The Science of Aliens Needs a Name—And It’s Not What You Think
Somewhere in the universe, something strange is watching—bacteria lurking under alien ice, fungi creeping through Martian dust, or maybe something much smarter, wondering if it’s alone. Humans, being the control freaks we are, want to name this pursuit: the study of...
Yellowstone’s Next Supervolcanic Tantrum Might Already Be on the Map
The Yellowstone Caldera doesn’t just sit under a national park—it broods. A geological behemoth spanning Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, it has erupted three times in the last two million years, leaving behind craters big enough to make entire cities vanish. If it ever...
This Superalloy Just Solved High-Temperature Lubrication—By Accident
Finding a lubricant that doesn’t crumble into dust at hellish temperatures is a problem engineers have wrestled with for decades. Most oils and greases burn up long before a jet engine or a nuclear reactor even gets warm. But a team at Virginia Tech just stumbled onto...