Good morning. It's Tuesday, July 21, and welcome to this week's Science & Technology newsletter. First time reading? Sign up here or forward to share with friends.
In honor of the 15th anniversary of the final mission of the Space Shuttle program, this week we're exploring the fleet of spacecraft and their impact on human space exploration. We're also breaking down a rollback of protections for endangered species, research into 3D printing contact lenses, whether you should rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, and so much more.
PS—Reader feedback is a gift! Whether it's feedback on today's email, suggestions for what we should cover, or anything else, we're happy to hear from readers. Simply reply to this email or reach out at [email protected].
—Marco Daniel Machado, 1440 Science & Technology Section Editor |
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The space shuttle was the world's first reusable spacecraft. From 1981 to 2011, NASA launched five orbiters—Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavour—across 135 missions, after years of testing with the Enterprise prototype shuttle. These missions included deploying and servicing the Hubble Space Telescope and delivering major payloads for the assembly of the International Space Station.
> View a timeline of the missions, which spanned a combined distance of almost six trips to the sun. (More)
> The shuttle prototype was to be named Constitution until "Star Trek" fans stepped in. (More)
The Space Shuttle program—officially known as the Space Transportation System—received presidential approval in 1972. The entire vehicle consisted of the orbiter, two reusable solid rocket boosters that provided lift alongside the shuttle's three main engines, and the external tank, which supplied fuel for the engines and burned up in the atmosphere after launch. Each orbiter included a flight deck, the crew's living quarters, and a payload bay, supported by Canadarm, a mechanical arm that could move cargo.
> Take a 360-degree tour of Discovery with two former astronauts. (More)
> ... and see a 3D visualization of the assembly and launch of space shuttles. (More)
> Canadarm could lift over 586,000 pounds in space using less electricity than a teakettle. (More)
Throughout its rocket launch, orbital flight, and unpowered glide back to Earth's surface, the space shuttle relied on cutting-edge communication, navigation, and thermal protection systems, enabling it to carry payloads of up to 27,500 kilograms (60,600 pounds) at speeds of up to 28,000 kilometers (17,400 miles) per hour. However, high maintenance costs and safety concerns following the Challenger and Columbia disasters led to the fleet's retirement after the ISS was built.
> The space shuttle's thermal protection system relied on tiles whose volume is more than 90% air. (More)
> Although designed for reusability to save costs, space shuttles became the most expensive heavy-lift spacecraft in history. (More)
Discover more:
> View a gallery of all 135 space shuttle mission patches. (More)
> Space shuttles were transported across the country atop modified Boeing 747s. (More)
> Learn about some of the major milestones of the Space Shuttle program. (More)
Keep learning by exploring all our findings on the Space Shuttle here. |
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1440 brings you the knowledge and context behind the week's stories:
NSF Regional Innovation Engines awarded to teams across 20 states to establish regional technology and innovation clusters. (More)
> Explore the distribution of existing NSF engines and their technological research areas.
> View an animated list of breakthroughs funded in part by the NSF, including LASIK surgery, GPS, and sign language.
Some extreme weather events can be confidently linked to human-caused climate change, according to a National Academies of Sciences report. (More)
> Attribution science, which links certain phenomena to human-caused climate change, works on the same principles that linked tobacco use with respiratory diseases.
> ... and may feature in these climate lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry.
Third-party app stores will be available on Android phones starting this week after Google and Epic Games' antitrust settlement. (More)
> Third-party apps are software not made by the manufacturer of your device or its operating system.
> Learn about the app stores Android users may soon have access to.
Environmental groups sued the US government in response to the rollback of key protections for endangered species. (More)
> As of 2025, there are over 18,000 endangered animal species worldwide.
> Learn about the threatened and endangered species where you live with this interactive map. |
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Like all great researchers, we love spending time learning about the latest breakthroughs across science and technology. Here's what we found this week.
Mathematical systems can identify problems AI can't solve, even with infinite data.
University of Cambridge | Sarah Collins. In partnership with the University of California, Santa Barbara, researchers designed adversarial systems to help users of AI systems determine whether they're working on a solvable or unsolvable problem. This work can help avoid time-wasting and the unnecessary use of AI tokens. (More)
> Tokens are the fundamental unit of data and currency when using AI chatbots.
> For decades, there have been million-dollar bounties on several unsolved mathematics problems.
A repurposed method produces hydrogen fuel from unsorted plastic waste.
University of California, Los Angeles | Staff. Developed alongside colleagues from Ewha Womans University in South Korea, the process adapts a reaction that makes hydrogen gas when sodium hydroxide reacts with organic material. The new method converts a mixture of the three most common plastics directly into hydrogen fuel at purities exceeding 90% while locking carbon dioxide away in a solid mineral. (More)
> Many plastic products are created from pellets called nurdles.
> Hydrogen fuel cells use oxygen to generate electricity and water and can be run in reverse to produce hydrogen fuel.
Custom contact lenses can be 3D printed in as little as 20 minutes.
University of Waterloo | Staff. A novel digital manufacturing platform combines custom lens design software with a newly developed, 3D-printing-compatible silicone material to print lenses whose inner surfaces precisely match a patient's cornea while providing the optical clarity and performance of commercial lenses. (More)
> Watch a time-lapse of 3D-printing custom eyeglasses.
> The concept of contact lenses may have been first conceived by Leonardo da Vinci.
Carbon dioxide can be extracted from the air using water-based electrochemistry.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Lois Yoksoulian. In a process resembling the charging and discharging of a battery, scientists developed a system that uses an electrochemical cell to decrease the acidity of a saltwater solution, allowing it to absorb atmospheric CO2. The solution is then made more acidic, causing CO2 to bubble up in a purified form that can be more easily stored or reused. (More)
> Direct air capture systems differ from carbon capture and storage systems based on where they collect carbon dioxide.
> View a breakdown of where Earth's ecosystems store carbon, led by soil. |
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> Whenever leap seconds need to be added to clocks, technology companies spread out the change via leap smears.
> What is the most accurate map?
> Visualize humans as geographic terrain and explore how population densities worldwide have changed since 1900.
> Tennis balls get their bounce from pressurized nitrogen and vulcanized rubber.
> Despite the name, you have plenty of time to escape if you get stuck in quicksand.
> Why do infinity mirrors—mirrors that reflect each other—end in dark voids?
> Referred to as seefahrts, Seneca guns, and "cries from the sea," what are skyquakes?
> Through 2023, over 95% of Nobel laureates in the sciences and economics are from the same academic family.
> An attack on US nuclear missile silos would put the entire population of the continental US at risk of lethal fallout.
> Explore an animated visualization of the past month of earthquakes worldwide.
> Learn why rinsing dishes before using a dishwasher is not recommended.
> See what it would be like to move as fast as the International Space Station—23 times the speed of sound—on the ground. |
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"The space shuttle was designed, at least in part, to broaden our knowledge of the universe. To scientists, the vehicle was a tool; to engineers, it was their creation." |
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