The Science Thinkers

Solar sails are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large mirrors. These particles of light have no mass and yet when they impinge on something, they can impart momentum and provide a tiny push. You get shoved by photons every time you step out into the sunshine but their incredibly … Read more

Reaching a major milestone, engineers have successfully connected the two halves of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for the first time at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Redondo Beach, California. Once it reaches space, NASA’s most powerful and complex space telescope will explore the cosmos using infrared light, from planets and moons within our solar system … Read more

Earth’s magnetic field has flipped many times over the last billion years, according to the geologic record. But only in the past decade have scientists developed and evolved a computer model to demonstrate how these reversals occur. Based on a set of physics equations that describe what scientists believe are the forces that create and … Read more

Like most planets in our solar system, the Earth has its own magnetic field. Thanks to its largely molten iron core, our planet is, in fact, a bit like a bar magnet. It has a north and south magnetic pole, separate from the geographic poles, with a field connecting the two. This field protects our … Read more

Geothermal energy is heat derived within the sub-surface of the earth. It is contained in the rocks and fluids beneath the earth’s crust and can be found as far down to the earth’s hot molten rock, magma. Water or steam carry the geothermal energy to the Earth’s surface. Depending on its characteristics, geothermal energy can … Read more

The Hudson Bay region of Canada has less gravity than it’s supposed to. The reasons for the shortage have puzzled scientists for decades. Gravity isn’t uniform all over the Earth’s surface. It’s a result of mass, which means the varying density of the Earth at different locations can affect how much you weigh there. Canadians … Read more

The cold war between the US and Russia ended half a century ago. But it paved the way for Space exploration for the year to come. On 12 April 1961 Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin made history by becoming the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race. Then the … Read more

Solar conjunction is the period when Earth and Mars, in their eternal march around the Sun, are obscured from each other by the fiery orb of the Sun itself. Like dancers on either side of a huge bonfire, the two planets are temporarily invisible to each other. During this period the daily communication between antennas … Read more

For too long, the public conversation around plastic has been narrowly focused on plastic waste in the ocean. While marine debris is indeed a serious part of the problem, this limited focus leaves too much of the story untold. Plastic isn’t just a problem when it enters the environment as waste. Rather, plastic pollutes at … Read more

The world’s connectivity needs are changing. Global mobile data traffic is expected to multiply by 5 before the end of 2024. Particularly in dense urban areas, the current 4G networks simply won’t be able to keep up. That’s where a new G comes into play. With 5G commercial networks being switched on, the first use … Read more

The illness goes bump in the night may not be just a patient’s imagination. Doctors have sensed for centuries that many diseases actually do get worse at night and science has begun to confirm this impression. Fevers are often worse at night. The same is often said about asthma, arthritis and the flu. And although … Read more

Supermassive black holes are thought to be at the centre of most galaxies, and they are huge. The Milky Way’s own supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, is about 4 million times the mass of our sun. But scientists have just spotted two absolute behemoths, that dwarf Sagittarius A*, and they are on a collision course. … Read more

You have probably heard that carbon dioxide is warming the Earth, but how does it work? Is it like the glass of a greenhouse or like an insulating blanket? Well, not entirely. The answer involves a bit of quantum mechanics, but don’t worry, we’ll start with a rainbow. If you look closely at sunlight separated … Read more

Triton is an exceptionally unusual, although often forgotten, moon. It has so many unique characteristics, it makes it one of the most interesting objects in the Solar System. But because it is the largest moon of Neptune, the planet furthest away from us, it also means that we have only visited it once, very briefly, … Read more

On the 21st of December 2015, SpaceX made history by landing their first Falcon 9 booster back on land. After years of development and testing, SpaceX was one step closer to dramatically reducing the cost of spaceflight. Since then, over 45 boosters have been landed with over half of them being reused. But how many … Read more