Link About It: This Week’s Picks

How ancient grains could be the future of food, responsible use of AI, clean energy ideas and more from around the web

How Origami Is Innovating Technology Origami dates back to the 17th century in Japan, but it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that people began to consider the practice an art form due, in large part, to origami master Akira Yoshizawa. Since then, origami has gone on to become a respected art and now a tool to revolutionize science and technology. For example, the patterns and …

Useful Secrets Within a 4.2-Billion-Year-Old Asteroid

Three tiny fragments were collected by a Japanese spacecraft in 2005 from a 4.2-billion-year-old asteroid known as Itokawa. Smaller than the diameter of a hair, these components contain information that could help prevent an asteroid colliding with Earth. Itokawa, a rubble-pile asteroid (created when “solid asteroids collide and the resulting fragments assemble into new structures”), is almost as old as the solar system itself. Held …

Researchers Uncover a Fragment of the Asteroid That May Have Killed Off Dinosaurs

Paleontologists discovered a tiny fragment that may have been from the asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago and killed off the dinosaurs, as revealed in a new documentary Dinosaur Apocalypse. Found in the Tanis fossil site in North Dakota, the fragment was preserved in amber after landing in tree resin upon impact, enabling researchers to identify the chromium, nickel and other materials that suggest …