Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2017

Here's How Steel Wool Burns (and Why It Looks Like the Death of Krypton)

That scratchy steel wool that cleans up your grimy pans is more than hardworking; it is absolutely magnificent when lit on fire, as Reddit user ChazDodge showed in a recent video that makes the wiry, burning puff look like the death of the planet Krypton. Though it's not an explosion...

Apr 30, 2017

Elon Musk Demos Futuristic Car-Transporting Sled

See more Instead of being stuck in traffic for hours on the I-5 in Los Angeles, inventor and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk wants everyone to hop in their car and then zoom on a sled at heart-pounding speed to their destination. Musk posted a demo of one of these car-carrying...

Apr 30, 2017

World's Largest (and Oddest-Looking) Aircraft Rolled Out for Tests

A bizarre, double-bodied airplane with the largest wingspan of any aircraft in the world just rolled out of its hangar for the first time. The Stratolaunch aircraft is designed to carry satellites into low-Earth orbit. The aircraft will carry satellites and their launch vehicles to a cruising altitude of 36,000...

Feb 28, 2017

Teen-Programmed AI Spits Rhymes Like Kanye West

On a bet from peers in his high school programming club, a teenager in West Virginia taught himself to build an artificial intelligence program that can rap like Kanye West, according to news reports. Seventeen-year-old Robbie Barrat thought that artificial intelligence (AI) could accomplish tasks better than humans, and his...

Sep 30, 2018

Military Mystery Solved: Two Guys Out-Googled Google for an Image of Secretive US Base

Satellite imagery of an experimental military base that was missing from Google Maps for years is now available … but you'll have to go to New York City to see it. Engineer Dhruv Mehrotra, a resident at the technology and art nonprofit Eyebeam, and writer Brendan Byrne leased the swatch...

Aug 31, 2018

SEC Sues Elon Musk for Fraud Over Twitter Statements About Tesla

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing Elon Musk for fraud. The charges stem from statements Musk made on Aug. 7 indicating that he was considering taking his publicly traded electric-car company, Tesla, private, according to the lawsuit, which was filed today (Sept. 27) in New York. Musk's...

Jun 30, 2018

What Is Dry Cleaning?

Despite the name, dry cleaning is a process that uses liquids other than water to clean clothes, bedding, upholstery and other types of fabrics. Water can damage certain fabrics — such as wool, leather and silk — and a washing machine can wreak havoc on buttons, lace, sequins and other...

Apr 30, 2018

A Speck of Weapons-Grade Plutonium Is Missing in Idaho

Today in jeepers: There's a speck of weapons-grade plutonium missing in Idaho. According to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) statement, 1 gram (0.04 ounces) of plutonium-239 — about the weight of a paper clip — disappeared from Idaho State University. It last turned up in the university's records in 2004,...

Dec 31, 2017

Goopy GIF: You Can't Look Away from This Mesmerizing Experiment

As a series of goopy platforms climb down a bolt in a mesmerizing GIF posted on Reddit, it almost looks as if Mario should hop from one to another. But this isn't 1990's video-game graphics, it's real life. The GIF shows a demonstration of ferrofluid, a suspension of nanosize magnetic...

Sep 30, 2019

Is It Safe to Stand in Front of Microwave Ovens?

Microwave ovens have been a kitchen staple for decades, allowing you to cook everything from frozen vegetables to packaged meals in minutes. But while you zap your food, you may wonder how close you can safely stand next to a microwave, and whether any radiation could escape from the device...

Aug 31, 2019

There's a New Blackest Material Ever, and It's Eating a Diamond As We Speak

On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, a team of artists and scientists have made a 16.78-carat diamond — valued at more than $2 million — disappear. Granted, denizens of the Stock Exchange are no strangers to making vast amounts of wealth vanish, but this time the scientists...

Jul 31, 2019

Why Does Metal Spark in the Microwave?

It's early morning and your bleary-eyed attention has turned to a helping of instant oatmeal. You put the bowl in the microwave, hit the start button and suddenly panic as a mini-fireworks performance goes off in your kitchen. The spoon — you forgot the spoon in the bowl! While movies...

Mar 31, 2019

Stratolaunch, the World's Biggest Aircraft, Makes Historic 1st Flight

An odd-looking, double-bodied airplane with a wingspan as long as a football field just took to the skies today (April 13) from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. This was the first flight for Stratolaunch, which is billed as the world's largest aircraft. Designed by Stratolaunch Systems Corp....

Jan 31, 2019

China Tests World's 1st Robot Ship for Launching Small Rockets

China has built the world's first robotic, partially submersible boat for launching sounding rockets — a technology that will help meteorologists better understand the atmosphere over Earth's oceans. Although the tests were conducted in 2016 and 2017, a paper describing the results of the first tests with the system has...

Oct 31, 2020

The best gifts for science nerds and geeks

What's the perfect gift for your favorite science geek? Do they need a levitating moon lamp? A galaxy blanket? Maybe a bracelet of the periodic table? And don't forget that fashionable nerds can never have too many science themed socks or t-shirts. Disney+ would be a great gift for that...