One big question

Planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1 could have evolved to withstand hard UV radiation

Astronomy

One Big Question: What could life be like in the TRAPPIST-1 system?

To find out what life might be like on a TRAPPIST planet, we contacted Lisa Kaltenegger and Jack O'Malley-James at the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University and asked them One Big Question: "What could life in the TRAPPIST-1 system be like?"

Electric vehicles might look clean and green, but where that electricity is coming from makes a big difference

Environment

OBQ: Do electric cars really harm the environment less than gasoline-powered cars?

Electric vehicles are often touted as more environmentally friendly than cars using gasoline. But electricity has to be produced somewhere, so it got us wondering if EVs really are better for our planet than traditional vehicles. We found out, as part of our regular One Big Question series (OBQ).

Recent advance in using our body's own immune system to fight cancer may one day lead to a vaccine

Biology

One Big Question: How close are we to a cancer vaccine?

Training the body’s own immune system to fight cancer is steadily gaining traction as a successful way to combat the disease and may, one day, lead to a vaccine. To find out more, New Atlas asked a company working on one such vaccine just how close a cancer vaccine really is.

Even though the evidence points to an unprecedented rate of human induced planetary warming, not everyone is convinced

Environment

One Big Question: Why do some people refuse to accept that human-induced climate change is real?

As part of our One Big Question series, we got in touch with Edward Maibach from George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change and asked: Despite the evidence, why do some people react so vehemently against the idea that rapid, human induced global warming is an actual phenomenon?

The HI-SEAS habitat is situated about 8,000 mi high in an abandoned quarry on the slopes of Hawaii's Maona Loa

Astronomy

One Big Question: What were the biggest surprises from living in a simulated Martian habitat for a full year?

As part of our regular weekly feature, New Atlas asked two of the HI-SEAS mission participants what their biggest positive and negative surprises were from living in close quarters with other people for a full year in an effort to see what early human life might be like on Mars.

Physics

One Big Question: What laws of quantum mechanics could have made the Big Bang a Big Bounce instead?

We recently reported on a theory that says the Big Bang might have been prevented by the laws of quantum mechanics. As part of our "One Question" series, we asked theoretical physicist Steffen Gielen to help us understand more.