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Researchers have used a unique conductive and water-gathering microorganism to generate electricity.The principle is the same as hydroelectric dams—it’s just extremely tiny and uses naturally occurring nanowires.Scaling the technology will require an alteration to the microorganism or genetically tuning a different organism altogether.First there was imitation meat generated from thin air—now there’s neverending clean electricity, researchers say. The key ingredient is a “sediment organism” that researchers first found at the bottom of the Potomac River....

The idea is so appealing: We can reduce our dependence on oil—stop sending U.S. dollars to corrupt petro-dictators, stop spewing megatons of carbon into the atmosphere—by replacing it with clean, home-grown, all-American corn. It sounds too good to be true.Sadly, it is.Of course we need alternatives to oil. The world uses a cubic mile of petroleum each year, and demand keeps rising as the global economy booms. At first glance, corn seems like a heaven-sent substitute....

Think of the X-37B as the Space Shuttle’s smaller, younger brother and you wouldn’t be wrong. With its bullet-like shape, stubby wings, and two tone black and white appearance, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle looks like a smaller, cuter version of the manned orbiter that served NASA for decades. That’s where the comparison ends though: property of the U.S. Air Force, the secretive, unmanned X-37B is built to spend months in orbit, carrying out classified missions on behalf of America’s military space program....

The golden ratio is only the first in an infinite sequence of fellow “metallic ratios.“Study of the golden ratio, which is very cool, has obscured the rest of the metallic ratios.All the metallic ratios share unifying mathematical ideas, and the metallic ratios form a set.Two math students in Singapore are drawing the world’s attention back to the metallic means, which include the golden ratio as well as all roots of the quadratic equation x² - nx = 1 for positive values of n....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast night the “blue shirts” in JPL mission control sat in near silence as the Mars Science Lab went through its many-step procedure of landing the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars; they were unable to see what was happening until the rover beamed back the first rough images after its safe touchdown. It turns out, though, that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had a great view of the action....

Last week, during Juno’s latest Jupiter flyby, the spacecraft captured stunning images of Io’s shadow streaking across the gas giant during an eclipse.Juno has orbited Jupiter for more than three years, and provided incredible insight into the planet’s processes. Io’s proximity to Jupiter means the shadow it casts across the surface of the planet is large and sharp.Last week, Jupiter’s moon, Io, slipped between the gas giant and our sun. Luckily, NASA’s Juno spacecraft was there to capture all the action....

Media Platforms Design Team Cornell AXP unleashed the team’s mule car on the open road for the first time recently, participating in the 2008 Green Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, N.Y. The 60-mile road rally, now in its fourth year, is a showcase for alternative-energy vehicles and was the team’s first stop en route to the race for the Automotive X Prize. “The Grand Prix was a chance for the team to test and showcase the technology at work in our mule car,” says incoming Cornell AXP president Trey Riddle....

The U.S. Navy has declared early operational capability for the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile and the Super Hornet fighter.LRASM is the first new American anti-ship missile in decades.The combination of LRASM and Super Hornet will put enemy fleets at serious risk, ideally deterring them from attack. The U.S. Navy has declared early operational capability (EOC) for Long Range Anti-Ship Missile as carried by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The new missile, the Navy’s first new anti-ship missile in decades, is designed to infiltrate enemy defenses, skirting around them to attack key targets in enemy fleets....

Media Platforms Design TeamCingularannouncedthe Apple rumor mill heating up its much anticipated music phone expansion this morning, partnering with Napster, Yahoo!, eMusic, XM Satellite Radio and, importantly, Microsoft in a deal first reported Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. But with , should we care more about when the iPhone will arrive than whether Cingular Music can offer us farmed-out tunes on the cell? Because it sort of looks like the country’s biggest wireless provider already does....

NASA has approved SpaceX’s plan to load propellants on a rocket while the astronauts are already strapped into the spacecraft, according to Spaceflight Now. SpaceX has used the tactic, known as “load-and-go,” for dozens of satellite launches, but previously it was unclear if NASA would approve the company’s fueling procedure with humans aboard. It’s standard procedure for SpaceX to fuel their Falcon 9 rocket with RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel and liquid oxygen in the final hour before launch, lifting off shortly after the tanks are filled....

Media Platforms Design TeamA 16mm fisheye lens was used to show a wide angle view of the Vertical Assembly Center at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept 12. The VAC is the largest spacecraft welding tool in the world. It is part of a family of state-of-the-art tools designed to weld the core stage of the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever built for mission deep in space....

NASA’s tiny, modular Asteria satellite has lost contact after completing its primary mission and three mission extensions.Asteria is part of NASA’s ambitious CubeSat project, using privately made parts that interlock.This mission is considered a success and evidence that small satellites are feasible even in outer space.NASA has lost touch with a tiny satellite named Asteria, but there’s a small likelihood they could still reestablish contact. Asteria is part of the astrophysics arm of NASA’s overall small satellite program called CubeSat....

There are few things more spectacular in America than the National Park Service. It all began in 1872 when congress set aside Yellowstone National Park “as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” In the beginning Yellowstone, and other historical areas later similarly protected by congress, were administered by the Department of the Interior before the National Park Service was founded. The War Department administered some as well, as did the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture....

This week, hundreds of outdoor brands descended upon Denver to debut their latest gear and apparel at Outdoor Retailer. Our team of gear editors is on site, meeting with product managers and scouring the show floor for the most innovative or just plain cool products that promise to make your outdoor adventures easier and more enjoyable. We found slope-ready gear for skiing and snowboarding, cutting-edge camping equipment, plenty of winter coats, and more....

Media Platforms Design TeamSo long, Crown Vics, and thanks for all the rides to the airport. Today New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to approve the rules that will make Nissan’s “Taxi of Tomorrow” the next-gen cab of the Big Apple. Last year Nissan revealed its futuristic cab, which is based on the NV200 cargo van the company was already selling in Europe and Asia and is now bringing to the U....

The Norwegian government has decided to scrap a guided missile frigate that was heavily damaged in a late 2018 accident. HNoMS Helge Instag collided with an oil tanker, ran aground, and later sank off the coast of Norway. Oslo says it would cost more to repair the ship than to purchase a replacement. On November 8, 2018, Helge Ingstad collided with the civilian oil tanker Sola TS. Badly damaged in the collision, the frigate’s crew intentionally ran her aground on a stretch of rocky coastline to prevent her sinking....

When Vladimir Putin schemed to annex the Crimean peninsula, he didn’t launch an “invasion.” Instead, Russia relied on techniques including phony media reports, special forces and and proxy fighters (dubbed “little green men”), and cyberattacks.The funny thing about treaties is that nations tend to ignore them when it’s convenient. This kind of hybrid warfare gave Putin just enough plausible deniability about what was clearly happening — Russia seizing territory that belonged to another nation....

Humanity is changing the near-space environment around Earth, NASA scientists have discovered, and we’re not talking about all the space junk orbiting our planet. A type of radio communication known as Very Low Frequencies (VLF) have been found to interact with particles in space, affecting where and how they move.Occasionally, these interactions create a barrier around Earth against natural high energy particle radiation in space. “A number of experiments and observations have figured out that, under the right conditions, radio communications signals in the VLF frequency range can in fact affect the properties of the high-energy radiation environment around the Earth,” says Phil Erickson, assistant director at the MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, Massachusetts....

Among the ranks of planets, stars, asteroids, and other celestial bodies, astronomers might soon add the term “synestia.” The object is defined in a new paper as a huge, spinning, donut-shaped mass of molten rock, formed when two planet-sized bodies smash into each other. The word “synestia,” if accepted by the astronomy community, would provide a label for these objects that are believed to exist throughout the universe, though one has never been observed directly....

SpaceX is known for thinking big, and its Big Falcon Rocket might be the biggest of its most-audacious plans. But with the rocket primed for interplanetary missions still in development, SpaceX will test out its BFR technology with the help of one of its stalwart vessels: the Falcon 9. CEO Elon Musk announced on Wednesday the company will build a “mini-BFR Ship” using its trusted Falcon 9, in an effort to asses the viability of the actual BFR....