Bhavin Shastri still gets excited when he sees a laser pointer and has been fascinated by them since he was about 10 years old. “I was amazed that a beam of light could retain its brightness, concentrated in a small spot even after traveling a great distance,” says Shastri. “A laser pointer in my hand … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? “I remember standing there just looking at it,” says Zeng, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland. He … Read more
A cyclist is pedaling on the road. Signs, trees and fire hydrants pass by. As they cycle, their brain receives information from what they have perceived but can no longer see. Their brains sort through that information—color, shape, and text in signs, for example—and pick out what’s most important. Based on this, the motorist takes … Read more
An asteroid heading toward Earth can be deflected without ever touching a spacecraft. The trick is to use X-rays to deflect the space rock, researchers report Sept. 23 Nature Physics. In laboratory experiments, scientists heated the surfaces of free-falling artificial asteroids with X-ray radiation, producing steam plumes that blew the objects away. Later computer simulations … Read more