Science

Taken from the May 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “The science in science fiction”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Ian Randall reviews Science Fiction by Sherryl Vint

It’s certainly been an eventful few weeks for America’s space program with the recent return of astronauts from the International Space Station and confirmation of NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. However, readers of this publication know that there’s controversy swirling around NASA these days after the agency awarded the Artemis Human Landing Systems contract to a

TAMPA, Fla. — Starfish Space, a startup founded by former Blue Origin and NASA engineers, is developing space tugs to help manage rapidly growing megaconstellations. SpaceX is planning to launch tens of thousands of Starlink broadband satellites to join the more than 1,600 it already has in orbit, and a growing number of constellation operators

State detector: A graphical representation of the measurement apparatus. (Courtesy: Christoph Hohmann/MCQST) A key resource in future quantum communication networks is entanglement: a quantum correlation that can be developed between, for example, distant nodes of the network. Special methods of measuring the nodes’ state can create the entanglement or protect an already existing entanglement against

WASHINGTON — The former astronaut tapped by the White House to serve as NASA deputy administrator told senators she supported extending the International Space Station and continuing limitations on the agency’s ability to cooperate with China. Pam Melroy, nominated by the Biden administration April 16 to be deputy administrator, enjoyed strong support at a May

The mission known as USSF-51 was switched from Vulcan to Atlas 5 at ULA’s request WASHINGTON — What would have been the first national security mission for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket will be flown by Atlas 5, the company confirmed May 19.  That mission, known as USSF-51, was awarded to ULA in August

By: Allison Kubo Image Credit: Nature 593, 249-254(2021) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03506-2 The study participant, T5, was paralyzed from the neck down, but it was translated onto the screen when he imagined writing. Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) aim to restore function to those who have difficulty or even lost the ability to move or speak. And, yes, it would

Taken from the May 2021 issue of Physics World, where it appeared under the headline “Licensing Arm”.. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app Arm Holdings’ chips power countless smart phones, tablets and TVs, but the company – a great intellectual-property success story – is facing

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated China for successfully landing a rover on Mars, but also used the milestone to warn Congress of China’s competitive threat to American leadership in human spaceflight. In a statement May 19, hours after the China National Space Administration (CNSA) released the first images taken by the Zhurong rover

The Indian space ecosystem is transforming. Public sector space programs are orienting toward exploration, commercial space endeavors are proliferating, national space policy is shifting, and the students who will carry India to new achievements in space are increasingly looking to opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). There remain significant obstacles for India to

Jin-Tae Kim, Jamie Vogl and Claire Liu are part of a team developing a wire-free blood pressure monitor. (Courtesy: C Liu) Imagine a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with no beeping monitors and without tubes, wires and probes lining every inch of each patient’s body – it perhaps seems implausible. While the reality of ICU

WASHINGTON — NASA will delay the next call for proposals for the New Frontiers program of planetary science missions by two years, a move that could also change what missions will be eligible to compete. In a May 12 statement, NASA said it was postponing the release of the announcement of opportunity (AO) for the

The company says space launch is only going to be a part-time job for Ravn X. WASHINGTON — Space launch startup Aevum on May 18 revealed that its Ravn X unmanned aircraft will be used to both deliver cargo and launch rockets, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.  The Alabama-based company on May 4

By: Hannah Pell Neutrinos are ubiquitous and notorious. Billions are passing through you at this moment. Occasionally described as a “ghost of a particle,” neutrinos are nearly massless, thereby making them extremely difficult to detect experimentally (“Neutrino,” meaning “little neutral one” in Italian, was first used by Enrico Fermi in the early 1930s). Neutrinos were

Taken from the May 2021 issue of Physics World, where it appeared under the headline “Combat robotics”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. TV robot fights are not just entertainment – they can also help turn students on to physics and engineering, as Robert P

WASHINGTON — NASA announced May 17 it has assigned another astronaut to the next commercial crew mission to the International Space Station, a sign that NASA no longer expects to complete a seat barter agreement with Roscosmos in time for that flight. NASA said that Kayla Barron will join the Crew-3 mission, launching on a

Operators who monitor and track objects in orbit, for example, currently have to go to separate datasets for information and manually organize it in Excel spreadsheets WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force plans to spend billions of dollars over the next decade to convert huge amounts of data that resides in separate systems into a

Scientists and engineers cheer the succesful landing of Zhurong — a six-wheel rover — on Mars. (Courtesy: China National Space Administration) China has become the second country after the US to successfully land a spacecraft on the surface of Mars. According to the state media, the controlled touchdown of Zhurong — a six-wheel rover named