Notebook
- Tech
50 years ago, NASA whipped up astronaut waste into rocket fuel
In 1967, scientists found a way to turn human waste into rocket fuel.
- Tech
Meet the Bobcat Nanowagon, the world’s smallest monster truck
Chemists are scratching their heads over the wreckage of minuscule monster trucks.
- Paleontology
This ancient sea worm sported a crowd of ‘claws’ around its mouth
A newly discovered species of arrow worm that lived over half a billion years ago had about twice as many head spines as its modern kin.
- Astronomy
These chip-sized spacecraft are the smallest space probes yet
Space initiative dubbed Breakthrough Starshot sent the smallest spacecraft yet into orbit around Earth.
- Materials Science
50 years ago, steel got stronger and stretchier
Today, scientists are still trying to improve steel.
- Animals
Fossil find suggests this ancient reptile lurked on land, not in the water
An exquisitely preserved fossil shows that an ancient armored reptile called Eusaurosphargis dalsassoi wasn’t aquatic, as scientists had suspected.
- Animals
These record-breaking tube worms can survive for centuries
Deep-sea tube worms can live decades longer than their shallow-water counterparts.
- Animals
How spiders mastered spin control
Scientists reveal a new twist on the unusual properties of spider silk.
- Science & Society
To combat cholera in Yemen, one scientist goes back to basics
As the cholera epidemic rages on in war-torn Yemen, basic hygiene is the first line of defense.
- Planetary Science
What Curiosity has yet to tell us about Mars
Curiosity has revealed a lot about Mars in the last five years. But NASA’s rover still has work to do on the Red Planet.
- Health & Medicine
One in three U.S. adults takes opioids, and many misuse them
More than a third of U.S. adults used prescription opioids in 2015, and nearly 13 percent of that group misused the painkillers in some way.
- Genetics
50 years ago, diabetic mice offered hope for understanding human disease
Mice described in 1967 are still helping researchers understand diabetes.
