We should pursue speculative climate solutions like quantum batteries
A new kind of battery rooted in quantum effects is showing promise. No one knows if they will ever become a practical option for electric vehicles or solar-power storage. But…
$35 Billion Worth of Real Estate Could Be Underwater by 2050
CLIMATEWIRE | Millions of acres of coastal land will be in flood zones by midcentury, potentially costing communities huge sums in lost property taxes as developed land becomes uninhabitable, an analysis…
Listen to Images from the James Webb Space Telescope
It turns out that making new views of the Universe accessible to those with vision impairment has required some deep thought–and carefully chosen words.
Greenland Is Still Melting, and It’s September
CLIMATEWIRE | Ominous clouds rippled overhead, and scientist Jason Box raced to reach shelter before the rain hit. Box, a glaciologist with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, had been…
It’s Time To Rethink the Origins of Pain
Every person who has ever felt pain has their origin story, and I certainly have mine. While performing a bench press more than a decade ago when I was in…
Physicists Struggle to Unite Around Future Plans
SEATTLE—After a year of seemingly endless Zoom meetings, Slack chats and e-mails, nearly 800 particle physicists descended on the University of Washington to share their scientific dreams and nightmares in…
These Tiny Pollinators Can Travel Surprisingly Huge Distances
It turns out that hoverflies may fly hundreds or even thousands of miles—all to help pollinate our flowers and vegetables.
The Number of Children Orphaned by COVID Keeps Rising
As an epidemiologist, I am used to studying waves of infection and measuring the rise and fall of deaths. While the deaths of parents and grandparents from COVID crash and…
To Clear Deadly Land Mines, Science Turns to Drones and Machine Learning
A warm wind blows across an empty field on the outskirts of Pawnee, Okla. A small group of researchers struggle against the stiff wind to set up a pop-up tent…
Poem: ‘Aerogel: A Quintain’
Liquid to gas at temperatures so highThat phase-distinctions blur and leave it thereIn place, that fine-wrought microscale arrayOf lattices the cosmic dust streams throughTo layer three, then rests in aerogel.…