Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 12, 2020

Hackers could shut down satellites — or turn them into weapons

Last month, SpaceX became the operator of the world's largest active satellite constellation. As of the end of January, the company had 242 satellites orbiting the planet with plans to launch 42,000 over the next decade. This is part of its ambitious project to provide internet access across the globe....

Feb 24, 2020

DARPA's hypersonic 'Glide Breaker' could blast missile threats out of the sky

An artist's concept of DARPA's Glide Breaker anti-hypersonic-weapon system. (Image credit: DARPA)Aerojet Rocketdyne is working on technology to help knock high-speed maneuverable vehicles out of the sky, under a new contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Since 2018, DARPA has been developing a hypersonic defense interceptor...

May 26, 2020

'Vigorous' magnetic field oddity spotted over South Atlantic

A long-standing weak spot in Earth's magnetic field is getting weirder, and it may be splitting into two distinct zones of weakness. The South Atlantic Anomaly is a section of Earth's magnetic field between Africa and South America. For decades at least, this region of the magnetic field has gotten...

Nov 28, 2020

How do fax machines work?

Like a cross between a telephone and a printer, fax machines copy documents in one location and print them out in another — even thousands of miles apart. Before the ubiquity of computers and high-speed internet and when the other options were snail mail or a courier, a fax could...

Apr 22, 2021

US military picks 3 companies to test nuclear propulsion above low-Earth orbit

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has picked three big space companies for the first phase of a larger project to test nuclear propulsion above low Earth orbit by 2025. General Atomics, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin each received contracts for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO)...

Oct 27, 2021

What's the world's longest bridge?

The world's longest bridge is the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. The bridge, which opened in June 2011, spans 102.4 miles (165 kilometers). China constructed the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in just four years, employing 10,000 workers, at a cost of...

Feb 1, 2022

6 simple machines: Making work easier

Throughout history, humans have developed several simple machines to make work easier. The most notable of these are known as the six simple machines: the wheel and axle, the lever, the inclined plane, the pulley, the screw, and the wedge, although the latter three are actually just extensions or combinations...

Feb 28, 2022

What is engineering?

Engineering is the application of science and mathematics to solve problems. Engineers figure out how things work and find practical uses for scientific discoveries. Scientists and inventors often get the credit for innovations that advance the human condition, but it is engineers who are instrumental in making those innovations available...

Mar 4, 2022

Who invented the bicycle?

You might think that an invention as simple as the bicycle would have an uncomplicated past. But as it turns out, this highly popular invention has a history fraught with controversy and misinformation. While stories about who invented the bicycle often contradict one another, there's one thing that's certain: the...

Mar 10, 2022

Bionic eyes: How tech is replacing lost vision

The creation of bionic eyes, as a result of recent advances in science and technology, are restoring hope to many who are unable to see or are partially sighted due to injury, illness or genetics. With nearly 40 million people suffering from blindness worldwide and another 135 million affected by...

Mar 23, 2022

Jaws of Life: Invention, tools and uses

The Jaws of Life is a hydraulic rescue tool that is used to cut through cars and rip open vehicles' doors to release stricken occupants. Modern vehicles are built with strong, durable frames designed to prevent damage to passengers and internal car parts, even during a collision. However, in the...

Mar 25, 2022

Who invented the car?

Working out who invented the car is a long and winding road, and pinpointing a single person responsible is not a simple matter. If you rewind the development of cars past GPS, past antilock brakes and automatic transmissions and even past the Model T, eventually you'll get to the Benz...

Apr 5, 2022

Infrared cameras: Invention and uses

Thermal imaging cameras, or infrared cameras, are unlike the cameras found in your smartphone. A typical camera observes the wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum that bounce off objects and hit receivers in the camera. The camera will then turn that light into an image. Thermal cameras, on the...

Oct 27, 2022

Bluetooth: Who invented it and how does it work?

What devices use Bluetooth? If you look around the room right now, chances are you can spot at least half a dozen electrical devices. From mobile phones and speakers to the best running headphones and health monitors, many of these will use Bluetooth. Without Bluetooth, each device would have to...

Feb 26, 2023

Who invented the telephone?

Phones are integral to the everyday lives of most people, but who should be regarded as the device's mastermind? The Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell is routinely credited as the inventor of the telephone and the first person to speak over the phone. In that first telephone call, on March 10,...