science

Topics and developments in science and medicine, presented by Futurism.

VOICES ACROSS THE VOID: ARTEMIS II AND THE ISS COMPLETE THE FARTHEST RADIO CALL IN HUMAN HISTORY
When you are floating hundreds of thousands of miles away from everything you have ever known, what do you talk about when you finally get to call your friends back home? If you are the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission, you talk about the staggering beauty of the universe, the tight quarters of your spaceship, and spicy green beans. On April 7, humanity witnessed a quiet but monumental milestone in space exploration. For the first time in history, two entirely separate crews of astronauts, traveling in two completely different spacecraft, connected for a live ship-to-ship audio broadcast. On one end of the line was the International Space Station (ISS), cruising in low-Earth orbit. On the other end was the Orion capsule, carrying the four Artemis II astronauts on their record-breaking loop around the Moon. To truly understand the weight of this conversation, you have to look at the sheer, terrifying math of the distance between them. When the call connected, the Artemis II crew was roughly 232,141 miles away from the ISS. To put that into perspective, if you were to sail a cargo ship from Boston all the way down to the Panama Canal, you would have to make that entire grueling journey 92 times just to equal the physical gap between these two spacecraft. Yet, across that massive expanse of blackness, the voices came through crystal clear. "It's fun to be up in space with you at the same time," radioed Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian Space Agency astronaut who waited seventeen years for his first spaceflight. Down in Earth orbit, NASA astronaut and ISS Expedition 74 crew member Jessica Meir answered back. "We know how fortunate all of us are as humans, to come up here and look down at the Earth from above," Meir said. "We really wanted to hear what that felt like—how different that felt—now from your new perspective around the Moon." What followed was a deeply human exchange that stripped away the sterile, highly technical jargon of typical mission control broadcasts. Artemis II Mission Specialist Christina Koch, who previously spent nearly a year living on the ISS, took the microphone to express a profound sense of homesickness—not just for Earth, but for the space station itself. "The views there at the ISS are awesome. Being able to see specific places, being able to see your home... I miss them every day, almost," Koch admitted to her former colleagues. But she noted that flying to the Moon had fundamentally shifted her perspective. "The thing that changed for me, looking back at Earth, was that I found myself noticing not only the beauty of the Earth, but how much blackness there was around it—and how it just made it even more special." Koch's words summarized the core philosophy of the Artemis generation. "It truly emphasized how alike we are," she continued. "How the same thing keeps every single person on planet Earth alive. We evolved on the same planet. We have some shared things about how we love and live that are just universal." Despite the philosophical weight of the moment, astronauts are still human, and the conversation quickly evolved into the kind of banter you would expect from close colleagues. Victor Glover offered a very practical reality check about life inside the Orion capsule compared to the sprawling, multi-module layout of the ISS. Out near the Moon, there are no extra rooms to hide in. "Everything we do, essentially, starts with a spatial conflict, and we have to take the time to work it out in every activity," Glover explained. Meanwhile, Jeremy Hansen confessed that he was having an incredible time as the rookie of the crew, even revealing that he had grown a mustache on a dare from Meir before launching. He also admitted to being the worst offender on the ship for leaving the drinking water dispenser open too long. Commander Reid Wiseman then shared a hilarious story about their outbound journey. During the translunar injection burn, the Orion capsule had to dip incredibly close to Earth—less than half the altitude of the ISS—before slingshotting outward. As the Earth rapidly expanded in the capsule's windows, Hansen, experiencing orbital mechanics for the first time, nervously joked, "I'm not sure. I think we're going to run right into it." As the historic call drew to a close, the two crews engaged in a time-honored human tradition: comparing their lunch menus. The Artemis II crew was dining on sweet and sour chicken, butternut squash, and Kona coffee. The ISS crew was enjoying mango salad. But both crews happily reported they were eating spicy green beans—a favorite in microgravity, where hot sauce and spices are heavily relied upon to overcome the dulling of taste buds. Before signing off, Meir revealed one final joke. When Artemis II hit its absolute furthest distance from Earth (over 252,000 miles), breaking the Apollo 13 record, the ISS crew literally ran to the far wall of the space station. They wanted to officially claim the title of being the furthest possible humans away from the Artemis capsule at that exact second. Commander Wiseman laughed, noting that the Artemis crew had jokingly tried to do the exact same thing inside their tiny cabin, pressing themselves against the far walls before getting back to work. It was a brilliant, lighthearted end to a deeply historic moment. Two outposts of humanity, separated by a quarter of a million miles, sharing a laugh in the dark.
By Wellova 6 months ago in Futurism
Insurmountable Ignorance
For Socrates, to whom this phrase is attributed, wisdom stems precisely from the recognition of ignorance. It is, at least for me, a good starting point if you wish to grow in knowledge. Although science always validates its theories against reality empirically, this phrase is in its DNA, for it is the engine that allows it to keep moving forward. There are many examples, but the truth is that this ignorance, though temporary, is what allows us to discover new realities.
By Unicornio Libre6 months ago in Futurism
Why snakes that live in trees continue to develop longer tails
The genetic alterations that enabled tree-dwelling snakes to develop longer tails across several lineages have been discovered by scientists. The discovery demonstrates how snake bodies were continually altered by comparable DNA changes in response to tree life.
By Francis Dami6 months ago in Futurism
A LIFEBOAT HANGING IN THE UNIVERSE": THE ARTEMIS II CREW DELIVERS AN EMOTIONAL RETURN TO HOUSTON
The hangar at Ellington Field was absolutely deafening. After spending ten days surrounded by the kind of profound, crushing silence that only exists in the deep vacuum of space, the noise inside that Houston facility on Saturday must have felt like a physical blow. Hundreds of people—engineers, flight directors, retired astronauts, and military brass—were on their feet, screaming themselves hoarse. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman grabbed the microphone, looking out at the roaring crowd, and gave the introduction everyone had been waiting over half a century to hear: "Ladies and gentlemen, your Artemis II crew." Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen walked out onto the stage. They had just flown in from San Diego after a flawless ocean splashdown the night before. They had spent a few rushed, private minutes hugging their spouses and kids away from the cameras. Now, they were standing in front of the world. If you expected a group of chest-thumping conquerors, you were looking at the wrong crew. The people standing on that stage looked completely overwhelmed. They had just traveled 252,756 miles from home, pushing past the legendary distance record set by the crippled Apollo 13 mission. They saw things no human eyes had processed since 1972. And the weight of that isolation was written all over their faces. Commander Reid Wiseman grabbed the mic first, his voice thick with emotion. He stripped away all the glossy PR language that usually surrounds these missions and just told the raw truth. "This was not easy," Wiseman told the silent hangar. "Before you launch, it feels like it’s the greatest dream on Earth. And when you’re out there, you just want to get back to your families and your friends." He paused, looking out at the crowd of blue flight suits. "It’s a special thing to be a human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth." Pilot Victor Glover was even more blunt about the mental toll of the journey. When asked to summarize the flight, Glover shook his head. "I have not processed what we just did, and I’m afraid to start even trying." You can't really blame him. During their flyby, the crew managed to capture an image that is already burning itself into the history books. We all know the famous "Earthrise" photo from Apollo 8 in 1968. But this crew captured an Earthset. They watched our bright blue marble physically sink and disappear behind the dead, heavily pockmarked gray horizon of the Moon's far side. Christina Koch tried to explain what that specific moment felt like. Because when you are 250,000 miles away. The math doesn't matter anymore. Only the terrifying scale of the void does. "Honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth, it was all the blackness around it," Koch said, her voice echoing in the massive room. "Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbedly in the universe." She looked directly at the cameras. "Planet Earth, you are a crew." The timing of this entire homecoming felt almost scripted by a Hollywood writer. The crew walked into that Houston base on the exact 56th anniversary of the Apollo 13 launch. The mission that made "Houston, we've had a problem" a permanent part of our vocabulary. In a moment that brought tears to the eyes of veteran space workers in the room, it was revealed that the Artemis II crew actually received a pre-recorded wake-up message while they were out in the black. It was from Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell, recorded just before he passed away the previous summer. The ghosts of the Apollo era were literally cheering them on from the grave. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen put his arm around his crewmates, pulling them into a tight line on the stage. He told the audience that surviving the trip required an immense amount of love, and making a conscious choice to extract joy from a highly stressful environment. Because yes, they had the breathtaking views and the solar eclipse. But they also had to survive a highly publicized, deeply frustrating space toilet malfunction that NASA is now scrambling to redesign before the next launch. "When you look up here, you’re not looking at us," Hansen said, staring into the crowd. "We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you." So, the test is over. The hardware worked. The lifeboat kept them alive. Now, the pressure shifts completely to the next phase. NASA is already deep into preparations for Artemis III next year, which will force a new crew to practice docking with a lunar lander in Earth orbit. And all of that leads directly to Artemis IV in 2028, where two humans will finally attempt a terrifying, high-stakes touchdown near the shadowed craters of the lunar south pole. Wiseman refused to call the mission fully complete until he had hugged his two daughters. But before he walked off that stage on Saturday, the Commander turned his attention to the rows of active NASA astronauts sitting in the audience. The men and women who are next in line. He pointed a finger directly at the sea of blue flight suits. "It is time to go and be ready," Wiseman yelled, his voice suddenly sharp and commanding. "Because it takes courage. It takes determination. And you all are freaking going, and we are going to be standing there supporting you every single step of the way in every possible way possible." The silence is broken. The lifeboat is home. Now, we go back to the surface.
By Wellova 6 months ago in Futurism
In the galaxy NGC 4486B, astronomers find evidence of an uncommon cosmic event.
The supermassive black hole in the Virgo Cluster's tiny elliptical galaxy NGC 4486B has been found to be significantly off-center. That observation is in line with what scientists anticipate following the merger of two supermassive black holes. This normally peaceful galaxy is reframed by that displacement as clear proof of the immediate aftermath of a black hole collision.
By Francis Dami6 months ago in Futurism
Seven new species of leafhoppers have been discovered in Africa.
Seven insects from Uganda's rainforest that resemble frogs have now been identified as novel species. The discovery puts a stop to this group's decades-long silence in African records, and one new name pays homage to the scientific record.
By Francis Dami6 months ago in Futurism
The International Aviation and Space Exploration's Day
What is the most important science? A silly question. Every science is an inseparable part of knowledge, and in different situations each one can turn out to be “the most important.”
By Bozhan Bozhkov6 months ago in Futurism
After learning that DNA can be created from scratch via a technique known as "doodling," scientists reconsider their theories.
Long, organised segments of new genetic information can be written by DNA polymerases without the need for a template, according to research. This discovery reinterprets a well-known but ignored behaviour as a possible means of constructing DNA at lengths that conventional chemistry still finds difficult to achieve.
By Francis Dami6 months ago in Futurism
THE GRAVITY OF HOME: WHAT THE ARTEMIS II CREW FINALLY SAID AFTER TOUCHING DOWN
They walked into Ellington Field at the Johnson Space Center on Saturday, and the room absolutely lost its mind. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called it a hero's welcome. He stood up there and called their trip the greatest adventure in human history. But looking at the four faces sitting on that stage—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—you didn't really see conquerors. You saw four exhausted, visibly overwhelmed people who were just incredibly happy to be breathing normal air and standing on solid ground again. Commander Reid Wiseman barely held it together. He looked over at his three crewmates, telling the crowd that nobody else on the planet will ever truly understand what the four of them just went through in that tiny metal box. "It was the most special thing that will ever happen in my life," Wiseman said. But then he got real about the isolation. Space looks amazing in the brochures, but out there in the dark? It is terrifyingly lonely. "This was not easy being 200,000-plus miles away from home," he admitted to the quiet room. You launch thinking it's the ultimate dream. And then you get out there and you just desperately want your friends and family back. Which makes total sense. He is a widower, and during the flight, the crew quietly proposed naming a lunar crater after his late wife, Carroll. Wiseman said that just listening to his crewmates laugh, cry, and talk to their families over the remote comms while crammed into a 16-foot-wide capsule was the most intense bonding experience of his life. Victor Glover is still processing the sheer scale of what they just survived. He thanked God, and then he pointed straight at his family in the crowd. He called out his wife and daughters—his "five beautiful cocoa-skinned ladies"—and thanked them for just being there. The gratitude was heavy in his voice. It was too big to fit in one body, he said. Christina Koch talked about the very first human interaction she had after splashing down in the Pacific. The nurse on the Navy recovery ship didn't ask her for an autograph or a photo. She just asked for a hug. Koch said looking back at our tiny rock surrounded by the absolute, crushing blackness of space completely shifted how she views everyone down here. "I know I haven’t learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me," Koch said. "But there’s one new thing I know, and that is planet Earth: You are a crew." Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen brought up something the crew privately called the "joy train." Which sounds a little cheesy until you realize exactly how hard it is to stay positive when you are locked in a freezing tin can, dealing with broken equipment, and completely cut off from the rest of humanity. They weren't always on that joy train, he confessed. It was hard. But they always made the active choice to get back on it. Hansen then looked out at the audience and told us that we shouldn't just look at the astronauts as unreachable heroes. "We are a mirror reflecting you," he said. "And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you." So what happens now? The Artemis II test is officially in the books. Isaacman made it incredibly clear that we are not packing up the toys and walking away like we did in the 70s. He promised the crowd that the assembly of the Artemis III vehicle is happening right now. The crew announcement is coming soon. We are building the base, and we are never giving up the Moon again. But the final word of the weekend belonged to Wiseman. He didn't look at the cameras. He looked directly at the other NASA astronauts sitting in the Houston auditorium—the men and women who will actually be taking that next ride to put boots in the lunar dust. "It is time to go and be ready," Wiseman told them. "Because it takes courage. It takes determination. And you all are freaking going."
By Wellova 7 months ago in Futurism
Artemis II Is Home — Four Astronauts Just Splashed Down After the Most Historic Space Mission in 53 Years
It is over. After ten days of staring at the sky and waiting for the unknown, the clouds off the coast of San Diego finally opened up and gave them back to us. At exactly 8:07 p.m. on Friday night, a scorched metal cone violently slammed into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Mission control called it a perfect, dead-center bullseye.
By Wellova 7 months ago in Futurism
The iPhone 11 Pro Max Is Now Shockingly Cheap — But Should You Still Buy It?. AI-Generated.
When a Flagship Becomes Budget: The Strange Case of the iPhone 11 Pro Max There was a time when owning the iPhone 11 Pro Max meant you had one of the most powerful phones you could buy.
By Muhammad Abbas khan7 months ago in Futurism
NASA records a young star performing an unprecedented action.
The first X-ray image of a bubble surrounding HD 61005, a young Sun-like star, has been obtained by researchers, displaying heated gas that extends well beyond the star. With that revelation, a far-off system becomes a direct window into the type of shield that originally encircled the early Sun.
By Francis Dami7 months ago in Futurism