Humanity’s first glimpse of a black hole, one of the universe’s most dramatic phenomena, a “sinkhole in space-time” itself, was unveiled by scientists at a half-dozen press conferences this morning. The Event Horizon Telescope project used eight ground-based radio telescopes to produce the image at the center of a massive galaxy 55 million light-years away.…
Doomsday Clock: ‘New Abnormal’ Keeps It Two Minutes to Midnight
Chinese Moon Rover Landing Could Jolt Space Race, Rutgers Expert Says
The Chinese moon landing on the far – or “dark” – side of the moon by the Chang’e-4 probe was the first in human history. It was made in Von Karman Crater, within the massive Aitken Basin. The crater is named for Theodore Von Karman, a Hungarian-American founder of the United States’ Jet Propulsion Laboratory…
Wireless Sensor Network Monitors Earth’s Extremes From Thousands of Miles Away
R&D 100 Awards The Long-range Wireless Sensor Network developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory and co-developed by West Virginia University (WVU) was a 2018 R&D 100 Award winner. The winners were announced at The R&D 100 Awards Gala held in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 16, 2018. See the full list of 2018 R&D 100 Award Winners here. The R&D…
Nobel Prize in Physics for Lasers Honors First Woman in 55 Years, Plus Oldest Recipient
Amid this week of Nobel Prizes, the annual award for Physics made history in honoring a trio for revolutionary gains in laser technology at the end of the 20th century. The female laureate among the three is just the third to get the award, and the first woman in 55 years to be so honored.…
Stephen Hawking, Iconic Scientific Mind, Dead at 76
Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who became the most-recognized figure associated with scientific genius, lived most of his life under the specter of death. While still a student of cosmology at the University of Cambridge at age 21, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – and given just two years to live. Hawking died…
Under Draft Trump Administration Plan, ISS Funding Will Be Cut, Station Privatized
Doomsday Clock Inches Forward: Trump Presidency Major Factor, Scientists Say
The world has inched closer to global disaster, according to the latest update to the Doomsday Clock. The Clock was advanced 30 seconds forward this morning, to “two and a half minutes to midnight,” during the annual Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The reason was continued…