One way or another: Janus spheres are coated with gold and platinum. (Courtesy: Vladsinger/CC BY-SA 4.0) If a micron-sized sphere is coated half in gold and half in platinum, then placed in a solution of hydrogen peroxide, it will start to “swim” with its gold side pointing forwards. Dubbed “Janus spheres” for the two-faced Roman
Science
We’ve all wished for weightlessness at some point in our lives—that fantastical quality that powers the magic of flying broomsticks and fuels our fascination with space travel. Although we’re a long way from floating down the street, physicists have developed ways to mitigate the effect of gravity, from carefully aligning sound waves to mimicking free
U.S. Space Command for the next six years will remain at its provisional headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force on May 15 announced an open bidding process to select the permanent location of U.S. Space Command headquarters. The new process allows any state with large military
The electromagnetic spectrum, an assortment of energy wiggling throughout space and time, is overwhelmingly underappreciated in our lives. There is no combination of existence that could happen without it. To celebrate the role that light plays in our lives, our ecosystem, and the operation of the universe, UNESCO declared March 16th as the International Day
The flag is derived from the Space Force seal that Trump approved in January. WASHINGTON — President Trump on May 15 was presented with the official flag of the U.S. Space Force by Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond and senior enlisted adviser Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman. In attendance at the Oval Office
[embedded content] “Particle of doubt” is the latest musical offering from David Ibbett, who is guest composer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago. It is about the neutrinos and is sung in the above video by the soprano Beth Sterling. My favourite line is “You should be changeless. But the change gives us hope
Until something disrupts the rhythm of life (or you’re in the car with a five-year-old), most of us don’t stop to analyze why things are the way they are. We’re too busy navigating life to step back and ponder our reality. But let’s try it for a few minutes. Photo by Mike Kononov on Unsplash. We live in
WASHINGTON — Three satellite operators whose fleets have at least some C-band coverage of the United States are taking the Federal Communications Commission to court over their exclusion from an upcoming spectrum auction that stands to transfer billions of dollars to competitors with larger shares of the market. Bermuda-based ABS and Hispasat of Spain have
“Bacteria always find new ways to manipulate their environment to protect themselves,” says Harshitha Kotian, a PhD candidate at the Center for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Spreading tendrils of bacteria react to an obstacle in their path (details below). Credit: H. S. Kotian, A. Z. Abdulla, K. N. Hithysini, S.
Intelsat filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 13 in hopes that restructuring will position the No. 2 satellite operator to win nearly $5 billion from an FCC spectrum program. The company flies roughly 50 satellites and generates around $2 billion in annual revenue, but has labored for years under a crushing $15 billion debt load. Questions
Light show: Celebrating 60 years of the laser. (Courtesy: iStock/Terraxplorer) In October 1959, Theodore “Ted” Maiman, a relatively unknown 32-year-old physicist, set out to make what was then known as “optical maser” out of a crystal of pink ruby. The project didn’t have the most auspicious of starts. Maiman’s employers at Hughes Research Laboratory were
Antoine Riaud might need to take his wife on a second honeymoon. You’re supposed to spend that first romantic getaway obsessing over your new spouse, not how cells behave in an acoustics experiment. But when inspiration calls…well, it can be hard to ignore. For some time Riaud had been working on an idea for a
One way to help the industry is for the government to communicate what problems it needs solved and commit funding for the right solutions. The COVID-19 economic slowdown will have lasting implications on the new space sector. Yet the United States cannot afford another lost decade of commercial space innovation. Adversaries are building their own
The novel coronavirus outbreak has quickly become the largest pandemic in recent history, but it’s not unprecedented. The outbreak of the so-called “Spanish Flu”, an avian influenza virus, spread worldwide, infecting one-third of the population. While scientists are still learning how the coronavirus operates, we have lots of tools at our disposal to fight it.
Widely tuneable continuous-wave lasers based on OPO technology make it quicker and easier to characterize the internal energy structure of different qubit contenders Light fantastic: experiments to measure the properties of single-photon emitters frequently require a continuous-wave light source that can easily be tuned across a wide frequency range. (Courtesy: Hübner Photonics) Physicists are still
Wingbeat scanner: the lidar system in operation. The bright line in the upper right of the beam reveals the motion of a mosquito. (Courtesy: Mikkel Brydegaard) Lidar technology has been used to monitor how mosquito activity varies throughout the day in a natural African landscape. The measurements were made by an international team led by
One of the most captivating aspects of the summer Olympics is watching the world’s best athletes push their bodies to the edge of what is humanly possible. In 2016, the world watched in awe as Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won his third consecutive Olympic gold in each of three distances—the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay.
If you’re on the receiving end of a snapping shrimp’s attack, prepare to be stunned. Also known as pistol shrimp, these little crustaceans shoot lethal rounds at predators and prey at highway speeds—a direct hit can be outright fatal or shock the recipient into submission. It’s not just the force of the attack that’s stunning