The texture of mayonnaise inspires love and hate. Either way, it’s perfect for physics experiments. The classic seasoning is useful for understanding how materials behave, not only when spread on sandwiches or spread on potato salads, but also when used in nuclear fusion experiments. Mechanical engineer Arindam Banerjee of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., and […]

Heat deaths in the United States are on the rise. But how bad will it be 20, 30 or 40 years from now? Scientists now have a clue. Currently, about 8,000 more deaths in the United States each year are associated with extreme temperatures, hot and cold. Within the next few decades, that number could […]

A cyclist is pedaling on the road. Signs, trees and fire hydrants pass by. As they cycle, their brain receives information from what they have perceived but can no longer see. Their brains sort through that information—color, shape, and text in signs, for example—and pick out what’s most important. Based on this, the motorcyclist takes […]

The biggest conundrum in cosmology may be closer to being solved, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. Scientists disagree on the expansion rate of the universe, known as the Hubble constant. There are two main methods for measuring it – one based on exploding stars called supernovae and the other on the universe’s oldest […]