Gravitational lenses could allow a galaxy-wide internet

As Carl Sagan once said, "The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars." And our first emissaries to the stars will be robotic probes. These interstellar probes will be largely ...

Managing mutations of a species: the evolution of dog breeding

In the first edition of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin mentions dogs 54 times. He does so mainly because the extraordinary variation between dog breeds provides a marvellous illustration of the power of selection. ...

After 90 years, a better way to measure the composition of paper

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), have developed a novel, nondestructive method to rapidly measure the wood and non-wood ...