May 14 See the strange creatures NOAA found at the bottom of the sea By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy Each year, the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer maps an area of the seafloor the size of West Virginia. When compared to the total Atlantic Ocean, which spans 41 million square miles, West Virginia’s not so large. But the… Continue reading
May 13 Watch 9:41 Is gender identity biologically hard-wired? By PBS News Hour At an early age, 8-year-old Skyler Kelly began to let his parents know that what he looked like on the outside, a girl, is not how he felt on the inside. The science of gender identity isn't fully understood, but… Continue watching
May 12 Smithsonian’s mystery of the black-crowned night herons solved by satellites By Nsikan Akpan Think your freeloading kid is bad? Black-crowned night herons have crashed at the Smithsonian National Zoo each summer for over a century. Continue reading
May 12 Watch 7:21 Why we’re teaching computers to help treat cancer By PBS News Hour Continue watching
May 11 NASA’s Curiosity captures blue sunset on the Red Planet By Joshua Barajas Last month, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured a blue sunset on the Red Planet. The sight was poetic enough to inspire the rover to quote T.S. Eliot in a tweet. Continue reading
May 08 Watch 9:03 How smart is today’s artificial intelligence? By PBS News Hour Artificial intelligence is creeping into our everyday lives through technology like check-scanning machines and GPS navigation. How far away are we from making intelligent machines that actually have minds of their own? Hari Sreenivasan reports on the ethical considerations of… Continue watching
May 08 Astronaut Chris Hadfield describes his first trip into space By Nsikan Akpan Before arriving at the Russian Space Station Mir, astronaut Chris Hadfield lived through the quiet thrill of waiting for the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters to ignite and spew close to 8 million pounds of thrust. Continue reading
May 07 Watch 0:37 This tractor-trailer drives itself By PBS News Hour In our NewsHour Shares moment of the day, a self-driving 18-wheeler has been approved for test-drives on public roads in Nevada. The goal of the semi-autonomous vehicle is to reduce driver fatigue on long-haul trips. Continue watching
May 05 Watch 1:08 Fiery eruptions on Earth and in space caught on camera By PBS News Hour In our NewsHour Shares video of the day, a look at two fiery explosions -- one on earth and one in space. Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano sent molten lava, rocks and gas flying hundreds of feet into the air on Sunday. Continue watching
May 05 Computer scientists prove 80s pop music is boring By Nsikan Akpan “Pop music is dead.” You’ve heard the refrain dropped by nostalgic music lovers at backyard barbecues. And it’s no surprise. Everyone thinks the tunes of their generation marked a sort of cultural pinnacle and that music has since become bland. Continue reading