David Stock

2 weeks ago | newscientist.com | David Stock |Isabel Baldwin

Space is a favourite setting for many Hollywood films, but just how accurate are their portrayals? Patricia Skelton, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, sheds some light on the scientific rigour of her favourite movies. For example, during an explosive space battle scene in Star Trek, a crew member is tossed out into space and suddenly into silence. For Skelton, this moment accurately portrays physics: space is an almost perfect vacuum, and sound can’t travel without a medium.

Jan 16, 2025 | newscientist.com | David Stock

We have long been inspired by the idea that life could reside on Mars – human or otherwise. But fiction is getting closer to reality, says NASA’s former chief scientist, Jim Green. “NASA’s plan, in the long run, is to go live and work on Mars,” he says, and they’ll do that by “learning how to live and work on the moon first”.

Jan 15, 2025 | newscientist.com | David Stock

Last month, I saw Philippe Parreno’s new work, , which is at the Haus der Kunst gallery in Munich, Germany, until 25 May. The artist wants us to create a journey through rooms of light sculptures, heat lamps, speaker arrays, dancers and film screens, guided by a disembodied, AI-generated voice. A film, , forms the centrepiece: footage from a tiny plot in southern Spain is live-streamed into the gallery and sensors feed raw data to an algorithm to activate and change exhibits.

Jan 15, 2025 | newscientist.com | David Stock

From H. G. Wells’s alien invaders in The War of the Worlds to The Martian‘s abandoned astronaut, we have long been inspired by the idea that life could reside on Mars – human or otherwise. Flybys, orbiters and landers, including NASA’s Perseverance rover and its aerial sidekick, Ingenuity, have made Mars one of the best understood planets in our solar system. Now, more than ever, we are closer to answering the question: could life exist there?

Dec 8, 2024 | newscientist.com | David Stock

The oceans are vast, covering much of Earth’s surface. They play huge roles in our economy, are a massive food source, provide habitat for many species and heavily influence the climate. Studying these waters to better understand such complex functions is a huge challenge for scientists.