An asteroid-chasing spacecraft just swung past Mars on Wednesday. As it zipped by, it took hundreds of shots of the Red Planet, as well as several snaps of Deimos, one of the two small Martian moons. The operators of the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft were bewitched by the sci-fi aesthetics of the pictures. “We … Read more
Four astronauts are hoping that Friday is the day that they’ll get to head to the International Space Station. They were all ready to go on Wednesday after putting on their spacesuits and boarding their SpaceX spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But with less than 45 minutes … Read more
Ingrid Daubechies, a mathematician at Duke University, is an expert on many matters, not least the baking of cookies in the shape of pi, the mathematical constant that equals the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, or roughly 3.14159. A sugar cookie recipe works fine, Dr. Daubechies says. But she prefers a savory … Read more
President Trump’s cabinet has been busy rolling back regulations that will make it far easier to extract and produce fossil fuels. But who will buy them? Nearly everyone, it turns out, particularly under the threat of tariffs. At an annual energy-industry conference in Houston, executives spoke openly about how companies from around the world are … Read more
The story of how James Reason became an authority on the psychology of human error begins with a teapot. It was the early 1970s. He was a professor at the University of Leicester, in England, studying motion sickness, a process that involved spinning his subjects round and round, and occasionally revealing what they had eaten … Read more
Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite communications company, fought behind the scenes for months to break into India’s internet business. The market is dominated by two local giants, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, who seemed united in trying to keep Starlink out. Then, suddenly, this week each of them announced a partnership to bring Starlink into India, … Read more
From Thursday night into Friday morning, Earth’s shadow will swallow the moon, transforming the usually pearly orb into a striking red sphere. It’s the first total lunar eclipse in more than two years. Also known as a blood moon, the event will be most visible across the Americas, western parts of Africa and Europe, New … Read more
Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Republican representative and President Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will appear before the Senate health committee on Thursday, the first time an agency director has been subject to the confirmation process. Dr. Weldon, 71, is perhaps the least known of the men nominated to … Read more
Every day, Dora Dantzler-Wright and her colleagues distribute overdose reversal drugs on the streets of Chicago. They hold training sessions on using them and help people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction return to their jobs and families. They work closely with the federal government through an agency that monitors their productivity, connects them … Read more
