Pulse / Stay informed
News
Scientific and technical advances, in context.
In focus
Launch of the Europa Clipper interplanetary mission
NASA has launched the Europa Clipper interplanetary probe, intended to study Europa's subsurface ocean, using a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.
Read the articleLatest articles
Ford Model T — Mass Production Changes the World
On October 1, 1908, the Ford Model T rolls off the Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit at a price of $850. Thanks to the moving assembly line (December 1, 1913), assembly time drops from 12 h 28 min to 1 h 33 min, and the price falls to $260 by 1925 — inventing mass production.
Nuclear Fusion — The Dream of Limitless Energy
On December 5, 2022, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produces 3.15 MJ of fusion energy from 2.05 MJ of laser energy — the first net gain (Q = 1.54) in the history of inertial confinement fusion. The deuterium-tritium reaction replicates the process that powers the stars.
GPS — The Constellation That Geolocates the World
On July 17, 1995, the Global Positioning System reaches full operational capability (FOC) with 24 Block II/IIA satellites in MEO orbit at 20,200 km. A 200 g receiver calculates its position to ±10 m. Without Einstein's relativistic corrections (+38 μs/day), the error would exceed 10 km/day. A 2019 RTI/NIST study puts the cumulative benefits to the US private sector at $1.4 trillion since GPS was opened to civilian use in the 1980s.