Category Archives: Technology

Astronomy, Chemistry, Electromagnetism, Engineering, Imaging, Physics, Science, Space, Technology

To Catch a Comet

March 17, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Rosetta and Philae at their destination. Image courtesy ESA.

For a spacecraft to overtake a comet, let alone touch down and ride it sunward, requires trick-shot billiards on an astronomical scale. But that’s exactly what the ESA/NASA International Rosetta Mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is doing. Launched a decade ago aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, its loop-the-loop, gravity-slingshotting journey has juiced its speed enough to overtake the comet, which can reach speeds of up to 83,885 mph (135,000 kph), and set it up to land in November 2014. Which raises the question…

How do you land a spaceship on a comet?

Astronomy, Climatology and Meteorology, Electromagnetism, Engineering, Geoscience, History, Imaging, Physics, Science, Space, Technology, Top 10

The Other Grand Tour: 10 Stunning Space Stopovers

February 27, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Cosmos is back, and Neil deGrasse Tyson is tooling around the universe in Carl Sagan’s Ship of the Imagination. But suppose someone handed you the proverbial keys? Where in space and/or time would you go?

If you don’t have a ready answer, never fear. I’ve put together an itinerary that can’t fail, whether your tastes run to science or sightseeing. Sure, we might have to break a few physical laws and grow a few extra senses along the way but, hey, it’s not called the Ship of Literal Reality, is it? So hang your fuzzy planets from the rearview and strap in for a star-spanning tour, a jaunt from the local neighborhood to the unreachably distant (and disproportionately dangerous) corners of the universe, en route to…

10 Space Landmarks We’d Like to Visit

Consumer, Electromagnetism, Gadgets, How To, Technology, Travel

Not-so-Final Destination: Landing at the Wrong Airport

January 14, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

“Uh, ladies and gentlemen, this is the flight deck. Thank you for choosing Airborne Airways, where your destination is always up in the air. If you’ll look out your window, you’ll see…well, we’re hoping you can tell us. Anything look familiar?”

Yes, it’s preposterous, embarrassing and more than a little dangerous, but flight crews touch down at the wrong airfield or runway more often than you might think. Which raises the question: If GPS navigation can direct any idiot with a car to his or her destination, how can a trained flight crew with state-of-the-art navigation screw up so badly? In other words…

How Can a Plane Land at the Wrong Airport?

Auto, Biochemistry, Computing, Consumer, Engineering, Gadgets, Genetics, Green, Health, History, Imaging, Internet, Materials, Medicine, Neuroscience, Physics, Science, Space, Technology, Top 10

The Future: At the Corner of Close and Soon

January 3, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Somehow the future we get is never quite the one we were promised. Then again, sometimes the very ideas wrapped in the pages of sci-fi and Popular Science are right under our noses, in disguise. After all, we have hand-held sensor-communicators and miraculous supermaterials – they just take the rather mundane form of carbon-fiber-wrapped smartphones.

Maybe our blindness arises from our physical and electronic architecture. Has exchanging Googie buildings for Google caused us to overlook the flying-car equivalents that fill our everyday lives, or soon will? Read on.

Our 10 Favorite Replacements for ‘Where’s My Flying Car?’

Auto, Computing, Consumer, Engineering, Gadgets, Green, Imaging, Internet, Materials, Neuroscience, Science, Space, Technology, Top 10, Weapons

Tracking 2013’s Tastiest Tech

December 3, 2013 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Looking back on the tech trends, triumphs and tribulation of 2013, a few patterns emerge: Private projects took off even while privacy took a beating; robots and AI servants made great strides while their drone cousins stalked us with cameras and weapons; reality was simultaneously augmented and scrutinized, while 3-D-printing and private-sector space races seemingly brought the whole world into the realm of DIY.

2013’s Biggest Tech Moments

Writing • Editing • Commentary