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A new study shows that one million birds have been influenced by NYC’s annual “Tribute in Light,” which memorializes 9/11 victims. Scientists say the study shows the larger impact of light pollution. (Image by Abc36/Wikimedia Commons) For one night every year, 88 Manhattan searchlights beam two columns of light toward the heavens. These “phantom towers,” known as the Tribute in Light, are an annual reminder of the thousands who died in the 2001 terrorist attacks. ...read more

Vilso Cembranel tends to the moon tree he saved from the brink of death. (Credit: Andrew Jenner) On a warm, windy August day in 1981, a crowd gathered at the fairgrounds in Santa Rosa for the final event of the soybean fair that’s held every other year in the small city in southern Brazil. Schools had let out so local students could attend, along with curious fairgoers and a collection of bigwigs whose rank rose all the way up to João Figueiredo, then the president of Brazil. Spee ...read more

Lancaster University researcher Christopher Clarke selects a channel to watch by using his mug as a remote control. He moves his drink left or right until to find what he wants to watch. (Credit: Lancaster University) Take a look at the objects around you. Using a new gesture control technology, any one of those items—even your pets—could control your television. The remote will never be lost again! Researchers from England’s Lancaster University have developed a new technolog ...read more

Fishermen working with a cooperative dolphin to enhance their catch. Photo Credit: Carolina Stratico When the mullet migrate northward, the fishermen in Laguna, Brazil are waiting. They rise early and take their places in line, waist-deep in the water, tarrafa—a kind of circular throwing net—in hand. Without a word, the dolphins arrive, herding schools of mullet towards the fisher line. The fishers say that the dolphins are an essential part of their fishing; they wait to ...read more

Space solar power stations or satellites could someday beam energy down to Earth or to remote space mining operations. Credit: NASA Harnessing the sun’s energy with orbital space power stations and beaming the power to Earth has been a science fiction dream ever since Isaac Asimov wrote a 1941 short story called “Reason.” But the idea has never quite gotten off the ground despite decades of intermittent interest and research for the United States and other countries ...read more

Cmdr. Scott Smith, from Hartford, South Dakota, delivers remarks during the establishment ceremony for Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Squadron (UUVRON) 1. UUVRON 1 was originally a detachment that fell under commander, Submarine Development Squadron 5. Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Amanda R. Gray The U.S. Navy has taken another step forward in deploying swarms of underwater drones for both scientific and military purposes. This past week, the ...read more

Full moon photographed from Earth. (Credit: Gregory H. Revera/wikimedia, CC BY-SA) The dream of a human habitat in orbit about the moon came a step closer on Sept. 27, when NASA and the Russian space agency (Roscosmos) signed up to a common vision for future human exploration. The project, a follow-up to the International Space Station (ISS), involves a facility placed in orbit somewhere between the Earth and the moon – a region known as cis-lunar space. Seen as a stepping-stone on the wa ...read more