How Hummingbirds Stay Still in Midair
Hummingbirds are the only vertebrates capable of sustained hovering. Powered wing strokes on both the downbeat and upbeat help explain their unusual control in the air.
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Why GPS Needs Einstein’s Relativity to Find You
GPS satellite clocks are pushed in opposite directions by speed and gravity. Their net 38-microsecond daily difference has to be accounted for to keep positioning accurate.
How Can Archaeologists Tell an Ancient Iron Furnace Was Reused?
Grouped furnace remains, slag, and ore chemistry led researchers to cautiously infer that some ancient bloomery shafts were used more than once.
Why Do We See the Sun 8 Minutes in the Past?
Sunlight takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to cross the roughly 93 million miles between the Sun and Earth.
How Can an Algorithm Shrink a Photonic Circuit?
Inverse design starts with the desired behavior of light and searches backward for a structure that can produce it. In one study, a mode sorter used about one five-hundredth the footprint of representative conventional designs.
How the Pony Express Became a Legend in Just 18 Months
The Pony Express crossed more than 1,800 miles in about ten days, yet the service lasted only from April 1860 to October 1861.
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