Astronomy
Costly SOFIA Telescope Faces Termination after Years of Problems
NASA and the German space agency ground the telescope on a plane, citing the astronomy community’s concerns over cost and productivity
"Optics"
Space Exploration
NASA Criticized for Ending Pronoun Project
More than 100 employees at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center were surprised when a test project allowing them to add their pronouns to their agency identifiers was abruptly canceled...
Quantum Physics
Time Crystals Made of Light Could Soon Escape the Lab
A new, more robust approach to creating these bizarre constructs brings them one step closer to practical applications
Astronomy
The Nail-Biting Journey of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Is About to Begin
Before it can study the first stars and galaxies, the observatory must endure a sea voyage, a rocket launch and an all-or-nothing deployment sequence in deep space
Space Exploration
Why Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin Is So Reviled
Economic inequality, an indulgent trip to space and an ongoing legal battle with NASA are putting the space company in the hot seat
Policy
NASA Investigates Renaming James Webb Space Telescope after Anti-LGBT+ Claims
Some astronomers argue the space agency’s next flagship observatory will memorialize discrimination. Others are waiting for more evidence
Mind & Brain
The Current Biology of the Dress
This week the first wave of research from scientific journals has begun to be published; Current Biology has posted a trio of papers by three different prominent competing color vision labs, each describing their initial studies of The Dress...
Mind & Brain
‘Optocapacitance’ Shines New Light on the Brain
A novel twist on the young field of optogenetics may provide a new way to study living human brains as well as offering innovative therapeutic uses.
Technology
Tunnel Vision: Subterranean Park to Stay Sunny with Fiber-Optic Skylights [Slide Show]
The proposed "Lowline" in New York City would transform an abandoned belowground trolley depot into a recreational public space complete with lush flora
Space & Physics
A Look inside NASA's Next X-Ray Observatory [Slide Show]
The NuSTAR satellite will be the first space telescope capable of focusing high-energy x-rays into high-quality imagery--a feat that requires some incredibly intricate optics
Biology
New Microscope Enables Real-Time 3-D Movies of Developing Embryos [Slide Show]
A European lab combines "light sheet" microscopy with an illumination process that subtracts the static caused by scattered photons to devise a way to clearly observe the inner workings of cells over a period of days...
Technology
Ray Guns Near Crossroads to the Battlefield [Slide Show]
The Pentagon ramps up efforts to field directed-energy beam weapons for land, air and sea
Technology
Illuminating the Lilliputian: 10 Bioscapes Photo Contest Winners Revealed
A gallery of images captured by light microscopy reveals the high art of the natural world
Space & Physics
10 Telescopes That Changed Our View of the Universe [Slide Show]
Historic telescopes through the ages, from Galileo to the 21st century
Mind & Brain
Art as Visual Research: 12 Examples of Kinetic Illusions in Op Art
Art and neuroscience combine in creating fascinating examples of illusory motion
Mind & Brain
What Dictionaries and Optical Illusions Say About Our Brains
Cognitive scientist Mark Changizi does not bother with how the brain accomplishes a task, but rather why it performs the function in the first place.
The Sciences
Fiber-Optic Event Horizon Mimics Black Hole [Slideshow]
Researchers hope to detect faint radiation emanating from a new laboratory version of a black hole event horizon
Space & Physics
Space Wars - Coming to the Sky Near You?
A recent shift in U.S. military strategy and provocative actions by china threaten to ignite a new arms race in space. But would placing weapons in space be in anyone's national interest?...
Technology
Breaking Network Logjams
An approach called network coding could dramatically enhance the efficiency and reliability of communications networks. At its core is the strange notion that transmitting evidence about messages can be more useful than conveying the messages themselves...
