1. 28 May


    Take a look at NASA’s new solar-powered ion propulsion engine If we’re ever going to explore the universe’s far corners in cool spaceships that look like giant pizza cutters, we’re first going to need more efficient engines. On Tuesday, NASA took the wraps off a potential next-gen thruster system that looks like something described in Trekkie fanfic: A solar-electric ion propulsion engine.

    Take a look at NASA’s new solar-powered ion propulsion engine

    If we’re ever going to explore the universe’s far corners in cool spaceships that look like giant pizza cutters, we’re first going to need more efficient engines. On Tuesday, NASA took the wraps off a potential next-gen thruster system that looks like something described in Trekkie fanfic: A solar-electric ion propulsion engine.

     

  2. 30 Nov


    A new study from the University of New Brunswick suggests you can calculate the age of a lobster the same way you would a tree: By counting its rings.  Marine biologists could already calculate a fish’s age by counting the growth rings in the bony part of its inner ear, a shark’s from the rings in its vertebrae, and a clam’s from the rings on its shell. Lobsters and crabs, however, didn’t previously appear to have any such identifying parts, namely because they shed their calcified shells every year. But researcher Raouf Kilada and his colleagues found that lobsters and crabs, in fact, have two different body parts that don’t molt off and therefore accumulate rings: The eyestalk (the thin connection between the eyeball and the head) and the gastric mills (a part of the stomach equipped with “teeth” to help the lobster break down food). These parts can be looked at under a microscope to accurately calculate a lobster’s age, which is important for any commercially fished species to “ensure sustainability,” said Raouf Kilada.  And just in case you ever wondered what a lobster hatching eggs looks like, well, here it is.

    A new study from the University of New Brunswick suggests you can calculate the age of a lobster the same way you would a tree: By counting its rings. 

    Marine biologists could already calculate a fish’s age by counting the growth rings in the bony part of its inner ear, a shark’s from the rings in its vertebrae, and a clam’s from the rings on its shell. Lobsters and crabs, however, didn’t previously appear to have any such identifying parts, namely because they shed their calcified shells every year.

    But researcher Raouf Kilada and his colleagues found that lobsters and crabs, in fact, have two different body parts that don’t molt off and therefore accumulate rings: The eyestalk (the thin connection between the eyeball and the head) and the gastric mills (a part of the stomach equipped with “teeth” to help the lobster break down food). These parts can be looked at under a microscope to accurately calculate a lobster’s age, which is important for any commercially fished species to “ensure sustainability,” said Raouf Kilada. 

    And just in case you ever wondered what a lobster hatching eggs looks like, well, here it is.

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  3. 25 Jun


    This time-lapse video of the Milky Way is still the best thing ever.