Stories by Clara Moskowitz

To activate or loosen their grip on a surface, geckos extend and angle or retract tiny toe hairs that create contact points. Clara Moskowitz reports 

 

If intelligent aliens are dumb enough to pollute their atmosphere, NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope is powerful enough to spot some of the signs on some exoplanets. Clara Moskowitz reports   

 

A novel way of measuring a photon’s location allows physicists to measure its momentum, too—a feat once thought impossible
 

Is energy always conserved, even in the case of the expanding universe?
 

Three experiments will begin upgrades that could help them corner the particles responsible for the universe’s missing mass
 

Within a Mars-like laboratory environment, perchlorate salts known to exist on Mars were able to lower the freezing point enough to get ice to turn to liquid water. Clara Moskowitz reports   

 

Yes, a large glob of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun did just miss us two years ago, as news organizations have feverishly reported over the past few days, following a NASA press release.

Physicists long assumed a proton’s spin came from its three constituent quarks. New measurements suggest particles called gluons make a significant contribution

On the anniversary of the first moon landing many wonder what will become of the Apollo sites and their artifacts
 

LightSail 1 will launch onboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to demonstrate propellant-free propulsion
 

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

In his new book, The End of Absence, journalist Michael Harris explains why we should save room for “nothingness”

After 10 years of flying through space, the Rosetta spacecraft arrives at its target [Infographic]

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

Re-creating conditions on the sun’s surface inside a laboratory plasma chamber, scientists find surprising insights into solar outbursts

The Cassini probe readies for its final act with new flight patterns that will get unprecedented views of Saturn and culminate in a final dive into the planet's atmosphere. Clara Moskowitz reports   

 

A galaxy four billion light-years from us was has three supermassive black holes at its center, with two in a tight formation. Clara Moskowitz reports

Mysterious light at the center of the milky way could be our first look at dark particles

A new run at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 could show whether the Higgs boson matches the Standard Model of particle physics or opens the door to new theories

The European Southern Observatory broke ground June 19th to build the world's largest telescope atop the Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile. Clara Moskowitz reports   

 

Thinking of space and time as a liquid might help reconcile quantum mechanics and relativity