Science

Hard drives and NAND flash memory can store a lot more data than they could just a few years ago, but they’ve still got nothing on DNA. The genetic material in nearly every cell of your body has a vastly higher storage capacity than a hard drive, and it could …

Chemists have made another compound nobody has any idea what to do with. The new weirdness is called triangulene, a cousin of graphene that’s been theorized for decades but never successfully synthesized. What do we do with it? How do we handle it? What are its properties? Other than that …

The physics world was abuzz with excitement (and skepticism) last month when scientists from Harvard University claimed they had created a stable sample of metallic hydrogen. Their initial testing and paper garnered a great deal of interest, as no one had thus far been able to prove the theoretical material …

The first gravitational wave ever sensed by mankind has a Twitter account, and you people voted to name it Wavey McWaveface. Clearly the internet has become self-aware, and is poking fun at itself. What should I change my twitter name to? — Wavy McWaveface (@iamgw150914) February 4, 2017 Jupiter is …

The hype train for Proxima b is impressive. Pale Red Dot, the Project Blue space telescope, and the recent collaboration between the ESO and Breakthrough Starshot represent just some of the money that people have been willing to invest in the idea that there’s a livable planet in the Centauri …

The Hubble Space Telescope has been orbiting Earth for more than a quarter century. It’s sent back some amazing photos during that time, while also expanding our knowledge of the universe. The telescope got its last maintenance sweep in 2009, but now there’s talk in the government of sending another …

It is stars that affect planets, for the most part, and not the other way around. But researchers now claim to have found the first example of stellar pulsations caused by an exoplanet. The star HAT-P-2 is emitting visible pulses that seem to be a result of a particularly large …

Gravity is a good thing when it keeps you firmly planted on Earth’s surface, but it’s quite a nuisance when you’re trying to launch things into space. The economics of space launches are harsh; every ounce sent up has an astronomical cost attached, but the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) …

India just set a world record by sending 104 satellites into space in a single launch. One hundred and three of them were nanosats, but they were crated beside Cartosat-2D: a three-quarter-ton beast the Indian government is going to use for cartography, imaging and maybe weather mapping. Ninety-six of the 103 were …

Astronomers have identified more than 4,700 potential exoplanets in the last few decades, and you can add seven more to the list today. NASA has announced the discovery of an amazing planetary system in orbit of a nearby star consisting of seven Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. The star …