The inverse square law proves to be true in large expanses. That’s pretty amazing.
I guess you could (but probably shouldn’t) say that Newton was a really smart cookie.
Thursday, May 7, 2026
How a pot left on the stove overnight inspired a teen’s winning science fair project
Another young person for the win!
This young lady created a simple method for keeping someone from leaving the stove on.
Yay, science! Yay, critical thinking!
Deep-Earth map reveals a lost U.S. continent | Science | AAAS
This is kind of a cool story about how an array of sensors have been put to use, and once scientists reviewed the data, they have concluded that there is a piece of a continent jammed under the eastern seaboard of the US.
Their modeling suggests that this happens when Pangea was broken apart, and this is why we have some mountain ranges, in the Appalachian trail.
It’s pretty cool.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
New Chinese Iron Battery Lasts 16 Years, and Could Upend the $150B Lithium Market | OilPrice.com
I like the leap forward here. A Chinese team has developed an iron-based battery (rather than lithium), which is cheaper to produce, stores energy more efficiently, and lasts many cycles longer than a lithium battery.
And that’s all before we even mention the environmental impact.
Say Goodbye to the Panama Canal: A New Ocean-to-Ocean Route Just Shipped 900 Vehicles in Just 72 Hours
I have noted in the past that shipping is one of the biggest industries we have these days. Getting goods around the globe is something everyone wants a piece of. Who controls ports, shipping lanes, and the transit corridors will shape - or reahape - the world economy.
And the Panama Canal is a choke point from which many counties and shipping companies want to move away.
Entree Mexico’s Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which is an overland route to get goods from the pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. Essentially, the ship is unloaded at a port there, and put onto rail cars and then moved across the expanse in a few hours, and reloaded onto another ship.
So far, it’s seen some successes. But there are still a lot of concerns and things to consider.
But Mexico is making a power play.
Data centers are breaking the electric grid. Meet the $6 billion startup and its visionary CEO solving the problem - Fast Company
I’m not convinced this solves anything in its current state. However, the concept that the startup is using recycled car batteries (and other larger scale batteries) to supply power in an ever-power-thirsty world is a good step in the right direction.
And, I couldn’t help but think of Edison’s notion of having smaller power plants to produce DC power (as opposed to what we do today with large plants, power distribution, and AC power that was fleshed out from a Nikola Tesla idea) is sort of the answer as our power needs change.
NASA is making a powerful new ion engine to send astronauts to Mars — and it just passed its 1st test | Space
Flight readiness is still a ways off. But the theoretical ion engine that could propel humans into deep space just took a nice leap forward.
NASA successfully tested an ion engine (one that feeds off an electromagnetic reaction rather than a chemical one) that can produce 120 kw. This should be sufficient to propel a craft to mars.
I look forward to seeing how this goes.
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