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8 articles in this collection.
A quantum computer is often described as a machine that will be faster than today’s supercomputers. That comparison is understandable, but it is also misleading. A quantum…
A meteor shower does not reward the same kind of planning as a concert or a fireworks show. The calendar can tell you when Earth is likely to pass through a denser band of comet…
A battery that spends most of its life sitting still can lose capacity surprisingly quickly. That feels backward: if charging and discharging wear a battery out, shouldn’t an…
Fission and fusion are often grouped together as “nuclear energy,” but they solve the same physical problem in almost opposite ways. Fission splits a heavy atomic nucleus. Fusion…
Seeing the International Space Station (ISS) pass overhead is one of the most approachable forms of observational astronomy. No telescope is required, no special expertise is…
The blue sky is so familiar that it can feel like a property of space itself. It is not. Above the atmosphere, daytime space looks black even when the Sun is blazing. Blue appears…
A tree stump can look like a simple record of age: count the rings, count the years. But to a dendrochronologist—a scientist who studies tree rings—it is also a time-stamped…
A compass seems to offer one of nature’s simplest promises: point it north and it will help you find your way. But the north it indicates is not the fixed geographic North Pole,…