Science

On the move: a time sequence of images showing the motion of a droplet in the liquid crystal. (Courtesy: Hend Baza) Liquid crystals can be used to direct the motion of self-propelled particles, reveals new research done in the US. In a paper published in Nature, researchers in Oleg Lavrentovich’s group at Kent State University

WASHINGTON — NASA is delaying the launch of an ocean science satellite on one Falcon 9 rocket, but says that delay will not affect another Falcon 9 launch of a commercial crew mission. The agency announced Nov. 3 it was delaying the launch of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg

SAN FRANCISCO – Frontier Aerospace, a small Simi Valley, California, company, has completed the design of attitude control thrusters developed with NASA and Astrobotic Technologies for deep space missions. “We are well on our way to qualifying both 150 and 10 [pounds of thrust] engines for Astrobotic’s near-term Peregrine lunar lander mission,” Frontier Aerospace announced

By: Hannah Pell It’s nationwide election time yet again. As of October 30th, more than 85 million Americans have already cast their ballot, a remarkable number considering total voter turnout for the 2016 election was 138 million. By the time you’re reading this, we may or may not yet know the winners, especially given the

PTW’s modular RUBY phantom is being optimized to support daily and end-to-end quality assurance (QA) for the Elekta Unity MR-Linac treatment system Multipurpose functionality: the latest addition to PTW’s MR/RT product line is the RUBY QA phantom, shown here in the MR bore with body coil. (Courtesy: PTW) The Elekta Unity MR-guided radiotherapy (MR/RT) system

SAN FRANCISCO – Spacebit is inviting university researchers to share data the London-based company plans to obtain from two miniature rovers scheduled to travel to the moon with Astrobotic Technology and Intuitive Machines in 2021. Spacebit’s sensor-laden rovers are designed to transmit data through the Astrobotic and Intuitive Machine landers to the company’s mission control

Dickinson: “We have to ensure that we have a safe domain in which to operate.” WASHINGTON — It may come as a surprise to some that the nation’s top commander of U.S. space forces is not a member of the U.S. Space Force but a four-star U.S. Army general. Gen. James Dickinson is the commander

The optical physicist Nader Engheta has won the 2020 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize for “groundbreaking innovation and transformative contributions to electromagnetic complex materials and nanoscale optics, and for pioneering development of the fields of near-zero-index metamaterials, and material-inspired analogue computation and optical nanocircuitry”. Presented by the Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World, the international award

Twenty years ago, the joint U.S.-Russia space mission Expedition 1 docked with the first modules of the International Space Station (International Space Station). An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived to, in effect, bring the station to life. They turned on the lights, unpacked the boxes, and set up the kitchen. Over 136 days

WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit plans to invest in Sky and Space Global (SAS), the financially troubled satellite constellation company, and partner with it on launch and satellite services. In an Oct. 28 statement, SAS said that Virgin Orbit will take a stake of no less than 14.7% in the company by purchasing shares in the

The black phosphorus composite material connected by carbon-phosphorus covalent bonds has a more stable structure and a higher lithium ion storage capacity. Credit: DONG Yihan, SHI Qianhui and LIANG Yan A new electrode material could make it possible to construct lithium-ion batteries with a high charging rate and storage capacity. If scaled up, the anode

HELSINKI — China has outlined a proposed architecture for getting astronauts to the moon and back as part of plans for long-term lunar exploration. A presentation at the 2020 China Space Conference in September details infrastructure including a new launch vehicle, new-generation spacecraft and a lunar lander, along with a potential lunar orbit module and

WASHINGTON — While NASA and the European Space Agency hailed an agreement this week to work together on the lunar Gateway, both agencies have work ahead to establish international cooperation on the overall Artemis program of human lunar exploration. NASA and ESA announced Oct. 27 that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to

Going down: a droplet of honey in a superhydrophobic coated tube. (Courtesy: Aalto University) Honey and other highly viscous fluids can flow faster than water in specially coated capillary tubes. This surprising discovery was made by Maja Vuckovac and colleagues at Finland’s Aalto University who also show that the counterintuitive effect stems from suppressed internal

In a memo Oct. 29, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist said the new position will be filled by Justin Johnson, the acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy.  WASHINGTON — The Defense Department announced Oct. 30 it has established the office of the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, a new

WASHINGTON — The commercial space industry hopes to continue recent progress in regulatory reform even if there is a new president or a change in party control in Congress after the election. The last six months have seen two major milestones in government regulation of commercial space activities: the publication of revised commercial remote sensing

This article is the seventh in a series of essays written by Black physicists and co-published with Physics Today as part of #BlackInPhysics week, an event dedicated to celebrating Black physicists and their contributions to the scientific community, and to revealing a more complete picture of what a physicist looks like.

U.S. investment in commercial geoint has been relatively flat over the last five years WASHINGTON — A new study by the MITRE Corp. says the U.S. commercial geospatial intelligence industry is being outpaced by foreign competitors and the U.S. government could do more to help. U.S. investment in commercial geoint has been relatively flat over