The Nashtifan windmills, also known as Asban, are located in eastern Iran. They are among the oldest windmills in the world. Made of clay, wood, and straw, these vertical-axis windmills have harnessed strong desert winds for centuries to grind grain, showcasing an ingenious example of ancient sustainable technology.
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A whistlestop tour of the history of music. Starting from our ancient ancestors beating drums and creating flutes to the lyres of greece, the Gregorian chants of the medieval period, Mozart, Beethoven, jazz, blues and rock and roll. Till today when we are using AI to help us in our creations.
Intro and outro music: Atmospheric by Leigh Robinson / Pixabay
All music is public domain from Pixabay and Wikimedia.
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We all know of the pioneers of computer science like Alan Turing and Bill Gates. What most people are not familiar with is Mary Kenneth Keller – a Catholic nun and one of the field’s true trailblazers. In the US, she was one of the first people to earn a Ph.D in computer science and then went on to make computing accessible.
Intro and outro music: Atmospheric by Leigh Robinson / Pixabay
The post Podcast Episode 126 l Mary Kenneth Keller: The Nun Who Helped Shape the Digital Age appeared first on 360 on History.
Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter’s unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather.
Any image you have ever seen of the Sun was taken from around the Sun’s equator. This is because Earth, the other planets, and all other operational spacecraft orbit the Sun within a flat disc around the Sun called the ecliptic plane. By tilting its orbit out of this plane, Solar Orbiter reveals the Sun from a whole new angle.
The video above compares Solar Orbiter’s view (in yellow) with the one from Earth (grey), on 23 March 2025. At the time, Solar Orbiter was viewing the Sun from an angle of 17° below the solar equator, enough to directly see the Sun’s south pole. Over the coming years, the spacecraft will tilt its orbit even further, so the best views are yet to come.
“Today we reveal humankind’s first-ever views of the Sun’s pole,” says Prof. Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science. “The Sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour. These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.”
The collage above shows the Sun’s south pole as recorded on 16-17 March 2025, when Solar Orbiter was viewing the Sun from an angle of 15° below the solar equator. This was the mission’s first high-angle observation campaign, a few days before reaching its current maximum viewing angle of 17°.
The images shown above were taken by three of Solar Orbiter’s scientific instruments: the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), and the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument. Click on the image to zoom in and see video versions of the data.
“We didn’t know what exactly to expect from these first observations – the Sun’s poles are literally terra incognita,” says Prof. Sami Solanki, who leads the PHI instrument team from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany.
The instruments each observe the Sun in a different way. PHI images the Sun in visible light (top left) and maps the Sun’s surface magnetic field (top centre). EUI images the Sun in ultraviolet light (top right), revealing the million-degree charged gas in the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. The SPICE instrument (bottom row) captures light coming from different temperatures of charged gas above the Sun’s surface, thereby revealing different layers of the Sun’s atmosphere.
By comparing and analysing the complementary observations made by these three imaging instruments, we can learn about how material moves in the Sun’s outer layers. This may reveal unexpected patterns, such as polar vortices (swirling gas) similar to those seen around the poles of Venus and Saturn.
These groundbreaking new observations are also key to understanding the Sun’s magnetic field and why it flips roughly every 11 years, coinciding with a peak in solar activity. Current models and predictions of the 11-year solar cycle fall short of being able to predict exactly when and how powerfully the Sun will reach its most active state.
One of the first scientific findings from Solar Orbiter’s polar observations is the discovery that at the south pole, the Sun’s magnetic field is currently a mess. While a normal magnet has a clear north and south pole, the PHI instrument’s magnetic field measurements show that both north and south polarity magnetic fields are present at the Sun’s south pole.
This happens only for a short time during each solar cycle, at solar maximum, when the Sun’s magnetic field flips and is at its most active. After the field flip, a single polarity should slowly build up and take over at the Sun’s poles. In 5-6 years from now, the Sun will reach its next solar minimum, during which its magnetic field is at its most orderly and the Sun displays its lowest levels of activity.
“How exactly this build-up occurs is still not fully understood, so Solar Orbiter has reached high latitudes at just the right time to follow the whole process from its unique and advantageous perspective,” notes Sami.
PHI’s view of the full Sun’s magnetic field puts these measurements in context. The darker the colour (red/blue), the stronger the magnetic field is along the line of sight from Solar Orbiter to the Sun.
The strongest magnetic fields are found in two bands either side of the Sun’s equator. The dark red and dark blue regions highlight active regions, where magnetic field gets concentrated in sunspots on the Sun’s surface (photosphere).
Meanwhile, both the Sun’s south and north poles are speckled with red and blue patches. This demonstrates that at small scales, the Sun’s magnetic field has a complex and ever-changing structure.
Another interesting ‘first’ for Solar Orbiter comes from the SPICE instrument. Being an imaging spectrograph, SPICE measures the light (spectral lines) sent out by specific chemical elements – among which hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon and magnesium – at known temperatures. For the last five years, SPICE has used this to reveal what happens in different layers above the Sun’s surface.
Now for the first time, the SPICE team has also managed to use precise tracking of spectral lines to measure how fast clumps of solar material are moving. This is known as a ‘Doppler measurement’, named after the same effect that makes passing ambulance sirens change pitch as they drive by.
The resulting velocity map reveals how solar material moves within a specific layer of the Sun. Below, you can directly compare the location and movement of particles (carbon ions) in a thin layer called the ‘transition region‘, where the Sun’s temperature rapidly increases from 10 000 °C to hundreds of thousands of degrees.
The left image shows an intensity map, revealing the locations of clumps of carbon ions. The right image shows a velocity map, where blue and red indicate how fast the carbon ions are moving towards and away from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, respectively. Darker blue and red patches are related to material flowing faster due to small plumes or jets.
Crucially, Doppler measurements can reveal how particles are flung out from the Sun in the form of solar wind. Uncovering how the Sun produces solar wind is one of Solar Orbiter’s key scientific goals.
“Doppler measurements of solar wind setting off from the Sun by current and past space missions have been hampered by the grazing view of the solar poles. Measurements from high latitudes, now possible with Solar Orbiter, will be a revolution in solar physics,” says SPICE team leader, FrÁ©dÁ©ric AuchÁ¨re from the University of Paris-Saclay (France).
These are just the first observations made by Solar Orbiter from its newly inclined orbit, and much of this first set of data still awaits further analysis. The complete dataset of Solar Orbiter’s first full ‘pole-to-pole’ flight past the Sun is expected to arrive on Earth by October 2025. All ten of Solar Orbiter’s scientific instruments will collect unprecedented data in the years to come.
“This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter’s ‘stairway to heaven’: in the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the Sun’s polar regions. These data will transform our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity,” notes Daniel MÁ¼ller, ESA’s Solar Orbiter project scientist.
This article is by ESA and was first published here.
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Her name is Martha Jane Coston, and she gave the world a way to communicate at sea – with bright, colourful flares that could be seen for miles.
She wasn’t a trained scientist or engineer. She was a young widow and mother, facing personal tragedy and financial hardship. But through determination, creativity, and sheer grit, she changed maritime safety forever.
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Discover how ancient Roman concrete has lasted nearly 2,000 years — and what it can teach us about building stronger, more sustainable structures today. From the Pantheon to self-healing concrete, this episode of 360 on History explores timeless lessons for modern construction.
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What an exciting day! Wednesday April 1, 2026.
Humanity is officially heading back to the Moon. On April 1, 2026, at 6:35 p.m. EDT, the Artemis 2 mission successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B.
This flight marks the first crewed mission to the lunar vicinity in over 50 years, carrying Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey.
The countdown was not without technical hurdles. In the hours leading up to liftoff, ground teams had to troubleshoot a critical issue with the Flight Termination System (FTS), a safety mechanism required for the Eastern Range to grant launch clearance. Once that was resolved, a second concern emerged regarding a temperature spike in one of the batteries within the Launch Abort System. Engineers eventually determined this was likely an instrumentation error rather than a hardware failure, allowing the poll for launch to proceed as scheduled.
Now in orbit, the crew is beginning the initial phases of their mission, which includes testing the Orion spacecraft’s life support and communication systems before performing a lunar flyby. This mission is a significant step toward establishing a long-term presence on the Moon.
And amazingly Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist, is the first woman to visit the Moon!
The Artemis 2 mission uses the Space Launch System (SLS), which is the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built. It is designed specifically to send the Orion spacecraft, along with its crew and supplies, directly to the Moon in a single launch.
The SLS Rocket Components
The Core Stage: This is the tall, orange central column. It stands over 200 feet tall and stores more than 700,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It uses four RS-25 engines, which are upgraded versions of the engines used on the Space Shuttle.
Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs): Two white boosters are attached to the sides of the core stage. These provide about 75% of the total thrust during the first two minutes of flight before they peel away and fall into the ocean.
Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS): This is the upper stage of the rocket. After the core stage falls away, the ICPS engine fires to push the Orion spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and toward the Moon.
The Orion Spacecraft
European Service Module (ESM): Provided by the ESA, this module sits just below the capsule. It supplies the spacecraft with electricity, water, oxygen, and nitrogen. It also contains the main engine used for orbital maneuvers.
Mission Objectives
System Validation: The crew will test the life support, communication, and navigation systems to ensure they work perfectly with humans on board.
Proximity Operations: Once in orbit, the crew will practice manually maneuvering Orion near the spent ICPS stage to simulate docking procedures for future missions.
The mission is currently in flight, having launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026. It marks the first time a woman, a person of color, and a non-U.S. citizen have traveled to the vicinity of the Moon.
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Scientists have created one of the most detailed 3D reconstructions of a human eukaryotic cell ever produced.
Known as a “Cellular Landscape Cross-Section Through a Eukaryotic Cell,” this groundbreaking model combines data from X-ray tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and cryo-electron microscopy to reveal the hidden molecular world inside human cells in extraordinary detail.
The reconstruction gives scientists an unprecedented look at how cellular structures interact, helping advance research in medicine, genetics, disease treatment, and biotechnology.
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Ever wonder how Earth stays safe from harsh space weather? It all comes down to an invisible shield called the magnetosphere.
The magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding a planet where charged particles are managed by its magnetic field. In this animation, you can see how it works to protect life on Earth:
The White Bubble: This represents the magnetic field of a celestial body like Earth. It acts as a shield that blocks or reduces solar radiation and cosmic radiation.
The White Streaks: These fast-moving lines represent the solar wind. Solar wind is a constant outflow of plasma, or charged particles, that escapes from the Sun and slams into our magnetic shield.
The Interaction: When the solar wind hits the magnetosphere, it creates a massive shockwave known as a bow shock. This collision deflects the dangerous particles away from the planet, keeping our atmosphere and life safe.
Without this magnetic defense system, space radiation would strip away our atmosphere.
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Scientists have discovered that Earth appears to produce a faint, repeating seismic pulse roughly every 26 seconds — a phenomenon often described as the planet’s “heartbeat”.
The signal has been detected for decades by sensitive seismic instruments around the world. Unlike earthquakes, it is too subtle for people to feel, but it creates a regular vibration that can be picked up in Earth’s crust.
Researchers have linked the pulse to a region near the Gulf of Guinea, off the west coast of Africa. However, its exact cause is still not fully understood. Some scientists believe it may be connected to ocean waves striking the continental shelf, volcanic activity, or other geological processes beneath the seafloor.
Satellite observations and seismic data have helped researchers track the signal more closely, but the mystery remains. Earth is constantly moving, shifting and vibrating in ways we rarely notice — and this strange 26-second pulse is a reminder that our planet is far more active than it appears.
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