Tag: Space
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What’s next for science and tech? Key posts are in limbo as Trump takes charge
Donald Trump met with tech industry leaders including venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Apple CEO Tim Cook last month. (Pool via YouTube) Although President Donald Trump says he’s ready to delve into the mysteries of space, he still has to make key appointments at NASA and other agencies dealing with science and technology policy. And…
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Tech shines as bright spot in Donald Trump’s dark inaugural speech
Donald Trump vows to “Make America Great Again” in his inaugural address. (Pool via YouTube) Donald Trump’s first address as president may have sounded like a “Make America Great Again” campaign speech, but he did include at least a few bright words about the promise of science and technology. “We stand at the birth of a new millennium,”…
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Happy 75th birthday, Stephen Hawking! Here’s a stratospheric balloon tribute
Party balloons and a spacey view: Not a bad way to mark Stephen Hawking’s birthday. (NEAR via YouTube) Famed British physicist Stephen Hawking has long wanted to go into space, so what better way to celebrate his 75th birthday than sending him a greeting from near-space? The greeting comes courtesy of a stratospheric balloon experiment,…
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Mannequin Challenge jumps the shark in zero-G, courtesy of space station crew
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky stays immobile as he floats in a Superman pose for an out-of-this-world Mannequin Challenge. (ESA via Twitter / Thomas Pesquet) Standing still for a Mannequin Challenge video is a faddish feat, but floating still in zero-G raises the degree of difficulty to the level of a true challenge. And the crew…
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From startups to spaceships: Ten top books for geeks to read in 2017
What’s Bill Gates reading now? We’re taking a guess. (Gates Foundation Photo) Geeks and books go together like athletes and balls, but just as there are different sports, there are different types of geek reading. We’ve put together a top-10 list of books on a wide spectrum of geeky topics, all published over the past…
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The Year in Aerospace and Science: Why gravitational waves wowed the world
A visualization shows gravitational waves produced by two orbiting black holes. (NASA Illustration / C. Henze) The biggest science story of 2016 was a century in the making, and will surely earn someone a Nobel Prize. The first detection of gravitational waves from the crash of two black holes is important not only for the…
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How screenwriter Jon Spaihts worked the physics of starship travel into ‘Passengers’
The starship Avalon approaches Arcturus in a scene from “Passengers.” (Sony Pictures via YouTube) The science is under the hood in “Passengers,” a love story set on a giant starship – and screenwriter Jon Spaihts is the guy who put it there. Chances are most movie fans are going to the movie to see Hollywood stars…
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Who would you fly to Mars with? Who would you drop off? We’ve got a little list
Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence star in the movie “Passengers,” which tells the tale of a space journey far beyond Mars. (Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures) A just-for-fun survey suggests that three out of every 10 Americans have thought about going to Mars, and almost half of them have thought about it more seriously…
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‘Rogue One’ and more: 10 big-screen tales of science fiction (and fact) to watch for
Felicity Jones stars in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” (Disney / Lucasfilm Photo) Mild spoiler alert! This review doesn’t reveal any major plot twists, but wait to read it if you don’t want to know a single thing about “Rogue One” or other science-fiction films. Tonight’s the first chance most of us will have…
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NASA brings an out-of-this-world assortment of GIFs and images to GIPHY and Pinterest
What’s better than watching astronauts eat in space? (NASA via GIPHY) In space, no one can hear you scream. But on Earth, they can hear you laugh, or say, “Whoa.” Which is what you should be doing if you take time to check out NASA’s new GIPHY page and Pinterest feed. Lovers of GIFs should…