Science, Spoken

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How a Team of Experts Quelled Colorado's Enormous Spring Fire Jul 24, 2018

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I first heard about Colorado’s Spring Fire on July 1, when I was driving back from a camping trip. My mom texted me from her home in Florida: “How close are these fires?” I pulled over to a rest stop, called up the federal disaster website Inciweb, and sent her back a screenshot of the wildfire’s perimeter. It seemed far away from my house on the Huerfano County line, like it would have to cross impossible acres to even come close.

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Meet the Woman Who Rocked Particle Physics—Three Times Jul 24, 2018

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In 1963, Maria Goeppert Mayer won the Nobel Prize in physics for describing the layered, shell-like structures of atomic nuclei. No woman has won since. One of the many women who, in a different world, might have won the physics prize in the intervening 55 years is Sau Lan Wu. Wu is the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an experimentalist at CERN, the laboratory near Geneva that houses the Large Hadron Collider.

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Welcome to the Era of Orbital Publicity Stunts Jul 23, 2018

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Space Graffiti n. Objects placed in orbit for the sole purpose of being seen from Earth. In January a company called Rocket Lab secretly added an extra point of light to the night sky. Dubbed the Humanity Star, it was a faceted carbon-fiber sphere parked in low Earth orbit, designed to twinkle as it caught the sun’s rays, thus creating a “shared experience for everyone on the planet.” Astronomers were not amused.

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Some Scientists Work With China, but NASA Won't Jul 20, 2018

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Inside a sealed clean room near Toulouse, France, Maurice Sylvestre points out something called SuperCam. Tall, with square-frame glasses, a corduroy jacket and a full head of brown hair, he resembles a mid-1980s version of actor Michael Caine, if Caine were an astrophysicist (and French). But right now it's hard to catch the resemblance: Sylvestre is outfitted in Tyvex and hairnets, necessary to keep out dust, skin particles, and dirt that could mar the super-smooth surface of his device.

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A Comprehensive Guide to the Physics of Running on the Moon Jul 20, 2018

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One day humans will have a permanent presence on the moon. Right? One day it's going to happen. So, how are we going to live on the moon? And maybe a more important question—how are we going to move around there? In preparation for our lunar colony, let me look at three motions that we could do on the moon: jumping, running, and turning. Let me note that this analysis is inspired by Andy Weir's recent novel Artemis.

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Rising Seas Could Cause Your Next Internet Outage Jul 19, 2018

Show notes

This storyoriginally appeared on Gristand is part of theClimate Deskcollaboration. You probably didn’t give much thought to how exactly you loaded this webpage. Maybe you clicked a link from Twitter or Facebook and presto, this article popped up on your screen. The internet seems magical and intangible sometimes. But the reality is, you rely on physical, concrete objects—like giant data centers and miles of underground cables—to stay connected.

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How a Flock of Drones Developed Collective Intelligence Jul 19, 2018

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The drones rise all at once, 30 strong, the domes of light on their undercarriages glowing 30 different hues—like luminescent candy sprinkles against the gray, dusky sky. Then they pause, suspended in the air. And after a couple seconds of hovering, they begin to move as one. As the newly-formed flock migrates, its members’ luminous underbellies all change to the same color: green. They've decided to head east.

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In Greenland, Iceberg Shedding Is a Tourist Attraction and a Threat Jul 18, 2018

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When an iceberg breaks off from a glacier, it can drift for thousands of miles, traveling freely across the open ocean. But last week, an iceberg’s journey was interrupted when it got stuck on a shallow part of the seafloor along Greenland’s western coast. In other words, the iceberg was grounded—and it had lodged itself right beside the small island village of Innaarsuit.

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Cheap, Portable Sensors Are Democratizing Air-Quality Data Jul 18, 2018

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This storyoriginally appeared on CityLaband is part of theClimate Deskcollaboration. Until she moved to Fresno, California in 2003, Janet DietzKamei had never experienced asthma. But after just a few years in a city notorious for its filthy air—the American Lung Association lists it in the five worst US cities for air quality—DietzKamei found herself in the emergency room struggling to breathe.

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How New York City Is Tackling Extreme Heat in a Warming World Jul 17, 2018

Show notes

This storyoriginally appeared on Gristand is part of theClimate Deskcollaboration. On a hot summer day in New York City last July, Ajohntae Dixon was studying at home when he began struggling to breathe. With no air conditioning in his apartment, the temperature inside surged, and the 15-year-old’s gasping quickly progressed into a full-blown asthma attack under the oppressive heat. He took his inhaler and then tried his nebulizer, but he was still fighting for air.

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