Planets
Listen to the crackle of ‘mini-lightning’ on Mars
Scientists suspected Mars had these zaps but had never detected them — until now. NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded them generated by dusty gusts.
By Nikk Ogasa
Energy
More Stories in Energy
- Science & Society
Linking science to dance, culture and more expands who can take part
Through movement, sound, culture and community, some researchers are expanding the ways we learn, think about and communicate science and engineering.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Blue whirl
Four types of smaller flames create the perfect firestorm of elegantly efficient combustion.
- Earth
Thunderstorms churn up a ‘boiling pot’ of high-energy gamma rays
A thunderstorm seen in gamma ray vision plays out as a complex, frenzied lightshow above the clouds.
- Animals
Weird? These bat toes can glow greenish-blue
Hairy bristles on the toes of Mexican free-tailed bats fluoresce under UV light. The reason is a mystery.
- Earth
As Yellowstone’s supervolcano slumbers, another big danger lurks
Superheated water beneath Yellowstone could fuel hydrothermal explosions with the force of an atomic bomb. And lessons from the past suggest they could happen today.
- Materials Science
Scientists Say: Semiconductor
Modern electronics, from cell phones to video games, work thanks to these conductor-insulator hybrids.
- Tech
Artificial intelligence helped design a new type of battery
Supercomputing and AI cut the early discovery steps from decades to just 80 hours. The process led to a new solid electrolyte.
- Physics
Physics explains why poured water burbles the way it does
The loudness of falling water depends on the height of the pour and the thickness of the stream.
- Artificial Intelligence
To ‘green’ AI, scientists are making it less resource-hungry
Energy demands of ChatGPT and similar AI tools can threaten Earth’s climate. So researchers have begun redesigning how to run data centers and build AI.
