A destructive storm in 2020 prematurely shut down Iowa’s only nuclear plant. With Google’s plans to reopen it to power nearby data centers, will extreme weather threaten the reactor’s safety? By Anika Jane Beamer When a derecho slammed into the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in 2020, Diana Lokenvitz had timeContinue Reading
Ancient anaconda fossils show that the snakes became giants soon after emerging in Miocene South America. Their size has stayed stable for over 12 million years, even though other huge reptiles went extinct. Surprisingly, warmer periods didn’t make anacondas bigger—just more widespread. Today they remain large thanks to surviving patchesContinue Reading
Countries are still debating whether to mine the seafloor for minerals, but exploratory efforts have already begun. By Kiley Price As demand for critical minerals surges around the world, countries are debating whether to mine the untapped deep-sea reserves of cobalt, copper and manganese, miles below the surface. But aContinue Reading
Student teams competed in the 2025 Invention Challenge at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Dec. 5. The event pits middle and high school teams against each other as they try to get handmade devices to accomplish a task. NASA/JPL-Caltech The 2025 Invention Challenge at JPL called on teams to buildContinue Reading
The MIT Living Climate Futures Lab (LCFL) centers the human dimensions of climate change, bringing together expertise from across MIT to address one of the world’s biggest challenges. The LCFL has three main goals: “addressing how climate change plays out in everyday life, focusing on community-oriented partnerships, and encouraging cross-disciplinaryContinue Reading
Millions of Americans may still believe warming exists, but far fewer view it as an imminent existential threat.Continue Reading
Scientists have captured a never-before-seen, high-resolution look at influenza’s stealthy invasion of human cells, revealing that the cells aren’t just helpless victims. Using a groundbreaking imaging technique, researchers discovered that our cells actually reach out and “grab” the virus as it searches for the perfect entry point, surfing along theContinue Reading
Explore This Section Home Framework for Heliophysics Education About Helio Big Idea 1.1 Helio Big Idea 1.2 Helio Big Idea 1.3 Helio Big Idea 2.1 Helio Big Idea 2.2 Helio Big Idea 2.3 Helio Big Idea 3.1 Helio Big Idea 3.2 Helio Big Idea 3.3 Helio Missions Helio Topics ResourceContinue Reading
Kent Ross Program Manager, DEVELOP National Program, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center I’m originally from Tennessee. I have a B.S. in physics, an M.S. in civil engineering (focused on geomatics), and a Ph.D. in agronomy (focused on applications of remote sensing). My remote sensing focus in graduate school wasContinue Reading
A spray-on coating to keep power lines standing through an ice storm may not be the obvious fix for winter outages — but it’s exactly the kind of innovation that happens when MIT students tackle a sustainability challenge. “The big threat to the power line network is winter icing thatContinue Reading
With The Traitor’s budget knife still poised over NOAA’s climate research operations, international researchers see a reduced role for the nation that pioneered CO2 measurement. By Marianne Lavelle This fall, when the World Meteorological Organization confirmed the grim news—a record 3.5 parts per million annual increase in the global concentrationContinue Reading
3 min read NASA Wins Second Emmy Award for 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Broadcast NASA’s broadcast of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse has won an Emmy Award for Excellence in Production Technology. At the 76th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards on Dec. 4, in New York City, theContinue Reading
The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft is pictured docked to the Prichal module. Below, the Pacific Ocean fades from view as an orbital sunset descends 258 miles beneath the orbiting complex. NASA Expedition 73 will swap commanders this weekend before three crew members return to Earth on Monday. Expedition 74 officially beginsContinue Reading