Chronicle of Higher Education: Oceanographers used to rely on military submarines to gather data on the salinity, temperature, and other properties of the seawater beneath Arctic ice. Now, a new means has been developed: instrument-laden robotic submarines known as seagliders. About the size and shape of a car-top cargo box, seagliders can determine their own courses to sample a range of depths and locations. The data they collect are transmitted back to the lab via satellite when the seagliders surface. Each unit costs about $150 000.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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