SLIM lives! Japan’s upside-down lander is online after a brutal lunar night
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Monday that its historic Smart Lander for Investigating Moon has defied the odds—after surviving a brutal, two-week lunar night while upside down, SLIM’s…
This DVD-sized disk can store a massive 125,000 gigabytes of data
Even in a digital-first world, optical disks like DVDs and Blu-rays still have their many uses. But despite being cheap, sturdy, and small, they can’t keep up with today’s storage…
How to apply for NASA’s next Mars habitat simulation
Looking for a change of pace from your day-to-day routine? Life on Earth feeling a bit overwhelming at the moment? How about a one-year residency alongside three strangers at a…
Huge underwater ‘kite’ turbine powered 1,000 homes in the Faroe Islands
It’s been over a decade since PopSci last checked in on Minesto’s underwater “kite” turbine technology. Since then, the Swedish green energy startup has made some big strides in their…
A sea creature extinct for half a billion years inspired a new soft robot
Plenty of robots are inspired by existing animals, but not as many take their cue from extinct creatures. To design their own new machine, Carnegie Mellon University researchers looked over…
Boeing faces FAA audit after its 737 Max 9 plane’s door plug blew off mid-air
The Federal Aviation Administration announced immediate “new and significant actions” to its increased oversight of Boeing’s aircraft manufacturing and production processes on Friday—one week after an Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737…
At 15,118 feet across, this new suspension bridge is the longest in the world
On a good day, commuters traveling between the city of Lapseki on Turkey’s Asian side and the city of Sütlüce on its European side could expect a ferry ride that…
This new synthetic tooth enamel is even harder than the real thing
Every day, you grind your teeth, and they bear it. As you pulverize hard foods or clench your molars when you’re stressed, you can thank a nanoscopic shield for protecting…
The truth about carbon capture technology
Climate change is on everyone’s minds this week, as world leaders convene at the 2021 United Nations COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. There’s a lot of industry talk about…
Tesla wants to make humanoid robots. Here’s their competition.
During Tesla’s AI day last week, Elon Musk unmasked his next creation to come: “friendly” Tesla robots that can perform dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks like fetching tools for repairs…
