Science

By Allison Kubo Hutchison Stack of papers on a black background. ISTOCK.COM/PURPLEANVIL How does work become a scientific consensus? Nowadays, it has to go through a process called peer-review. Science is conducted by researchers at universities, NGOs, national labs, observatories, and private entities. Then this work is compiled into a paper or journal article which

Join the audience for a live webinar at 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. EDT on 26 May 2021 exploring the MRID3D Geometric Distortion Analysis System Want to take part in this webinar? With the increasing interest in MRI-guided interventions, treatment accuracy requires more advanced QA tools to measure distortion and establish accepted thresholds. The QUASARTM MRID3D

WASHINGTON — NASA and Boeing have scheduled a second uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft for July 30. In separate statements, the agency and the company said they were planning to launch the Starliner on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 at 2:53 p.m. Eastern July 30 on the Orbital Flight

The Space Force wants its members to learn programming languages, machine learning and data analysis. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force on May 6 released a vision document that calls on its military and civilian workforce to embrace a “digital culture.” The Space Force’s “Vision for a Digital Service” says the service will need people

Patrick Hopkins, left, and Ash Giri, UVA mechanical and aerospace engineering alumni and former UVA senior scientist. Photo credit Tom Cogill, for UVA Engineering A polymer-based insulator that conducts heat well and has an ultra-low dielectric constant – two properties seldom seen in the same structure – could help dissipate waste heat in computer chips.

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Starship prototype successfully carried out a brief suborbital flight May 5 after four previous vehicles were destroyed during or shortly after landing. The Starship SN15 vehicle lifted off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site at 6:24 p.m. Eastern. The vehicle flew to an altitude of approximately 10 kilometers before descending

Col. Rob Bongiovi said a design validation of the booster that will launch GPS 3 SV05 will be completed this month WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force this month will complete a design review of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster that flew a military GPS satellite to orbit last summer. The booster is expected to

By: Hannah Pell  In 2005, future projections for emissions published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in their Annual Energy Outlook were bleak; business-as-usual for the power sector meant that carbon dioxide (CO2) emission levels could reach up to 3,000 million metric tons by 2020 (equivalent to CO2 emissions from roughly 544 million homes’ electricity

Taken from the May 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “Judge, jury and AI-xecutioner”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Achintya Rao reviews A Citizen’s Guide to AI by John Zerilli and co-authors

HELSINKI — A large rocket stage which launched China’s first space station last week is likely to reenter the atmosphere around May 8 according to early space tracking predictions.  U.S. Department of Defense Spokesperson Mike Howard in a statement May 4 said that “U.S. Space Command is aware of and tracking the location of the

WASHINGTON — Firefly Aerospace, nearing the first launch of its Alpha rocket, announced May 4 it raised $75 million in a Series A round that values the company at more than $1 billion. The company said the Series A round was led by DADA Holdings, with participating from Astera Institute, Canon Ball LLC, Reuben Brothers

Taken from the May 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Leonard Wossnig, chief executive of quantum drug-discovery company Rahko, describes the powerful capabilities of artificial intelligence and quantum computing when combined

TAMPA, Fla. — Companies that build or operate Earth observation satellites foresee busier days ahead as governments, and businesses, step up climate change initiatives. Geospatial monitoring is key for tracking, understanding and ultimately cutting greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to what is increasingly seen as an environmental emergency. U.S. President Joe Biden set a target

Satellites are leading the charge in the battle against climate change, providing critical insights about Earth that can only be gained from space. But are they also contributing to the problem? Putting aside environmental impacts of the rockets that launch them to orbit, satellites inject a complex mix of chemicals into the atmosphere when their

Light propagation inside a photonic crystal with shaped and unshaped incident light waves. Courtesy: R Uppu An international team of researchers has succeeded in steering light waves deep into “forbidden” regions of photonic crystals by manipulating the shape of the waves.  The technique, which was developed by scientists at the University of Twente in the

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico May 2, returning four astronauts from a five-and-a-half-month stay on the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience undocked from the station at 8:35 p.m. Eastern May 1. After departing the vicinity of the station and performing a 16-minute deborbit

King: Without an adequate N3C system ‘none of the rest of it works’ WASHINGTON — The U.S. nuclear command, control and communications system that serves as the link between U.S. nuclear forces and presidential authority could be vulnerable to cyber attacks and needs upgrades, Sen. Angus King told reporters May 1. King (I-Maine) is the

Physics in action: two people skipping stones on a picturesque lake in New Zealand. (Courtesy: Stewart Nimmo/CC BY-SA 4.0) The physics that allows spinning stones to skip across the surface of water has been thoroughly analysed by Jie Tang at Southwest Jiaotong University in China and colleagues. The team used theoretical models and simple experiments