The Horn of Africa seen from the International Space Station in January 2015, taken by ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. NASA.
So, another school year starts Thursday (for me) and I thought I’d offer a list of 5 things all college students should know about the Earth, whether they take a geology classes or not (but you really should take at least one).
#1 The Earth is 4.54 billion years old (give or take a few million years)
This is “long history”. About 4.54 billion ...read more
(Credit: Ruslan Kokarev/shutterstock)
A version of this article originally appeared on The Conversation.
When those first fat drops of summer rain fall to the hot, dry ground, have you ever noticed a distinctive odor? I have childhood memories of family members who were farmers describing how they could always “smell rain” right before a storm.
Of course rain itself has no scent. But moments before a rain event, an “earthy” smell known as petrichor does permeate th ...read more
Credit:NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
If you think your commute is bad, try traveling over a billion miles to get to work.
After almost two years of space travel, NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft finally has a clear view of its jobsite — a near-Earth, carbon-rich asteroid named Bennu.
The craft’s PolyCam camera captured its first image of Bennu on August 17 from a distance just 1.4 millio ...read more
(Credit: Carnegie Mellon University)
Robots made of … paper? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute have developed a pretty neat way to bring plain old paper to life.
The team used an inexpensive 3D printer to apply a thin layer of conducting thermoplastic, a material that becomes pliable when warm, but regains its original, hardened shape when cool.
When the researchers apply an electrical current, the melting thermoplastic makes the paper bend ...read more
Editor’s Note: You got to know Dan with his team member spotlight. Now you can read about his perspective on and work with libraries!
By Dan Stanton
If you haven’t visited your local public library in a while or if you just pop in from time to time, I highly recommend you take some time to look around and really take in what is going on:
Take a walk around the building: you are likely to see a maker space, a seed library, or a teen area hosting a coding club (&ldquo ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
