Space

Natalie Portman plays Lena in Alex Garland's Annihilation, a fantasy sci-fi drama based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer.

Science
Arts

Life Hacking Life: The Scary Premise Of 'Annihilation'

12:22pm March 07, 2018

by Marcelo Gleiser

As with Ex Machina, says Marcelo Gleiser, director Alex Garland is sending a warning: We are now hacking life itself and will continue to do so with growing efficiency. Are we creating our own doom?

William Shatner Will Be A Part Of A Real-Life Space Mission

5:54am March 07, 2018

Shatner explored the galaxy as Captain Kirk on Star Trek. This summer, NASA is launching a probe to study the sun and it'll carry a microchip with Shatner's name on it.

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Artist's rendering of how the first stars in the universe may have looked.

Science

Did Dark Matter Make The Early Universe Chill Out?

1:49pm February 28, 2018

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

A new study suggests that the early universe got an unexpectedly cold start, and that dark matter may be to blame.

Vodaphone And Nokia To Develop A Cellphone Network On The Moon

8:19am February 28, 2018

The point is to allow high definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to Earth as part of the first privately funded moon mission. It will be a 4G network because the 5G is still in testing.

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An image from Clifford Johnson's The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe.

'The Dialogues' Takes On Physics And Reality In Words And Pictures

11:21am February 23, 2018

by Adam Frank

Commentator Adam Frank interviews physicist Clifford Johnson, who has taken a new approach to the exploration of questions about the nature of the universe — the graphic novel.

A SpaceX rocket carrying a Spanish satellite lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on Thursday.

Science

SpaceX Completes Successful Launch, Narrowly Misses Catching $6 Million Nose Cone

2:52pm February 22, 2018

by Laurel Wamsley

As part of his "rocket reusability" ethos, Elon Musk had hoped to use a giant net on a boat to catch the rocket's protective covering. It turns out it's hard to catch stuff falling from space.

At the level of quantum particles, there is evidence that actions in the present can influence the past, says Marcelo Gleiser.

Science

Can We Change The Past?

2:02pm February 21, 2018

by Marcelo Gleiser

Putting humans and consciousness aside, at the level of quantum particles, Wheeler's delayed-choice experiments show that actions in the present can influence the past, says physicist Marcelo Gleiser.

This image, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the supernova remnant SNR 0509-68.7, also known as N103B. It is located 160,000 light-years from Earth in a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Science

A Scientific Search For A Ghost (Particle)

3:28pm February 15, 2018

by Marcelo Gleiser

Scientists put a lot of effort into uncovering the history of these tiny bits of matter, in the hopes that it will tell us something about the universe, says astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser.

These false-color images of Kuiper Belt objects now occupy a place in history: Never before have images been captured as far from Earth as these.

Science

PHOTOS: These Images Were Captured Nearly 3.8 Billion Miles From Earth

5:02pm February 11, 2018

by Colin Dwyer

The distance marks a record: the farthest from Earth an image has been taken. Before NASA's New Horizons probe caught these glimpses in December, the 1990 "Pale Blue Dot" image had held the record.

Science

Finding Planets Outside The Milky Way

8:02am February 11, 2018

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with University of Oklahoma postdoctoral researcher Eddie Guerras about how his team detected planets outside of our galaxy.