Search this site
Sign in to CHANS-Net
In The Media
Wired Weird Science
Shape-Shifting Jet Wings, From Soviet War Planes to Top Gun’s Tomcat
Take off. Rise. Soar. Bank. Turn. Stall. Swoop. Dive. Land. For each of the different kinds of flying an airplane has to do, there’s an ideal shape and configuration for its wings. Even though bird-like flappability isn’t feasible with struts and steel, engineers since the dawn of aviation have been trying to make wings that […]
What’s Up With That: Why Does Sleeping In Just Make Me More Tired?
Oversleep causes a feeling similar to feeling hung over and it's caused by the same biological function that gives you jet lag.
The Quest to Brew Beer With Space Yeast
A small team of people gathered in the Nevada desert earlier this week to take another step toward answering one of mankind’s most pressing questions: What does beer taste like in space? At least that’s one of the most pressing questions that comes up when a bunch of brewers get together with a bunch of […]
Absurd Creature of the Week: The Aquatic Menace That Gives the Worst Hickeys Ever
To quote the great Austin Powers, when provided floss to escape being lowered into a tank of ill-tempered sea bass: “OK, I get it. I have bad teeth.” Sure, it’s easy to stereotype the British for shunning American advances in oral hygiene. But it’s time to set our dental differences aside and celebrate the most […]
Science Graphic of the Week: When a Volcano Erupts Under a Glacier You Get a Jökulhlaup
Though we often think of the earth beneath our feet as static, we also know that our planet is a dynamic object. In this image, we can see how geologic processes---namely a glacial outburst flood known as a jökulhlaup---can cause major changes to an area. But in time, even these huge alterations are eroded away and the landscape can return to something close to its previous state.
The Moral Hazards and Legal Conundrums of Our Robot-Filled Future
Whether you find it exhilarating or terrifying (or both), progress in robotics and related fields like AI is raising new ethical quandaries and challenging legal codes that were created for a world in which a sharp line separates man from machine. Last week, roboticists, legal scholars, and other experts met at the University of California, Berkeley law school to talk through some of the social, moral, and legal hazards that are likely to arise as that line starts to blur.
Fantastically Wrong: The Strange History of Using Organ-Shaped Plants to Treat Disease
It’s hard to imagine being the first human being to look at a plant like, say, a stinging nettle and think, “I probably shouldn’t eat this, on account of the general agony it would cause me. But what if I cooked it first?” So you prepare it and nervously drop it down your gullet—and luckily […]
What Exactly Is in McDonald’s Famous French Fries?
There's more to these tasty fries than fat and salt.
Even the Gorillas and Bears in Our Zoos Are Hooked on Prozac
When the gorilla Willie B. had to move to a tiny cage at the Atlanta Zoo for six months, the vet staff decided to put Thorazine in the Coca-Cola he drank in the morning. Willie responded to the drug as many institutionalized humans do: He shuffled back and forth across his cage with dulled eyes.
What’s Up With That: Why You Always Seem to Choose the Slowest Line
You run into the grocery store to quickly pick up one ingredient. You grab what you need and head to the front of the store. After quickly sizing up the check-out lines, you choose the one that looks fastest. You chose wrong. People you could swear got in other lines long after you chose yours […]
A Beautifully Detailed New Geologic Map of Mars
It took 16 years and data from four orbiting spacecraft to assemble, but the U.S. Geological Survey’s new map of Mars is awesome. In beautiful color and excellent detail, the map shows the geology of the Red Planet’s surface today, and reveals a new understanding of its past.
Get Ready to Learn a Bunch of Awesome New Science About Pluto
One year from today, everybody’s favorite dwarf planet will receive its first man-made visitor. The New Horizons mission, which launched in 2006, will make its closest flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015. Right now, Pluto is mainly known as that object in the solar system that used to be a planet (some would argue […]
After 10 Years in Space, This Probe Is About to Catch a Comet
After a 4.3 billion-mile nonstop flight, Rosetta is about to reach its destination. The European Space Agency vehicle has spent a decade circling our solar system in pursuit of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. And to prepare for the trip, ESA tested and equipped the vessel for any cosmic curveballs it might encounter on the way.
Absurd Creature of the Week: The Feisty Shrimp That Kills With Bullets Made of Bubbles
The greatest, smoothest gunslinger of all time—and I say it knowing full well I’m going to get emails for this opinion—is Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name, aka Blondie, of Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti westerns. I mean, at a public hanging the guy sat back and sniped the rope to free the accused, then blasted […]
Is China’s Next Moon Probe a Preparation for a Manned Lunar Landing?
A future lunar probe could be setting China up for a manned mission next decade. After details were released late last month of the Chang’e 5 mission—a robotic lander that will collect samples from the lunar surface and return them to Earth in 2017—several international observers noticed that it looked like a smaller version of […]
Science Graphic of the Week: Hummingbird Wing Aerodynamics
This article has been corrected. When they hover, hummingbirds move their wings more like a buzzing insect than a flapping bird. But, unlike tiny insects, hummingbirds are large enough to stir up the air more violently as they move. Now scientists have attempted to model exactly how hummingbird wings interact with the air as they […]
Meet the Couple Who Could Be the First Humans to Travel to Mars
Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum are planning a trip to Mars. They’ve been hashing out the details for 20 years now, and alternate between being extremely excited and utterly terrified by the prospect, refusing to discuss it after 5 p.m. to avoid nightmares. The couple’s far-out dreams of space travel differ from those of many […]
Scientists Create a New Type of Ultra-High-Res Flexible Display
In research published today in Nature, scientists describe what may be the first steps toward creating a new type of ultrathin, superfast, low-power, high-resolution, flexible color screen. If the inevitable engineering difficulties in bringing a product from the lab to the living room can be overcome, these displays could combine some of the best features of current display technologies.
Not Just Bees: Controversial Pesticides Linked to Bird Declines
Evidence continues to mount that a highly controversial class of pesticides blamed for widespread bee declines is also harming other creatures, perhaps catastrophically.
Fantastically Wrong: Why the Egyptians Worshiped Beetles That Eat Poop for a Living
There are a whole lot of unsavory lifestyles in the animal kingdom. The pearlfish has to swim up sea cucumber butts to escape predation. All manner of birds must fly thousands and thousands of miles each year with the change of the seasons. And hyenas have to deal with giving birth through their six-inch-long clitorises. […]
