It takes an entire civilization to build a toaster. Designer Thomas Thwaites found out the hard way, by attempting to build one from scratch: mining ore for steel, deriving plastic from oil … it’s frankly amazing he got as far as he got. A parable of our interconnected society, for designers and consumers alike.
Next time you complain about ageing reruns on TV, spare a thought for astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope. They suspect they’ve just seen something from 13.2 billion years ago. NASA has reported the sighting of what appears as a tiny dim object, but is actually a galaxy of blue stars about one-hundredth the […]
Wired is a science and technology magazine. Weird Tales is a fantasy and horror pulp fiction magazine. And Wired Tales is a new project from freelance writer Will Hindmarch. The challenge? To write a couple of short stories every month based on features in Wired magazine. The first issue launched yesterday and I heard about […]
Newly published test scores suggest most school students are falling short of proficiency in science study, with a high proportion failing to reach even a basic level. The figures, which cover tests in 2009, come from the National Assessment of Educational Assessment Progress, which is also known by the catchier brand name “The Nation’s Report […]
British researchers plan to send a cellphone into orbit to discover if it will still work. If it does, it could mean major changes to the way satellites are used. The project, run by the University of Surrey and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited will involve sending a satellite named STRaND-1 into orbit. The 30cm-long satellite […]
By Adrienne Crezo Contributing Writer, [GAS] Last week, NASA announced that their Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected antimatter produced by thunderstorms on Earth. Though it was long suspected that lightning activity (associated with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs) potentially created antimatter particles, this latest announcement is the first hard evidence of the phenomenon. So, […]
Thanks to Apple, many of us have decorated our homes with shiny white plastic items. It turns out that one type of bird does exactly the same thing. Research in Spain has shown that the black kite that has the biggest collection of shiny white plastic pieces is likely to have the most chicks. (That […]
“The Big Beginning” is the eighth installment in the Symphony of Science music video series. It deals with the origins of our universe, covering the Big Bang theory, expansion and cooling of the universe, formation of galaxies, the interplay between matter and anti-matter, and cosmic radiation. The music video features Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Carl […]
The idea that friends are the new family might go deeper than purely cultural patterns. A US study raises the possibility that genetics may contribute to who we do and don’t form friendships with. James Fowler, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, has previously looked into the way humans form social […]
Cloning sheep was scientifically impressive, but not that visually impressive. Cloning mice had research value, but created footage that was a little freaky at best. But using cloning to get an elephant to give birth to a woolly mammoth? Now that’s science you can see. This isn’t the plot of another Jurassic Park sequel, but […]