microwave

Just like any other organisms, crop-destroying soil microbes die if they get too hot. With that fact in mind, scientists have developed a new system in which soil-heating microwaves are used to kill such pests. It could one day replace pesticides.

Using microwave instruments to peer deep beneath the surface of the far side of the Moon, researchers have detected a ‘hotspot’ they say is a large subsurface granite mass, suggesting the Moon is more "Earth-like" than we thought.

Water on the Moon isn't kept in convenient reservoirs, it’s locked away in the lunar soil. Now, a team of scientists has found that thirsty astronauts could one day refresh themselves fairly easily – by throwing a cup of Moon dirt in the microwave.

The secrets of the mysterious EmDrive thruster – which stumped both NASA and Chinese research teams by delivering measurable thrust without a propellant – have finally been unlocked. The thrust comes from ... drum roll ... repeated experimental error.

Physicists have harnessed the weird world of quantum physics to develop a “quantum radar” prototype. The system uses the quantum entanglement phenomenon to detect objects, and it could eventually outperform conventional radar in some circumstances.

Here on Earth, 80 years of advertising has told us that diamonds are special, but our shiny stones have nothing on the weird and wonderful forms seen out in space. Now, astronomers have found that mysterious microwave signals around stars could be caused by swirling clouds of diamond dust.

Several experiments have shown that the EMDrive can generate thrust from basically nothing – in apparent violation of Newton’s Laws of Motion. Unfortunately, a German team has now built and tested their own EMDrive, and found that environmental factors may have been responsible for false positives.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory in Chile have imaged a very active black hole at the center of spiral galaxy M77, which is apparently feasting on the universe’s largest donut.

​The Great Red Spot, a storm bigger than Earth, has been raging on Jupiter for centuries. We’ve known its 2D size for a long time, but after a close flyover in July, Juno has finally revealed how deep into the atmosphere the storm’s roots run.

Researchers have redesigned the pacemaker, developing a new prototype that is wireless, battery-free and can be implanted directly into a patient's heart. The design offers an innovative new type of pacemaker that promises less complications than current devices.

For diabetics, keeping track of blood sugar can be a drag, with Type 1 sufferers having to monitor levels as much as six times a day. A new device might make life easier, providing a non-invasive solution for tracking glucose, without the need to extract blood.

Japan hopes to one day harvest power from an orbiting solar farm and beam electricity back to Earth. This week it announced the successful test of such a wireless power system at a small scale.