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Wired Science
blog.wired.com/wiredscience
38
Wired.com weighs in on the latest science news, including space, biology, disease, drugs and alcohol, geology, math, neuroscience, and physics.
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2012 Venus Transit Special #3: Venus Probes for a Manned Venus Flyby Mission (1967)

Venera 4 left Baikonur Cosmodrome in the central Soviet Union early in the morning of June 12, 1967. The first two stages of its three-stage Molniya-M launch vehicle placed the 1106-kilogram automate...

1 day ago

Space Cases: The Weirdest Legal Claims in Outer Space

In January, a Quebec man named Sylvio Langvein walked into a courthouse in Canada and filed a suit declaring himself owner of the planets in our solar system, four of Jupiter’s moons, and the interpl...

1 day ago

Up Close With Enceladus’ Magnificent and Strange Plumes

<< Previous | Next >> Saturn’s moon Enceladus is a strange place. The cold, tiny moon in the far reaches of the solar system is an unlikely location for liquid water. Yet scientists have ...

2 days ago

2 New Elements Named on Periodic Table

You can now greet by name two new residents of the period table of elements: Flerovium and Livermorium. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially approved names for the element...

2 days ago

‘Schrödinger’s Hat’ Uses Invisibility to Measure Quantum World

A "Schrödingers hat" metamaterial could trap a signal (red spike at center) from an atomic particle while leaving the signals source undisturbed. Image: A. Greenleaf et al./PNAS Mathematici...

2 days ago

Time-Lapse Video: Radiant Airglow and Auroras From Space

The night can never be completely dark. Take away city lights, the moon, and the stars, and the sky itself will still produce a faint radiance. Known as airglow, the diffuse phenomenon is beautifully...

2 days ago

Video: SpaceX’s Dragon Departs From Space Station

Watch as SpaceX’s Dragon capsule undocks and departs from the International Space Station in the video above. The spacecraft — which flew as the first privately operated mission to resupp...

2 days ago

SpaceX’s Historic Rendezvous With the Space Station

<< Previous | Next >> UPDATE 8:42 a.m. PDT -- Dragon successfully splashed down in the Pacific off of the coast of Baja California. Tomorrow marks the end of SpaceXs first mission to the ...

3 days ago

Watch Live: SpaceX’s Dragon Undocks, Deorbits, and Returns to Earth

Stream videos at Ustream Don’t miss the thrilling conclusion of SpaceX’s first mission to the International Space Station. Tune in May 31 starting at 12:30 a.m. PDT to see live feed coverage of the D...

3 days ago

High-Speed Video: Coral-Killing Bacteria Caught in Action

Microscopic pathogens have been causing mass coral die-offs around the world. But now researchers are using high-speed video to spy on the behavior of killer microbes and potentially learn how to bet...

3 days ago

Carbon Found in Mars Meteorites (and why it has nothing to do with martian life)

Olympus Mons, the solar systems largest volcano, may have been a significant source of reduced carbon (NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems). When the Tissint meteorite crashed to Earth in Morocco la...

3 days ago

Chemists Outrun Laws in War on Synthetic Drugs

Discarded wrapper from a packet of Spice, a popular synthetic cannabis mixture. Photo: Matto Fredriksson/Flickr The war on drugs has a new front, and so far it appears to be a losing one. Synthetic m...

3 days ago

Earth Experiences Back-to-Back Asteroid Close Encounters

Two small asteroids buzzed by Earth, zooming well within the moon’s orbit, over the last 48 hours. Neither posed any danger, but the events were eagerly captured by amateur astronomers, and the secon...

4 days ago

Occupy the Neolithic: Social Immobility in the Stone Age

By Michael Balter, ScienceNOW Even the most democratic societies are rife with social and economic inequalities, as the current tension between the poorer “99 percent” and the richest ...

4 days ago

RoboZoo: Wired’s Menagerie of Robot Animals

<< Previous | Next >> Furby, AIBO and Pleo might be fantastic robot pets, but can they carry hundreds of pounds, outrun a human or lead a school of fish? We think not. Wired scoured the w...

4 days ago

Keep Out: NASA Asks Future Moon Visitors to Respect Its Stuff

The moon is about to become crowded. In the next few years a slew of countries, including China, India, and Japan, are looking to put unmanned probes on the lunar surface. But more unprecedented are ...

25 may 12

Video and Photos: SpaceX’s Rendezvous With the Space Station

Update: You can see a video of SpaceX’s successful berthing with the International Space Station above and several still images after the text below. Tune in May 24 at 11 p.m. PDT (7 a.m. GMT) ...

24 may 12

Exclusive Video: The Link Explores Connections Between Ancient and Modern Tech

In our forward-thinking world, we tend to think that ancient technology is, well, ancient. But all of our modern innovations rely on advancements made long ago, sometimes thousands of years in the pa...

24 may 12

The Scientific Search for the Essence of a Tasty Tomato

Image: torbakhopper/Flickr Scientists are several steps closer to restoring flavor to the supermarket tomato, a once-magnificent fruit turned by commercial pressures into a juicy orb of gustatory car...

24 may 12

The Urge to Sext Naked Self-Portraits Is Primal

Scarlett Johansson, Ron Artest, Rihanna, Anthony Wiener, Jessica Alba, and Kanye West. Over the past two years, more photographs of bare-naked celebrity anatomy have been leaked to the public eye tha...

24 may 12

Video: SpaceX’s Dragon Performs Space Station Flyby

Update: NASA has released this video, showing the Dragon spacecraft (the small black dot) during its approach to the International Space Station. Tune in at 11:30 p.m. PDT (7:30 a.m. GMT) to see a li...

24 may 12

Antibiotic Overuse May Increase Superbug Evolution Rate

Multiple drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria seen under an electron microscope. Photo: CDC By flooding our environment with antibiotics, people may alter a little-appreciated but profound a...

23 may 12

Adventures of Apollo Astronauts Now Tracked in 3-D

Researchers have used new lunar satellite images to pinpoint exactly where the Apollo 17 astronauts took their iconic photographs of the moon’s surface. That data has in turn allowed planetary ...

23 may 12

Better Fish Forensics Will Flag Illegal Catches

By Rachel Nuwer, ScienceNOW It’s no wonder that fish stocks around the world are plummeting. Up to 25 percent of the global catch comes from illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Now, science...

23 may 12

Afterlife: Making Rotten Food Beautiful

<< Previous | Next >> Most people have pulled long-forgotten vegetables from their refrigerators depths at least once, and just the memory is enough to make a stomach turn. But one mans f...

23 may 12

Everest Climbers Wear Biosensors to Help Scientists Study Disease

As a team of climbers inches toward the summit of Mount Everest, body sensors will monitor them day and night, collecting data to help researchers understand chronic illnesses like heart disease. Mem...

22 may 12

Time-Lapse Video of Incredible Annular Solar Eclipse

Did you see the eclipse yesterday? In case of poor geographic location or general Sunday laziness, here’s a time-lapse video showing the celestial event in its full glory. Created by amateur astropho...

21 may 12

Watch Live: Annular Solar Eclipse Creates Ring of Fire

An annular solar eclipse will be visible May 20 from eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and much of the North American West Coast. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth an...

20 may 12

Space Double-Feature Weekend: SpaceX Launch and Solar Eclipse

If you’re a space enthusiast, this weekend is going to be a doozy. In the wee hours of Saturday, May 19, the private spaceflight company SpaceX is planning to launch their Dragon capsule from Cape Ca...

18 may 12

Could a 21st Century USS Enterprise Really Fly?

A model of the USS Enterprise. Image: Louie Kenny/Flickr Only an imagination made of stone could fail to stir at the thought of a real-world USS Enterprise blasting away from Earth within 20 years, r...

18 may 12

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