pyrotechnics
-
This ‘Self-Eating’ Rocket Consumes Its Own Body for Fuel
A new rocket is designed for its own destruction, eating itself as it makes its way through Earth’s atmosphere to power its journey. A group of researchers from the University of Glasgow has built the first unsupported autophage rocket engine, which uses waste heat from combustion to melt its plastic fuselage and use it as…
-
Microbes Might Make It Easier to Produce Rocket Fuel on Mars
New research details a biological solution for producing rocket fuel on Mars, but significant hurdles need to be overcome to make this intriguing idea work.
-
How Australia Is Transforming The World Of Fireworks
Over a thousand years ago, Chinese alchemists created an early form of gunpowder. Made primarily of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal, the ingredients were packed into bamboo shoots and thrown into the fire. The idea was that the subsequent explosion of noise and light would ward off evil spirits. A millennium later, we use this…
-
Lighting 100,000 Sparklers At Once Is The Quickest Way To Make A Working Volcano
Video: Igniting 10,000 sparklers at once was a cute way to ring in the new year, but assembling 100,000 sparklers into a tower and adding fire is probably as close as one could get to building an artificial working volcano.