Parker Solar Probe aims to teach us more about the sun
NASA's Parker Solar Space Probe got closer to the sun than any other human-made object. NPR talks to the scientist behind the project, Nour Rawafi.
Human Interest
Y2K seems like a joke now, but in 1999 people were really freaking out
People feared the computer glitch would mean "the end of the world as we know it." Thankfully, Y2K didn't live up to the hype after years and billions of dollars were spent on painstaking preparation.
'Wait Wait' for December 28, 2024: One last gift to unwrap!
This week, Wait Wait celebrates the holidays with the gift of Tim Meadows and our favorite celebrity guests
Y2K: Looking back on the bug that wasn't
Zachary Loeb, Purdue University assistant professor, tells NPR's Juana Summers that the real story of Y2k wasn't about computers run amok. It was about experts sounding an alarm, and fixing problems.
French schoolchildren honor the African soldiers who fought for France in World Wars
A lesser-known amphibious landing along France's Mediterranean played a big role in liberating the country from the Nazis. Those troops were under French command, but hailed mostly from Africa.
Mourners mark 20 years since Indian Ocean tsunami that killed some 230,000 people
Triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the catastrophic event was the deadliest tsunami in recorded history.
Scientists await signal from spacecraft after historic close encounter with the sun
To get so close, the Parker Solar Probe had to withstand the sun's extreme heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it.
A post-doctorial student proves the solution to the decades-old 'moving sofa problem'
For decades, mathematicians tried to come up with the optimal sofa shape to move around a corner. Post-doctoral student Jineon Baek posted a 100-page proof that claims to solve the problem.
A roundup of what happened in space in 2024
It's been yet another exciting and eventful year in space -- from minor malfunctions to eclipses.
We needed comic relief in 2024. Here are 5 stand-up specials where we found it
Hasan Minhaj, Ronny Chieng, Mike Birbiglia, Hannah Einbinder and Michelle Buteau all delivered specials that cracked us up this year.