Despite its incredibly low density, aerogel is one of the most powerful materials on the planet. It can support thousands of times its own weight, block out intense heat, cold and sound – yet it is 1,000 times less dense than glass, nearly as transparent and is composed of %99.8 air. The lowest-density silica-based aerogels are even lighter than air. Despite its fragility in certain regard...

If superconductors could be designed to operate at temperatures closer to room temperature, the results would be revolutionary. However, the cost of cooling materials to such extremely low temperatures currently limits the practicality of superconductors. Superconductors are extremely important materials because they hold promise for carrying electricity from one place to another without current ...

An intensive, comprehensive, long-term secondary prevention program lasting up to three years after cardiac rehabilitation appears to reduce the risk of a second non-fatal heart attack and other cardiovascular events, according to a new article. Cardiac rehabilitation programs after a heart disease diagnosis have evolved over two decades from solely exercise-based interventions, according to backg...

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Oct. 17, 2008: About three times a second, a 10,000-year-old stellar corpse sweeps a beam of gamma-rays toward Earth. Just discovered by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the object, called a pulsar, is the first one known that “blinks” in pure gamma rays. “This ...

We are now only days away from our manuscript-delivery-deadline for the Damn Interesting book. Once that’s behind us, we can return to our regularly scheduled writing. In the meantime, here’s a re-run from 10 July 2007. Wardenclyffe TowerIn 1905, a team of construction workers in the small village of Shoreham, New York labored to erect a truly extraordinary structure. Over a period of ...

Kent Wood Young stars in NGC 7129 Young stars, only about a million years old, lie within NGC 7129, some 3,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cepheus. (Planewave CDK 12.5 telescope; SBIG STL 11000 camera; 190:110:110:110 LRGB) Ken Wood took this photo September 2008 from Ione, California. Click here to see a larger view ...

Dave Cooper Dumbbell Nebula M27 The Dumbbell Nebula, M27, is a planetary nebula located 1,240 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. (10-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at F/10, Starlight Xpress SXVFH9C CCD camera, stack of 18 five-minute exposures through a Lumicon Deep Sky Filter) Dave Cooper captured this image on October 6, 2008, from Avondale, Arizona. Click here to ...