The voyage will span 1.8 billion miles over 5.5 years
In a nutshell: The Europa Clipper mission is an important step in our understanding of potentially habitable worlds beyond Earth. By studying Europa's composition, internal structure, and potential for hosting organic compounds, scientists hope to gain insights into the prevalence of habitable environments in our solar system and beyond.
Big if True: Cyanobacteria were the first organisms on Earth to develop the ability to produce oxygen. Through photosynthesis, they convert light into chemical energy and oxygen. According to a team of US researchers, cyanobacteria could even serve as a powerful air filtration system when integrated into a new "artificial plant" concept.
It can't help you think faster, but the medical potential is exciting
WTF?! A humble toothpaste additive has provided the key to a major breakthrough in the field of edible electronics. Researchers have successfully built the first fully edible transistor using copper phthalocyanine – a crystalline blue pigment commonly employed as a whitening agent in toothpaste formulations.
Spoiler alert: It works but testing on an actual asteroid might be needed
Why it matters: The concept of launching nukes into space to knock asteroids off course or destroy them completely may not sound foreign thanks to numerous sci-fi films popularizing it. But the lack of atmosphere in space nerfs nukes' power considerably, so the idea isn't so easy to pull off. Now, researchers at Sandia National Labs have come up with a new way to compensate for this shortcoming.