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WorldView-4's First Shot

WorldView-4’s First Shot

This image of the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo (where Japan will host the 2020 Summer Olympic games) was taken by the WorldView-4 satellite. WorldView-4 is DigitalGlobe’s latest and most advanced Earth-gazing satellite. As you can see above, it takes pretty detailed photo––despite being almost 400 miles above Earth.
Jumper Bot

Jumper Bot

Don’t judge this robot by its size. SALTO—or Saltatorial Locomotion of Terrain Obstacles—is capable of jumping up to three feet in the air. But don’t give this bot a 10 yet, either, because it can’t really stick the landing. Once researchers help it perfect that, SALTO could be used to search hard-to-reach areas.
snake scan

Snake Scan

This CT scan of a snake that died 115 years ago shows incredible detail. In fact, you can even see the outlines of its last meal. Can you guess what it was?
phone battery before exploding

Your Phone Battery, Before Explosion

Lithium ion batteries—those that power electronics like your smartphones—are exploding everywhere we turn. In a new study out this week, researchers looked into what happens to a battery when it’s overworked or overcharged. As you can see in the image above, stress causes deformation in the battery’s spiral-shaped electrode.
crack in an ice sheet

Just A Small Crack

A tiny crack in one of Antarctica’s ice sheets has now grown 70 miles long and more than 300 feet wide, and it’s causing an iceberg the size of Delaware to break off of the continent. The crack is in one of the Larsen ice sheets, which NASA has been tracking since a large piece broke off in 1995. Larsen C is expected to break away soon, which could have a major impact on the rest of the sheet.
dino

A Tale Of Feathers, Preserved In Time

This dinosaur—who died while trapped in sticky tree resin—left his tail almost perfectly preserved. The tail, which was covered in tiny, fragile feathers, was about to be sold to be made into jewelry when a paleontologist spotted it. Lida Xing took it back to his lab, where he put it under a CT scan and found that it belonged to a baby theropod about the size of a sparrow.