It’s hard to mix electronic manufacturing and flexible geometry. To get quantum computing to work, we will ultimately need lots of high-quality qubits, which we can tie together into groups of error-corrected logical qubits. Companies are taking distinct approaches to get there, but you can think of them as…
Testing shows rotor blades won’t disintegrate when they spin at supersonic speed. A little more than three years since NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter ended its pioneering mission at Mars, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are designing next-generation Martian rotorcraft to carry heavier payloads longer distances through the planet’s…
Three served on the HMS Erebus; the fourth was Petty Officer Harry Peglar of the HMS Terror. Archaeologists continue to use DNA analysis to identify the recovered remains of the doomed crew members of Captain Sir John S. Franklin’s 1846 Arctic expedition to cross the Northwest Passage. They can…
As pollen season worsens, allergies compound with other climate health hazards. It’s not in your head. Climate change is contributing to longer and more severe pollen seasons across the Northern Hemisphere. Dr. Neelima Tummala, an ear, nose, and throat doctor at NYU Langone Health, said her patients tell her…
As social media splinters, how can we keep the new online spaces from devolving into toxic pits of despair? Last fall, we featured an extensive interview with Petter Törnberg of the University of Amsterdam, who studies the underlying mechanisms of social media that give rise to its worst aspects:…
Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is set to become SpaceX’s busiest launch site—for now. It is far too soon to mention retirement, but astute observers of the space industry have noticed SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket is not launching as often as it used to. The decline is…
NASA is serious about taking more shots on goal, but some of them need to start landing. NASA’s goal of reaching the Moon’s surface as many as 21 times over the next two and a half years will require an overhaul of the agency’s approach to buying lunar landers…
Onshore wind development in the United States is being brought to a standstill. The Trump administration has brought US onshore wind development to a halt citing national security concerns, representing a major escalation in the president’s crusade against renewable energy. Approvals for about 165 onshore wind projects on private…
Computational model lets users tweak parameters to hear effect on the sound in early design process. Violin makers, aka luthiers, traditionally learn from hands-on experience how to craft parts and select materials to shape an instrument’s final sound. MIT engineers hope to streamline that painstaking process with their new…
Crushing soda cans for science, why dolphins swim so fast, how urine helps mushrooms communicate, and more It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across. So every month, we highlight a handful of the best stories that…
