The Venus’ flower basket sea sponge has hair-like appendages that hold it in place on the sea floor. Research led by Brown University engineers shows that the internal structure of those fibers is fine-tuned for strength. The findings from this natural system could inform the engineering of load-bearing structural members.
Giant volcanic supereruptions that spew magma across large areas of a continent have not occurred in human history, but they remain a possibility. A new “geobarometer” helps understand how supereruptions could occur.
Scientists have long puzzled over the planet Mercury’s excessively dark surface. New research suggests that carbon from passing comets could be the planet’s mystery darkening agent.
Current and former graduate students at Brown University combined images from NASA’s CTX instrument with mineralogical data from NASA’s CRISM orbiting spectrometer to create a geologic history of flowing water on the surface of Mars nearly 4 billion years ago.
Researchers at Brown University have developed a new method for making solar cells from perovskite — a faster, more straightforward method that can produce flexible, high-efficiency, thinner cells.
Computers are able to recognize objects in in photographs and other images, but how well can they “understand” the relationships or implied activities between objects? Researchers have devised a method of evaluating how well computers perform at that task.
True, computers keep getting faster and smarter. But the day when intelligent machines will take over the planet and enslave the human race is a trope of science fiction that will likely never arrive. Michael Littman’s essay first appeared at Live Science on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015.
A recent series of small earthquakes in Connecticut posed the question. Geologist Terry Tullis, an earthquake specialist, says the chances of a damaging quake are remote, but they are not zero. This commentary appeared in the Providence Journal on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2015.
James L. Green, NASA’s director of planetary science, will give two very different lectures at Brown this week. One describes the past and future of NASA’s solar system exploration, and the second chronicles the life and work of a Civil War balloonist and Rhode Island native. Talks will be held Feb. 5 at 4 p.m. in 115 MacMillan Hall and Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. in 117 Macmillan Hall.
New spectroscopic analysis of “Black Beauty,” a meteorite found in the Moroccan desert, has given scientists a better picture of the crust beneath Mars’ red dust.
