Thank Colleges for Imminent Carbon Taxes (No Seriously, Thank Them)
We can all agree that taxes are no fun. But taxes are also what fund public education so our kids can read good, and what keep firefighters employed so our houses don’t burn down. And it’s looking more and more likely that taxes could help our planet from burning down too, with something called a…
Facebook Opens Its Private Servers to Scientists Studying Fake News
This much is obvious: What the world needs now is less fake news. In general, sure, but particularly on the planet's leading source of information: Facebook. The thing is, to separate the informational wheat from the disinformational chaffe, what you actually need is a better definition of fake news. And that's … well … less…
Try Out This Physics Problem With a Baseball and a Neighbor
The best questions are always the ones that don't have a single clear answer. In my physics classes, I like to present students with problems that can promote a lively discussion—and to do that, they have to have multiple answers that could possibly make sense. (And they shouldn't involve lots of math, otherwise my students…
The Potential Pitfalls of Sucking Carbon From the Atmosphere
Last week, Canadian company Carbon Engineering published research findings that show how carbon dioxide could be sucked up from the atmosphere for less than $100 per ton. In 2017, the world emitted some 32.5 gigatons of the stuff. But hey—baby steps. Scientists have long speculated that so-called "negative emissions" technologies like CO2 removal could not…
The Woman Who Knows Everything About the Universe
In 1965, physicist Richard Feynman was busy. He was busy winning the Nobel Prize, and he was busy learning to draw. One day during that productive time in his life, he saw astrophysics student Virginia Trimble striding across Caltech's campus and thought, There's a good model. Soon, she was posing for him a couple Tuesdays…
How Science Helps the Warriors Sleep Their Way to Success
Click:hdpe geomembrane manufacturers For 10 years, Andre Iguodala slept terribly. Back in college, the Golden State Warriors forward would play videogames late into the night. Eventually he'd crash, sometimes as late as 4 am, only to wake up a few hours later for practice. Then came class. When he was lucky, he'd squeeze in an…
Hurricane Season 2018 Has a Lot to Learn From Last Year
Today is the first day of the rest of your (storm-tossed, wind-swept, blacked-out, hot, humid) life. Which is to say, June 1 is the official start of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season. According to most forecasts—at least 26 groups issue them, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Colorado State University—it’s going to be…
This Tug of War With a Lion Isn't About Strength—It's About Friction
Click:best air fryer uk Apparently you can battle a lion at the San Antonio Zoo. OK, it's not that kind of battle—it's a tug of war battle. There is a thick rope passing through a hole. On one end, there is a lion cub. On the other end of the rope there could be three…
China Won’t Solve the World’s Plastics Problem Any More
For a long time, China has been a dumping ground for the world’s problematic plastics. In the 1990s, Chinese markets saw that discarded plastic could be profitably recreated into exportable bits and bobs—and it was less expensive for international cities to send their waste to China than to deal with it themselves. China got cheap…
Don’t Call It a Blood Moon. Or Supermoon. Or Blue Moon
On Wednesday, humanity will be treated to a celestial trifecta: A supermoon (meaning it’s relatively close to Earth), but also simultaneously a blood moon (it’ll be orange or red), but also simultaneously a blue moon (the second full moon in one calendar month) will pass in the shadow of Earth, for a total lunar eclipse.…