More from Rahul Rao

A cockscomb pearl mussel.
Animals

The secret to better folding phones might hinge on mussels

By Rahul Rao

Tesla coil experiment to demonstrate how electricity works.
Energy

How does electricity work? Let’s demystify the life-changing physics.

By Rahul Rao

Agent Smith clones from The Matrix to show the concept of singularity in AI and AGI
AI

What happens if AI grows smarter than humans? The answer worries scientists.

By Rahul Rao

Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source.
Physics

Physicists take first-ever X-rays of single atoms

By Rahul Rao

Danish painters used beer to create masterpieces, but not the way you think
Biology

Danish painters used beer to create masterpieces, but not the way you think

By Rahul Rao

A supermassive black hole with a mass many times that of our sun.
Black Holes

A gassy black hole might have burped out the largest cosmic explosion ever

By Rahul Rao

A swirl of dust from the Sahara desert is carried on winds above the Mediterranean.
Conservation

The epic journey of dust in the wind often ends with happy plankton

By Rahul Rao

Ancient Maya idol in Copán, Guatemala
Archaeology

Ancient Maya masons had a smart way to make plaster stronger

By Rahul Rao

Satellite image of the powerful eruption.
Engineering

How the Tonga eruption rang Earth ‘like a bell’

By Rahul Rao

Google Sycamore processor for quantum computer hanging from a server room with gold and blue wires
Black Holes

Quantum computers can’t teleport things—yet

By Rahul Rao

Pincushion cactus with pink flowers on a sunny windowsill
Biology

Dying plants are ‘screaming’ at you

By Rahul Rao

Superconductor cuprate rings lit up in blue and green on a black grid
Energy

Room-temperature superconductors could zap us into the future

By Rahul Rao

Venus volcano in NASA Magellan spacecraft radar image
NASA

Venus could still be spewing lava, and scientists are hellbent on proving it

By Rahul Rao

Hera asteroid space probe radio antenna in ESA lab
Deep Space

DART left an asteroid crime scene. This mission is on deck to investigate it.

By Rahul Rao

The skeleton of a possible Yamnaya horse rider.
Animals

People may have been riding horses as early as 5,000 years ago

By Rahul Rao

Surrealist digital painting inspired by Dali of flying clocks and chess pieces upside down over sand and the Earth. The motifs symbolize the leap second.
Physics

We might soon lose a full second of our lives

By Rahul Rao

An illustration of a circuit in the form of a human brain.
Engineering

Engineers finally peeked inside a deep neural network

By Rahul Rao

Moondust could chill out our overheated Earth, some scientists predict
Climate Change

Moondust could chill out our overheated Earth, some scientists predict

By Rahul Rao

Marcoule Nuclear Power Plant in France. Workers in protective gear heating glowing nuclear reactor.
Energy

Why shooting cosmic rays at nuclear reactors is actually a good idea

By Rahul Rao

Earth’s natural air-scrubbing system works better when it’s wetter
Environment

Earth’s natural air-scrubbing system works better when it’s wetter

By Rahul Rao

Nuclear shelter basement sign on brick building to represent survival tips for a nuclear blast
DIY

The best—and worst—places to shelter after a nuclear blast

By Rahul Rao

Cosmic dust on display in Messier 98 galaxy.
Deep Space

Physicists figured out a recipe to make titanium stardust on Earth

By Rahul Rao

Geologists collecting Permian fossils on a Tibetan plateau
Biology

UV radiation might be behind the planet’s biggest mass extinction

By Rahul Rao

ISS astronauts are building objects that couldn’t exist on Earth
International Space Station

ISS astronauts are building objects that couldn’t exist on Earth

By Rahul Rao

Gold clock with blue arms for minutes and seconds
Physics

Time doesn’t have to be exact—here’s why

By Rahul Rao

Target fusion chamber of the National Ignition Facility
Energy

What the Energy Department’s laser breakthrough means for nuclear fusion

By Rahul Rao

Woolly mammoths in forests in Greenland after eDNA reconstruction. The scene is an illustration.
Biology

Oldest DNA ever sampled paints a lush portrait of a lost Arctic world

By Rahul Rao

Japanese woman holding gold Sharp calculator with transistor
Physics

The small, mighty, world-changing transistor turns 75

By Rahul Rao

The most awesome aerospace innovations of 2022
Army

The most awesome aerospace innovations of 2022

By Rahul Rao, Rob Verger

Black hole shooting beam of energy out speed of light and being caught by a space telescope in an illustration. There's an inset showing blue and purple electromagnetic waves,
Deep Space

Astronomers now know how supermassive black holes blast us with energy

By Rahul Rao

Winchcombe meteorite fragment in a purple-gloved hand for chemical analysis
Mars

Two meteorite mysteries are helping astronomers investigate the origins of life

By Rahul Rao

A hohlraum at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Particle Physics

Magnets might be the future of nuclear fusion

By Rahul Rao

The center of Messier 77's spiral galaxy.
Particle Physics

This far-off galaxy is probably shooting us with oodles of ghostly particles

By Rahul Rao

Gamma-ray burst from exploding galaxy in NASA Hubble telescope rendition
Black Holes

To set the record straight: Nothing can break the speed of light

By Rahul Rao

Volcano belching lava and gas above ocean to represent Great Oxygenation Event
Biology

Geologists are searching for when the Earth took its first breath

By Rahul Rao

Silkworms like the one seen here spin cocoons of silk.
Animals

How researchers leveled up worm silk to be tougher than a spider’s

By Rahul Rao

Large Hadron Collider experiment view with CERN staff in a hard hat standing near during the Europe gas crisis
Energy

Europe’s energy crisis could shut down the Large Hadron Collider

By Rahul Rao

Canada's CHIME telescope.
Deep Space

Two bizarre stars might have beamed a unique radio signal to Earth

By Rahul Rao

Groundwater pumps like this one deliver water from below to farms in Bangladesh.
Agriculture

Farmers accidentally created a flood-resistant ‘machine’ across Bangladesh

By Rahul Rao

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket a mobile launcher on September 4 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Moons

What’s next for NASA’s Artemis 1 launch

By Rahul Rao

A bucket of crabs, who have a multi-purpose material called chitosan in their shells.
Animals

Sustainable batteries could one day be made from crab shells

By Rahul Rao

MAGIS-100 vacuum for a Fermilab quantum physics experiment
Particle Physics

Atoms are famously camera-shy. This dazzling custom rig can catch them.

By Rahul Rao

A chemist can sense this scientific data with their fingers.
Science

Blind scientists adapted a centuries-old art to make data that can be touched and seen

By Rahul Rao

NIST computer room with small glass vacuum chamber
Physics

It’s pretty hard to measure nothing, but these engineers are getting close

By Rahul Rao

Spherical fusion energy reactor in gold, copper, and silver seen from above
Energy

Nuclear power’s biggest problem could have a small solution

By Rahul Rao

The Artemis SLS rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in early 2022.
Moons

Counting down to the Artemis 1 launch, NASA’s biggest moon mission in decades

By Rahul Rao

Diving mannequins enter a pool so researchers can measure what forces affect them.
Health

What engineers learned about diving injuries by throwing dummies into a pool

By Rahul Rao

In the ceramic box atop a solar tower, a chemical reaction takes place that makes jet fuel.
Aviation

This solar tower makes jet fuel from sunbeams, water, and gas

By Rahul Rao

This robot is learning about its body to adapt to new tasks.
Robots

A self-aware robot taught itself how to use its body

By Rahul Rao

LHC consumes as much energy as a city. Can particle accelerators be greener?
Environment

The green revolution is coming for power-hungry particle accelerators

By Rahul Rao

Stacks of white calcite on a black background in a mineral catalog
Physics

Earth has more than 10,000 kinds of minerals. This massive new catalog describes them all.

By Rahul Rao

Photodetectors in a circular array in a large neutrino detector experiment at Fermilab
Particle Physics

This ghostly particle may be why dark matter keeps eluding us

By Rahul Rao

An artist's conception of the CAPSTONE satellite.
Deep Space

This tiny, trailblazing satellite is taking on a big moon mission

By Rahul Rao

The colorful Bo Kaap neighborhood in Cape Town.
Environment

People enjoy colorful cities—even in virtual reality

By Rahul Rao

Lithium batteries in a pile.
Energy

This lithium-ion battery kept going (and going and going) in the extreme cold

By Rahul Rao

Sierra Negra volcano erupting in the Galapagos Islands in 2018
Physics

Volcanic eruptions are unpredictable, but these geologists cracked the code

By Rahul Rao

The cryomodule being delivered to SLAC's X-ray facility.
Physics

How to make an X-ray laser that’s colder than space

By Rahul Rao

An aerial view of meandering frozen channels of the Copper River in Alaska.
Environment

Some rivers suddenly change course, and we may finally know why

By Rahul Rao

Undersea fiber optic cables can be used to sense earthquakes.
Environment

Deep-sea internet cables could help sense distant earthquake rumbles

By Rahul Rao

The Large Hadron Collider's magnet chain.
Particle Physics

The souped-up Large Hadron Collider is back to take on its weightiest questions yet

By Rahul Rao

The University of Cambridge chef robot.
Robots

This robot chef can taste salt with its arm

By Rahul Rao

This one-way superconductor could be a step toward eternal electricity
Physics

This one-way superconductor could be a step toward eternal electricity

By Rahul Rao

NASA SLS rocket against sunset at Kennedy Space Center launch pad before Artemis I mission
Moons

NASA’s new moon rocket is leaking fuel, but that’s not a setback

By Rahul Rao

Airborne particles are responsible for features like smog.
Climate Change

Why chemists are watching light destroy tiny airborne particles from within

By Rahul Rao