Why Hurricane Michael's Storm Surge Is So High
After gathering strength from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico overnight, Hurricane Michael blasted across the Florida Panhandle Wednesday afternoon, pummeling the area with winds up to 155 miles per hour. That makes the Category 4 hurricane one of the all-time strongest landfalls in US history. Earlier today, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center warned…
SpaceX Is Sending Its First Crew-Ready Capsule to the ISS
On Saturday, SpaceX is taking its most ambitious step yet toward launching people into space. It’s not sending anyone with a pulse just yet, but this upcoming launch is still a high-consequence event. In the wee hours of the morning on March 2, SpaceX’s shiny new astronaut taxi—dubbed Crew Dragon—will take to the skies, bound…
Genome Hackers Show No One’s DNA Is Anonymous Anymore
In 2013, a young computational biologist named Yaniv Erlich shocked the research world by showing it was possible to unmask the identities of people listed in anonymous genetic databases using only an Internet connection. Policymakers responded by restricting access to pools of anonymized biomedical genetic data. An NIH official said at the time, “The chances…
The Physics of Catching a Gnarly 80-Foot-Tall Wave
I've never been surfing—but I'm willing to give it a try. I would not, however, be interested in attempting to surf a massive wave like this one off the coast of Portugal. That's a pass for me. Of course even if you don't surf, there is still some cool physics involved in the act of…
Cities Have Turned Into Fire Bait—But We Can Fix Them
The Northern California city of Paradise is gone—the Camp Fire, by far the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, has reduced home after home to ashes. It conjures images of a tsunami of flame tearing through the town, destroying everything in its path. Curiously, though, trees still stand between burned-out homes. “If they're…
A Brain-Eating Amoeba Just Claimed Another Victim
The temperature in Waco, Texas was approaching 83 degrees last Thursday when Mia Mattioli arrived in search of Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating, warm-water-loving amoeba that kills almost every person it infects. An environmental engineer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mattioli spent the day at BSR Surf Resort, a local water park, filling…
Construction Workers Toil Away in San Francisco's Toxic Air
From where Trina Hill is stationed at the corner of 16th and Illinois streets, she can see the future of San Francisco rising all around her. This is the Mission Bay neighborhood, the new hotbed for science, tech, and medicine. Warriors Stadium is right across 16th. Behind her stands the building she and her coworkers…
A Nuclear Plant Braces for Impact With Hurricane Florence
On March 11, 2011, a one-two, earthquake-tsunami punch knocked out the safety systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, triggering an explosion of hydrogen gas and meltdowns in three of its six reactors—the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Fukushima’s facility was built with 1960s technology, designed at a time when engineers underestimated plant…
A Flying Tesla? Sure! We Calculate the Power Demands
Elon Musk isn't afraid to play around on Twitter. In a recent tweet, Musk suggested that a future Tesla would look like the flying car from Back to the Future. Ha ha. Funny. But could it really work? What would it take to make a flying Tesla that converts from driving to flying mode with…
11 Fantastic Science Books to Binge Over the Holidays
This year brought no shortage of great science-themed books. Spurred by rapid advances in biotech, the writer Carl Zimmer spun a personal tale around the emerging science of heredity. Investigative reporter John Carreyrou exposed the rotten business at the heart of Theranos, the blood-testing startup built on air. Our past also proved bountiful, with books…