Razib Khan

Gene Expression

Open Thread - January 15th, 2011

popart astronaut

For healthy and happy space travelers, food scientists must make meals compact, nutritious and long-lasting.

How Do Scientists Build the Best Diet for Astronauts?

Rio de Janeiro, December 8, 2009. Singer Taylor Swift during her show at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - shutterstock 758842915

The beginning of April always generates a slew of research papers from scientists who should know better. Here is this year's round up.

The Science of Taylor Swift and Other Improbable Stories 

The Ingenuity helicopter is now being lowered — very carefully! — to the Martian surface beneath the belly of the Perseverance rover. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/Ken Kremer)

The Ingenuity helicopter is being lowered — very carefully! — to the Martian surface beneath the belly of the Perseverance rover. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/Ken Kremer)

Even if the Ingenuity helicopter fails, it is already a success — an engineering resource for a grand future of flight on other worlds. 

The Inside Story Behind the Historic First Flight on Mars

pi day cast iron skillet - shutterstock

March 14 is Pi Day — and it's much more than an excuse to eat pie. Here's the significance of the number 3.14 and how it originated.

Pi Day: The History of the Math-Centric Holiday and the Special Number It Celebrates

This annotated image shows how engineers used binary code to hide the message "Dare mighty things" — as well as JPL's GPS coordinates — in the Perseverance rover's parachute (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Perseverance rover parachute

Engineers hid the phrase “Dare Mighty Things'' on the parachute of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover. It isn’t the first time they’ve snuck a fun surprise or a sentimental object onto a spacecraft, either. 

NASA Keeps Hiding ‘Easter Eggs’ On Mars-bound Spacecraft

A statue of Galileo Galilei in Florence. (Credit: CIlia Baksheev/Shutterstock)

scientist -  Galileo Galilei - shutterstock

Contenders for the title stretch back through the Enlightenment and the Renaissance to Ancient Greece.

Open Thread - January 15th, 2011

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