiet, wooded area; outside my back window I see an expanse full of trees (“Pennsylvania” actually means “Penn’s Woods”) — and a small solar farm is nestled in between them.

WASHINGTON — SpaceX has agreed to maneuver any of its Starlink satellites that come close to the International Space Station or other NASA spacecraft in low Earth orbit as part of an agreement between the agency and the company. NASA announced March 18 it had signed a Space Act Agreement with SpaceX regarding coordination of

Groovy tread: a Michelin tyre showing the radial and transverse grooves that form the tread. (Courtesy: Scott Robinson/CC BY 2.0) Detailed images showing how water drains through tyre grooves during hydroplaning have been obtained by Serge Simoëns and colleagues at France’s University of Lyon. Their technique could provide crucial guidance to engineers trying to design

SAN FRANCISCO – Evona, a U.K. space industry recruiting startup, is preparing to establish a U.S. office as part of a campaign to help satisfy global demand for space sector employees. Bristol-based Evona has been growing rapidly since it was founded in 2019 to recruit workers for entrepreneurial space companies. Evona’s year-over-year revenue jumped more

WASHINGTON — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is making continued progress for a launch in October as engineers close out a series of technical issues with the spacecraft but deal with one new problem. In a March 16 presentation during a meeting of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee, Eric Smith, JWST program scientist, said engineers had

Glashow event visualization: each coloured circle shows an IceCube sensor that was triggered by the event; red circles indicate sensors triggered earlier in time, and green-blue circles indicate sensors triggered later. (Credit: IceCube Collaboration) Physicists working on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica say they have made the first observation of the Glashow resonance –

Remote sensing technologies should not infringe on privacy, said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on space and aeronautics.. WASHINGTON — Satellite imaging providers last year welcomed new rules from the Commerce Department that streamlined the licensing process for private operators. The revamped regulations were intended to help

By Allison Kubo Hutchison The same animal was once described by paleontologists as a shrimp, jellyfish, sea cucumber, and a sponge at different times during its study. Anomalocaris, Latin for “abnormal shrimp”, is a creature of exceeding strangeness to modern hominids; it is related to modern-day shrimp with a flat segmented body, faceted eyes on

WASHINGTON — Aerojet Rocketdyne doesn’t expect any potential changes to the Artemis program to have much of an effect on its business supplying engines for NASA’s Space Launch System. Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference March 15, Dan Boehle, chief financial officer of Aerojet Rocketdyne, played down any impacts of possible changes to the

Todd Harrison: “I don’t think the Space Force will end up being an area that progressive Democrats want to cut.” WASHINGTON — A March 16 letter signed by 50 House Democrats urges President Joe Biden to reduce the Pentagon’s budget to pay for other activities.  The letter is intended to influence the president’s budget proposal

WASHINGTON — A NASA competition to launch a cluster of cubesats attracted a bid from SpaceX, who appeared to offer a vehicle other than its current Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy. NASA released March 11 the source selection statement from the competition to launch the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a

Hot stuff: a polished cross section of one of the particles studied. (Courtesy: Satoshi Utsunomiya) New, large and highly radioactive particles have been identified from among the fallout of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan. An international team of researchers has characterized the particles using nuclear forensic techniques and their results shine further

WASHINGTON — A NASA astronaut flying to the International Space Station in April could spend up to a year on the station, an extended stay that he said he was “enthusiastic” about. NASA announced March 9 that Mark Vande Hei would fly on the Soyuz MS-18 mission to the space station, launching April 9. He

For many companies in the industry, filling job openings can seem as difficult as rocket science. For others, it simply involves rockets. SpaceX often uses its launch webcasts as recruiting tools, taking advantage of an audience of thousands who will tune in at all hours to see a rocket launch and landing. Webcasts hosts will

Up or down: the new Floquet maser relies on the relative alignments of nuclear spins and an applied magnetic field (Courtesy: Shutterstock/SIM VA) A new type of maser made from periodically driven xenon atoms can detect low frequency magnetic fields far better than any previous magnetometer, according to scientists in China and Germany. The researchers