THE aerial party tricks of the F-35, a stealth fighter made by Lockheed Martin, an American defence giant, wows audiences at air shows across the world. But without the sensors and electronics made by firms such as L3 Technologies and Harris, two medium-sized firms, the plane would not get off the ground. The F-35 would…
Enlarge / EnChroma glasses have always had both skeptics and true believers. Who's right? It's complicated. The much-touted EnChroma glasses don't help colorblind users see new colors; they merely let the colorblind see the same colors in a different way, according to a new study published in Optics Express by scientists at Spain's University of Granada.…
Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launches in September 2018. The first satellite launched into orbit, Sputnik, launched from a spaceport in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Central Asian country was then a Soviet republic. Later, the first human to fly into space, Yuri Gagarin, also launched from Kazakhstan. Today, despite its independence, this spaceport remains the…
A view of the Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday morning, ready for launch. Trevor Mahlmann/Special to Ars And then the fog lifted. Trevor Mahlmann/Special to Ars A zoomed-in view of Landing Zone 4. Trevor Mahlmann/Special to Ars A view of the launch site, right, and landing site (left). Trevor Malhmann/Special to Ars Our photographer on…
Enlarge / The jewel wasp administers two stings: one to paralyze the legs, the other to make the roach her zombie slave. If you ever want to witness just how horrifyingly "red in tooth and claw" nature can be, you only have to look to the emerald jewel wasp. The female of the species is…
The World Bank will offer loans up to $1 billion and seek partners for an additional $4 billion to finance batteries in the developing world, it announced Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly. The bank aims to finance 17.5 gigawatt-hours of battery storage capacity by 2025, which is more than triple the 4.5 or…
Enlarge / The sonification process involved assigning specific pitches and melodies to such characteristics in the data as brightness, color, and the elevation of the terrain. YouTube/NASANASA's Mars rover Opportunity fell silent earlier this year, but even if it never regains full function, it had one last gift to give. Scientists have transformed Opportunity's image…
A researcher at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory holds a vial of fuel produced from industrial waste gas. A Virgin 747 will burn a blend of fuel made from waste gas and jet fuel in a flight today. The Chinese steel mill where LanzaTech opened its first waste-gas-to-ethanol facility this summer. LanzaTech A little after 7pm…
Enlarge / A bike of roughly the same vintage as the author's. We tend to think of technology as something that moves electrons around. But I'm going to take a little diversion into technology that is used to move us around (and yes, our electrons as well, you pedants). The humble bicycle has been in…
Enlarge / A general view of Laguna Colorada located near the border with Chile, in the Uyuni salt flats, Bolivia. The Uyuni salt flats are estimated to contain 100 million tons of lithium, making it one of the largest global reserves of this mineral, according to state officials at the Bolivian Mining Corporation. MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty…
