All Stories by Maria Temming
- Particle Physics
This is the first known particle with four of the same kind of quark
A weird four-quark particle could be a unique testing ground for the strong force that governs how quarks stick together.
- Planetary Science
Some exoplanets may be covered in weird water that’s between liquid and gas
“Supercritical” water, a corrosive substance used to break down toxic waste on Earth, coats some small worlds around other stars, simulations suggest.
- Planetary Science
An asteroid’s moon got a name so NASA can bump it off its course
A tiny moon orbiting an asteroid finally got a name because NASA plans to crash a spacecraft into it.
- Space
LIGO and Virgo detected a collision between a black hole and a mystery object
The first evidence of an object more massive than any neutron star and more lightweight than any black hole has astronomers wondering what it is.
- Tech
Bubble-blowing drones may one day aid artificial pollination
Drones are too clumsy to rub pollen on flowers and not damage them. But blowing pollen-laden bubbles may help the machines be better pollinators.
- Earth
Smoke from Australian fires rose higher into the ozone layer than ever before
The catastrophic wildfires in Australia around New Year’s generated a massive smoke plume that still hasn’t dissipated in the stratosphere.
- Space
A Milky Way flash implicates magnetars as a source of fast radio bursts
A bright radio burst seen from a magnetar in the Milky Way suggests that similar objects produce the mysterious fast radio bursts observed in other galaxies.
- Space
Half the universe’s ordinary matter was missing — and may have been found
Astronomers have used fast radio bursts as cosmic weigh stations to tease out where the universe’s “missing matter” resides.
- Animals
New species of scaly, deep-sea worms named after Elvis have been found
A genetic analysis sheds new light on funky scale worms with glittery, scales reminiscent of sequins on the “The King’s” iconic jumpsuits.
- Tech
A new artificial eye mimics and may outperform human eyes
A new artificial eyeball boasts a field of view and reaction time similar to that of real eyes.
- Chemistry
Moisture, not light, explains why Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is deteriorating
Edvard Munch’s 1910 “The Scream” is famous for its loud colors. New insight into paint preservation could keep those pigments from fading out.
- Tech
Wiggling wheels could keep future rovers trucking in loose lunar soil
A rover that wriggles through soil could climb hills on the moon or Mars that are too steep for a simple wheeled bot.
