2025-08-15
"Duffy to announce nuclear reactor on the moon" is not a headline I imagined reading before last week. Sure, as a sci-fi loving nerd, I could see a future where nuclear power played a role in permanent Moon settlements. But the idea of NASA building a 100-kilowatt microreactor there in the next five years seemed ridiculous. Not so, according to scientists.
"I have no idea why this is getting so much play," Professor Bhavya Lal tells me over the phone, with a hint of exasperation in her voice. Lal's response makes sense once you understand the arc of her ca [...]
2025-12-12
You may be surprised to learn electricity only accounts for 21 percent of the world’s energy consumption. Fossil fuels and the rest all play their part to make the world go around, but their role is [...]
2025-03-17
Eight days. That’s how long Boeing Starliner’s mission — its first flight test with crew aboard — was supposed to last. But this mission has been singular in almost every way, and astronauts B [...]
2025-02-08
As soon as late February, a lunar lander will depart from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on its way to the moon carrying instruments that could investigate what’s just beneath the surface. Barely two [...]
2025-08-19
After focusing its big Google I/O 2025 on AI tech and Gemini’s latest features, Google has new hardware. The next Made by Google event kicks off tomorrow, and Google has already confirmed how at lea [...]
2025-01-28
Building a working nuclear fusion reactor has proven to be a daunting challenge even for multiple wealthy nations, as we've seen with the much-delayed ITER project. However, a private start-up ca [...]
2025-12-29
After a rudderless year and an exodus of around 4,000 employees due to Trump administration cuts, NASA got what may be its first piece of good news recently. On December 17, the Senate confirmed billi [...]
2025-08-18
Big Tech's foray into nuclear power continues as Google announced the site of its first nuclear reactor today, as part of its 2024 deal with startup Kairos Power. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will be ho [...]
2025-03-29
Today's the day: A solar eclipse will darken the skies in the northeastern US and Canada in the early hours of Saturday. Unlike the “Great American Eclipse” of 2024, however, this will not be [...]