Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.

By Kerri Smith of Nature magazine In 50 million to 200 million years' time, all of Earth's current continents will be pushed together into a single landmass around the North Pole. [More]

In the absence of NASA's Space Shuttle Program, private companies are left to fill the black hole of space exploration. Now, 50 years after John Glenn orbited the Earth, some very different kinds of explorers are leading the way. 1.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The transition-metal monoxide FeO is an archetypal example of a Mott insulator—a material that should conduct electricity under conventional band theories but becomes an insulator when measured, especially at low temperatures—and a major iron-bearing component of the Earth’s interior. Understanding the high-pressure behavior of this material is important for both solid-state physics and Earth science.

UCLA researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt, using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft.

Your notes to yourself are a precious thing. These tools let you write quick and find ideas later, wherever you are.

Sunday's solar flare (in upper right quadrant), as witnessed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA Last night the sun unleashed a flash of radiation called a solar flare, along with a generous belch of ionized matter that is now racing toward Earth at thousands of kilometers a second. The solar storm front from the ionized blast, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), should arrive tomorrow morning , according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying the rotation of the Earth have long known that our planet doesn't have a perfect spin. Most believe this is due to the different types of materials that make up the core, mantle and crust, which all have different rates of spin causing inherent friction

Let’s rewind time back about 3.5 billion years. Our beloved planet looks nothing like the lush home we know today – it is a turbulent place, still undergoing the process of formation. Land is a fluid concept, consisting of molten lava flows being created and destroyed by massive volcanoes.

An international research team has tracked down and measured an elusive molecule that rapidly breaks down pollution in the atmosphere, turning it into clouds that actually help cool the Earth.

A failed Russian Mars probe came crashing back to Earth Sunday (Jan. 15) in a death plunge over the Pacific Ocean, according to Russian news reports. [More]

A coordinated global campaign is monitoring a wayward Russian Mars probe that's slated to crash to Earth in the next few days, the European Space Agency has announced. [More]

By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - A new molecule has been detected in Earth's atmosphere which could help produce a cooling effect, scientists said, but it remains to be seen whether it can play a major role in tackling global warming . The molecule can convert pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, into compounds which can lead to cloud formation, helping to shield the earth from the sun, the researchers said. Over the past century, Earth's average temperature has risen by 0.8 degrees Celsius.

Adding to its already long roster of firsts , NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found the three smallest extrasolar planets ever detected -- all of them smaller than Earth, and the most diminutive no larger than Mars. The newly discovered trio forms a miniature planetary system orbiting a cool, dim red dwarf star called KOI-961. [More]

Did Earth once have two moons? It may take two lunar spacecraft to find out.