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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory just announced some early findings from the rover’s first three attempts at drilling rock cores. After an unsuccessful first attempt due to crumbly rock, Perseverance drilled its first successful core sample, dubbed “Montdenier,” on Sept. 6, and took its second, “Montagnac,” from the same rock called “Rochette” on Sept 8. The results from these samplings support what NASA already hoped and suspected, but needed more hard evidence to prove: the idea that Jezero Crater rocks had been exposed to water for a long time....

The Sunjammer mission–the name is borrowed from an Arthur C. Clarke short story about an interplanetary yacht race–will unfurl a solar sail that dwarfs those that have thus far been tested in space. Where NanoSail-D’s diminutive sail measured just 100 square feet and Japan’s IKAROS measures something like 2,000 square feet, Sunjammer’s sail possesses a total surface area of nearly 13,000 square feet. Yet collapsed it weighs just 70 pounds and takes up about as much space as a dishwasher, making it easy to stow in the secondary payload bay of a rocket headed to low Earth orbit....

Now, NASA is introducing a tool that it hopes will make forecasting and fighting fires easier. Meet FireSat. Wildfires often get ‘wild’ when they begin in a rural area where fewer people are around to notice the growing flames. Now, NASA plans to detect fires from space, no people needed. FireSat will be a network of 200 satellites equipped with temperatures sensors encircling the entire globe. The sensors would be able to detect fires when they are 35-50 feet wide (so don’t worry, no one will be taking pictures of your backyard barbecue) within 15 minutes of their start....

You may remember this car from a long-term evaluation PopSci did in 2006-2007 to test the viability of a natural-gas vehicle in daily driving. We also evaluated the Phill home refueling station that taps into your natural gas line to fuel the car overnight. We praised the car’s environmental benefits and its low fuel costs—about $1.20-$1.40 per gallon. Coincidentally, the end of the evaluation period happened to coincide with the introduction of a 65-mile daily commute (each way) into my life....

Leaves are rustling. You can hear the sound of children kicking a ball, plinking the keys of a toy xylophone. People are laughing and talking. Are you picturing a prison? My colleagues and I did—and we turned these visions into reality. The garden and playscape we created at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW) is changing the way incarcerated women spend time with their children, family and friends. “Home” is not a word typically associated with prison environments, but that’s one way respondents in our recent study described the new outdoor area....

It’s an unfortunate downside to EVs’ lithium-ion power sources, especially as coastal flooding increasingly becomes the norm, but a promising new alternative could one day be available to carmakers. Thanks to novel breakthroughs at the University of Central Florida electric cars could one day embrace saltwater instead of avoiding it entirely. A research team at UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center recently unveiled a new form of aqueous battery that replaces lithium-ion batteries’ notoriously volatile, extremely flammable organic solvents with actual saltwater....

However, New Zealand is taking carbon pricing to a whole new ballpark—the ranch. Last week, the New Zealand government announced its plans to impose a farm-level levy on farmers for their livestock’s emissions—the first of its kind around the globe—to meet climate targets. Taxing animal agriculture, which contributes about 14.5 to 16.5 percent to global GHG emissions, can be important in transitioning to a low-emissions future. Although the levy is far from being implemented, it’s essential to explore how feasible it is to impose and how it would affect farmers, animals, and food....

Kajita presented his discovery in 1998, which showed that neutrinos seemed to change identities between the three known types—electron, tau and muon—when they move through space. He conducted his research at the underground Super-Kamikande detector in Japan, studying atmospheric neutrinos. In 2001, McDonald and his research team in Ontario, Canada, ​announced their results from an experiment that measured​ neutrinos from the sun in a heavy water-filled spherical tank 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) underground at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory....

Plus: Milestones of Matter The Deep-Space Suit Astronauts can only travel so far in existing space suits. What will it take to see the universe? By Erik Sofge Plus: The Science Of Fictional Space Suits Appetite For Destruction Sometimes, the best way to improve a new material is to beat the hell out of it By Gregory Mone Space Metal What do scientists know about mining’s final frontier? By Laura Geggel and Katie Peek...

In 2014, Surrey NanoSystems announced that it had created Vantablack, a “forest” of nanotubes that can be grown on an aluminum base. It is the darkest material ever, absorbing so much light that it can fool the eye into seeing a smooth surface on a crumpled sheet of aluminum foil, something like this: It’s really neat, but many artists are furious that the exclusive rights to use the ultra-black material in art have been given to Anish Kapoor a sculptor....

A study published today in the journal PLOS One details how this dino-bird was able to grow to such an enormous size. Ornithomimosaurs (which means “bird-mimic lizards”) lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 100.5 million years ago to 66 million years ago, and they had small heads, long arms, and strong legs. At this time, the Rocky Mountains or Colorado plateau had yet to form and a seaway split the the present-day continent of North America into two landmasses....

Paper wasps create a fine silk, most notably to wrap young wasp larvae in their cocoons for metamorphosis. But new research shows that inside those dainty strands are fluorescent proteins that become visible to humans under UV light. Paper wasps stitch this silk into their nests, giving their homes that same eerie glow, though the insects’ bodies themselves do not have that same fluorescence. The findings were published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface....

The wet dress rehearsal involves fueling drills and a mock clocking system, according to a NASA update on the mission page. “Now at the pad for the first time, we will use the integrated systems to practice the launch countdown and load the rocket with the propellants it needs to send Orion on a lunar journey in preparation for launch,” Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in the post....

Fortunately, a crop of unofficial software has sprung up that enables the AppleTV to play just about any video format, including ripped DVDs. There’s also a Web browser you can put onto the box that lets you navigate to any site, including video sites like Hulu or ABC.com, and programs that display local weather or RSS feeds onscreen. Most of the software is free or inexpensive, but the DIY methods for loading it onto the box can be a pain....

The researchers behind the study knock down the excuse that waiting until scientific and technological “uncertainties” are cleared up is worth delaying action. For example, one common goal is to keep global temperature at no more than two degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels. The analysis calculates the odds of staying below that two-degree line if countries work to meet target emissions by a certain year: If the 195 countries that plan to start cutting off emissions by 2020 meet that goal, it gives the planet a 56 percent chance of staying within that goal....

Many connect to your computer or portable device using Wi-Fi, and run on batteries, meaning you don’t have to lug around a bunch of cables. They scan high-resolution documents quickly, leaving you more time to work on your deals than handle paperwork, and their included software can create PDFs, convert scanned pages into text, and provide a host of features to clean up photos. They’re lightweight, small, and easy to stow in a travel bag or even a backpack, the perfect tool for any modern-day road warrior....

What is LED? LED is an acronym for “light-emitting diode.” You likely interact with LED tech in some form multiple times per day, including the screen in your phone, light bulbs, and many other sources of illumination. LEDs are the small elements of a television screen that light up in order to produce an entire image on the screen. Basically, when an electrical signal runs through these cells, they emit light, and the television controls the electrical impulses in order to produce the image it wants to show....

Creating these exotic phases in the laboratory is a grinding task, but there has been no lack of effort by scientists around the world in the last few decades. One research group at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has purportedly observed a newly discovered phase, called ice VIIt, as well as the elusive ice X. Ice X stands out from the crowd for its unique bonds between the water molecules....

Scientists have known for years that in addition to damaging DNA, the particles of radiation found in deep space also wreak havoc on brains. All of that research, however, came from using a particle accelerator to blast rodents with months- to years-worth of radiation in the span of a few minutes. The first study to test mice under realistic space-like conditions—with the help of a new facility capable of delivering radiation at a slow drip—confirms that neutron and photon particles significantly disrupt their nervous systems....

It doesn’t even stop with your jewelry. The tools you use at home, along with some personal care products can also contain disease-causing germs. The responsible—and healthy—thing to do is to give them a deep clean, and something like the Sonic Soak Ultrasonic Cleaner can help you eliminate all the grime in as efficient and eco-friendly a way as possible. It’s on sale for just $109.99 (reg. $135.99). Sonic Soak utilizes ultrasonic technology to deliver a powerful clean....