Tom Hartsfield

Before gunpowder was introduced to the West, medieval Arabs devised grenades using crockery.

Fire-retardant gels and slimes combine the best attributes of water and foam.

"The Soul of a New Machine" provides a rare level of insight into the minds and decisions of humanity's greatest thinkers.

A next-generation LHC++ could cost $100 billion. Here's why such a machine could end up being a massive waste of money.

Experimental archaeology is the practice of recreating past events using knowledge and tools available at the time. Sometimes, it involves elephants.

The Hyperloop is physically possible, but engineering challenges will make its construction very difficult. Also, accidents would be catastrophic.

But does Amazon know when you're tired or hungry?

Searching for truth in unorthodox ways can be a valuable exercise. But Anatoly Fomenko's alternate world history is just plain weird.

The apes taught sign language didn't understand what they were doing. They were merely "aping" their caretakers.

Nanofabricators could quickly synthesize whatever we need, molecule by molecule.

Pluto failed to meet the definition of a planet, but some astronomers think there might be a legitimate Planet 9 out there.

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter recently captured images that could help scientists better under the mysterious physics of our Sun.

To study the origin of the Universe, we could build a constellation of six expensive spacecraft — or we could just use the Moon.

A famous explorer's doomed ship is finally found 107 years after it was lost to the Antarctic deep.

The rhetorical fallout is greater than the radioactive fallout.

Da Vinci dreamed up a helicopter 400 years before they actually existed. Now, engineers have brought his design to life, but with a twist.

In general, 5G is not a threat to human health or activities, but there are some legitimate questions about interference with airplane instruments.

If you want to have foamy beer inside the comfort of your own home, you need to invest in a special nucleated glass.

A century ago, electric cars were common. The fact that they were almost entirely replaced due to the internal combustion engine is a testament to the glacial pace of battery breakthroughs.

A recent study overviews the thinnest X-ray detector ever created.

The Miller-Urey experiment showed that the building blocks of life could form in the primordial soup. But it overlooked one key variable.

Are hardened wood knives and nails coming to a store near you?

Asymmetric organocatalysis is an environmentally friendly way of accelerating chemical reactions and creating specific types of molecules.

The cause of the recent uptick in radiation is unknown, but speculation about another catastrophe at Chernobyl is hyperbolic.

Engineers borrowed the maple tree's "helicopter" to design tiny, flying microchips, which perform various tasks while in whirling free fall.

In the name of fighting horrific crimes, Apple threatens to open Pandora's box.

The power tower has superior physics but inferior economics.

Let's celebrate the progress, but put the cork back in the champagne bottle.

As important as his Nobel Prize-winning technical accomplishments was his ability to communicate to the public.

Why I was prepared to hate The Structure of Scientific Revolutions but ended up loving it.