Category: First Look

First Look

Summer 2013 – First Look

ROBOTICS Get the Drift Jellyfish may be the bane of beachgoers worldwide, but Virginia Tech researchers have found much to admire —and to mimic. The invertebrates’ very low metabolic rate…

First Look

January 2013 – First Look

AEROSPACE New Shuttle Service Though its mission remains shrouded in mystery, the unmanned spacecraft that hurtled into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in December is no engineering secret. Launched…

First Look

November 2012 – First Look

SPACE INSTRUMENTATION Heavenly View In the race for sharper digital images, the Dark Energy Camera (right) wins, hands down. The telephone-booth-size digital camera — the world’s most powerful — has…

First Look

October 2012 – First Look

AERONAUTICS Icarus Redeemed Two years ago, the Solar Impulse became the first solar-powered airplane to fly 26 hours nonstop. Now the Swiss-made craft has chalked up another record. This summer,…

First Look

STRUCTURAL INSPECTIONS: Monumental Thrill

BREAKTHROUGHS AND TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY Emma Cardini has inspected some impressive facades, including the neo-Gothic spires of Chicago’s Tribune Tower. Still, nothing compared with the capital view…

First Look

No-rinse Wash + Sahara Power + Clicker Craze

BIODIVERSITY Deep Beauty More than a spectacle for scuba divers, Jason deCaires Taylor’s underwater sculpture offers a rich environment for restoring coral reefs, the endangered “rain forests of the sea” that host…