Author: Matthew R. Francis
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When testing gravity, no news is good news
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Looking for nothing to test gravity When they look for violations of Einstein’s general relativity, physicists deliberately plan experiments to find nothing at all. For Symmetry Magazine: In 1887,…
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Designing space telescopes the size of a dinner plate
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Could Future Telescopes Do Without the Mirror? Tomorrow’s Hubble might be the size of a dinner plate. For Air & Space Magazine: Today’s telescopes can see better and farther…
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Looking for the fifth dimension with wrinkles in spacetime
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Are We Closer to Finding a Fifth Dimension? For The Daily Beast: In Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel A Wrinkle in Time, the characters travel from one place to another…
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Finding mountains on distant alien worlds
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] How Astronomers Could Discover Mountains on Distant Planets Planets too far away to photograph could yield some clues to whether water—and maybe even life—could exist. For The Daily Beast:…
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The first known interstellar visitor to the Solar System
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Cosmic Driftwood What a floating rock can tell us about life in the rest of the universe Last October, we had the first known interstellar visitor to the Solar…
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Snakebots, desert plants, and self-assembling space modules: the world of biomimicry
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] “Life, uh, finds a way”—Applying lessons from evolution to go to Mars Biomimicry looks to living organisms to create the future of sustainable engineering. For Ars Technica: As philosopher-mathematician…
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Learning about weird star corpses from the way they shake
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] ‘Dwarfquakes’ Reveal the Future of Our Universe Dying stars were an enigma—until an astronomer measured seismic shifts on them, giving us clues about the sun’s future and the expansion…
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It ain’t aliens — but this weird-looking star is still interesting
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] We Haven’t Found Alien Megastructures… Yet The mystery formations and data discrepancies of Tabby’s Star turned out to have explanations. But that’s not what’s important about the mystery star.…
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The building materials of the future might be mushrooms and bacteria
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] The Cities of the Future Could Be Built From Mushrooms For Earther: Nearly everything about the small block says “wood”: its texture, appearance, sturdiness, and color are like an…
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Discovering new planets with artificial intelligence
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Thanks to Google AI, Astronomers Have Found New Planets They’re not habitable, but the dual discoveries change how we’re going to hunt for the next Earth. For The Daily…
Bowler Hat Science 