Experiments with paper airplanes reveal surprisingly complex aerodynamics
Enlarge / Experiments with paper airplanes revealed new aerodynamic effects that enhance our current understanding of flight stability.RUNSTUDIO/Getty Images There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that fell…
Tale from the crypt: Researchers conduct “virtual autopsy” of mummified toddler
Enlarge / A CT scan of the infant mummy's head, showing deformation of the skull bones.A.G. Nerlich et al., 2022 There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that…
Is that shrunken head really human? Combining imaging methods yields clues
Enlarge / 3D rendered image of the micro-CT scan of a tsantsa, or shrunken head.Andrew Nelson, CC-BY 4.0 There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that fell through…
Some day soon we might be making popcorn with infrared poppers
Enlarge / In the future, our kitchen gadgets might include an infrared popcorn popper. There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that fell through the cracks in 2022,…
Let it snow: Scientists make metallic snowflakes out of nanoparticles
Enlarge / SEM image of a nanoscale snowflake self-assembled from zinc dissolved in a liquid gallium solvent.Waipapa Taumata Rau/University of Auckland There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story…
J. Robert Oppenheimer cleared of “black mark” against his name after...
Enlarge / A young J. Robert Oppenheimer in April 1945. He led the Manhattan Project during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb.Getty Images There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of…
Written in the bones: Medieval skeletons tell story of social inequality...
Enlarge / The remains of an individual buried in an Augustinian friary, excavated in 2016 on the University of Cambridge's New Museums site. There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one…
Virtual 3D models of ammonite fossils show their muscles for first...
Lesley Cherns et al. Researchers created a highly detailed 3D model of a 365-million-year-old ammonite fossil from the Jurassic period by combining advanced imaging techniques, revealing internal muscles that have never been previously observed, according to a paper published last month in the journal Geology. Another paper published last month in the journal Papers in…
Noblewoman’s tomb reveals new secrets of ancient Rome’s highly durable concrete
Enlarge / The Tomb of Caecilia Metella is a mausoleum located just outside Rome at the three mile marker of the Via Appia. Among the many popular tourist sites in Rome is an impressive 2000-year-old mausoleum along the Via Appia known as the Tomb of Caecilia Metella, a noblewoman who lived in the first century…
Physicists captured, quantified the sound of champagne’s effervescence
Enlarge / The physics behind champagne's bubbly delights is surprisingly complex—including the source of its distinctive crackling sound.Jon Bucklel/EMPICS/PA/Getty Images There's rarely time to write about every cool science-y story that comes our way. So this year, we're once again running a special Twelve Days of Christmas series of posts, highlighting one science story that…
