How the Parker Space Probe Will Avoid Melting When It Reaches the Sun

As Popular Mechanics points out, there is a difference between temperature and heat—though they’re often seen as interchangeable on Earth. In the sun’s corona, its outer layer, temperatures hover in the millions of degrees in temperature, but “the loose organization of plasma in the corona makes the heat manageable.” NASA’s Parker Space Probe will enter the corona with a heat shield composed of a unique …

Farewell to Jonathan Gold

More than a restaurant critic and Pulitzer Prize winner, Jonathan Gold was a champion of his native Los Angeles. Gold, who wrote with genuine fondness and excitement about his food adventures, passed away this weekend at 57 years old. With over a thousand reviews published throughout his career, he wrote about everything from “Korean porridge parlors, Lanzhou hand-pulled noodle vendors, Iranian tongue-sandwich shops, vegan hot …

Quadrillions of Tons of Diamonds Discovered by Sound Waves

Within Earth’s cratonic roots—thick “inverted mountain” sections of rock beneath most continental plates—quadrillions of tons of diamonds rest, well below where we’ve ever been able to excavate or drill. This is according to a new study, led by MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences and other universities, that employed sound wave technology to ascertain geological composition. Read more about the method undertaken—and the …