How to make an old antibiotic 100 times more potent
Scanning electron micrographs at 10,000× magnification of vancomycin resistant E. faecium E155 cells. Left: untreated cells, middle: cells treated with bacitracin, and right: cells treated with next-generation bacitracin. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2315310121 Nathaniel Martin, Professor of biological chemistry, wondered what would happen if you took an antibiotic that […]
How to Run on the Moon
When the elevator is stopped, the two forces are equal and opposite, and the net force is zero. But if you’re accelerating upward, the net force must also be upward. This means the normal force exceeds the gravitational force (shown by the lengths of the two arrows above). So you feel heavier when the normal […]
A harmless asteroid will whiz past Earth Saturday. Here’s how to spot it
In this artistic rendering, two asteroids fly past Earth. An asteroid will whiz harmlessly past Earth Saturday June 29, 2024. With the right equipment and timing, you just might spot it. Called 2024 MK, the space rock will make its closest approach to Earth at 9:46 AM EST (13:46 GMT) passing by at about three-quarters […]
How to Take the Perfect Soccer Penalty
The penalty was invented in England on February 14, 1891. It was the last minute of an FA Cup quarter-final between Notts County and Stoke City when a defender for County stopped a shot on the line with his hand. Stoke were awarded a free kick just centimeters from the goal-line, and the goalkeeper, as […]
Researchers show how to use ‘topological tweezers’ to control active fluids
Additive framework for spatiotemporal control of active defects. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2400933121 University of Michigan physicists have devised a way to manipulate active fluids, a type of fluid composed of individual units that can propel themselves independently, by taking advantage of topological defects in the fluids. The researchers […]
How to catch a glimpse of a new star about to appear in the night sky
Illustration of T Coronae Borealis where material from a red giant star pours onto a white dwarf, setting the stage for a humongous stellar explosion. Credit: NASA/Conceptual Image Lab/Goddard Space Flight Center If you peer up at the constellation Corona Borealis—the Northern Crown—over the next several months, you may catch a glimpse: Astronomers predict that […]
Physicists have worked out how to melt any material
Predicting when solids will melt is more difficult than you might think r.classen/Shutterstock Physicists may finally have an answer for a seemingly simple question that has remained unanswered for about a century: when does a substance melt? Kostya Trachenko at Queen Mary University of London found it mysterious that “in this age of scientific and […]
How to wrap your head around the most mind-bending theories of reality
ARE there vastly many near-duplicates of you reading vastly many near-duplicates of this article in vastly many parallel universes? Is consciousness a fundamental property of all matter? Could reality be a computer simulation? Reader, I can hear your groans from here in California. We are inclined to reject ideas like these on the grounds that […]
Study shows how to increase success rate of restoration initiatives in the Cerrado
Plots were sown with between zero and eight native grass species. The study was conducted in a former area of pasture taken over by the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park (Goiás state, Brazil). Its purpose was to analyze the role of biodiversity in resistance to reinvasion of plant communities by exotic species. Credit: Guilherme Mazzochini […]
How to reconstruct mating behavior of long-extinct termites
This close-up picture of the fossilized termites shows the parallel positioning of the two individuals encased in the amber. The larger female (left) is still touching the smaller male (right). Credit: Aleš Buček (OIST/The Czech Academy of Sciences) Approximately 38 million years ago two termites were in the middle of courtship behavior when they got […]