Science Scanner: What Triggers Devastating Supervolcanoes
A volcanic super eruption, which occurs about every 100,000 years, is a cataclysmic natural event, blowing out an incredible amount of debris and ash, devastating the environment and disrupting the world’s climate for years, possibly causing mass extinctions. While scientists continuously monitor several super volcanoes around the world, they don’t know what actually triggers these […]
Science Scanner: Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner Announced
The winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry was announced this morning in Stockholm. Daniel Shechtman of Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel, won for his 1982 discovery of quasicrystals. Quasicrystals are unusual materials which have some of the properties of a regular crystal, but have a more elaborate and complex structure […]
Was Einstein Wrong?
Unthinkable? If a finding released Thursday by scientists in Geneva proves to be true, the world’s most famous equation – Albert Einstein‘s E=MC2 – could be moot, undoing our current understanding of the physical world. Einstein revealed that equation in his special theory of relativity released in 1905. It asserted that energy equals mass times […]
Science Scanner: World’s Smallest Electric Motor Made From Single Molecule
Engineers have miniaturized a number of electronic and mechanical devices over the years, but chemists at Tufts University in Massachusetts have gone one step further; they say they’ve developed the world’s first single-molecule electric motor. The single-molecule device measures a mere one nanometer across. The current world record is a 200-nanometer motor. A single strand […]
Science Scanner: Humanoid Robot Wakes Up in Space
After snoozing for a couple of months in a storage bag aboard the International Space Station, Robonaut 2 (R2) finally woke up in space for the first time this past Monday. Back in February, when the space shuttle Discovery took off on its final mission, we had a piece on our radio show about some […]
Science Scanner: Jodie Foster’s Real-Life Search for ET
Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster is blending fiction with reality in her effort to jump-start the real-life search for extra terrestrial intelligence. Foster starred in “Contact”, the movie adaptation of a book by the late Carl Sagan. In the 1997 movie, she played Eleanor Arroway, a gifted scientist who becomes the director of a project dedicated to […]
Diamonds are a Computer Chip’s Best Friend
Looking to build a hardy new generation of electronic integrated chips, electrical engineers at Vanderbilt University are looking to the world’s hardest natural substance – the diamond. The team is considering the gem for use in electronic chips which might be used in extreme environments. Silicon semiconductor material is commonly used to make the chips […]
Science Scanner: New Tool Jumpstarts Search for Parallel Universe
Cosmologists in London say they’ve developed a new computer algorithm which could help them find proof of a parallel universe. The concept of multiple universes is not new. The multiverse – also called the meta-universe or metaverse – is a theory that suggests the universe is actually a series of multiple or alternative universes, […]
Your Mind as the Key to Time Travel
Have you ever traveled in time? Before you say no, consider this; when you think of peanut butter, you probably also think of jelly, and then probably bread. Or, when you remember the fun you had skiing last winter, you may then also think of the hot chocolate you had afterward, what clothes you were […]
Science Scanner: Windpipe Made from Stem Cells Transplanted into Ailing Man
In what seems like the plot of a science fiction novel, researchers successfully built and transplanted a new windpipe for an Eritrean man who had a rare but deadly form of tracheal cancer. Although human tissue has been generated outside the body, the trachea transplant is a first, according to David Green of Harvard Bioscience, […]