Monday, April 18, 2022

Star Wars science

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4/18/22

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Coming Soon

May the fourth be with you.

This Star Wars Day, May 4, check out some of our favorite Star Wars–related stories. A few reveal how the epic space-opera isn’t so far, far away from reality. Millions of years ago, for instance, giant ocean worms on Earth may have burst out from the seafloor like the giant space slug that nearly gobbled up the Millennium Falcon. And planets orbiting two stars , like Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine, may be common throughout our own galaxy.

In other ways, Star Wars movie magic doesn’t translate to real life. Find out why rolling droids like R2-D2 and BB-8 wouldn’t do so well on desert planets, and what it would really take to create artificial gravity inside spaceships. Science News also has a few stories about efforts to make Star Wars tech a reality — such as using sound waves or lasers to create free-floating, 3-D displays like the one Princess Leia used to send her plea to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

(And for all the Trekkies out there, May 4 may not be your day, but we haven’t forgotten your fandom. We’ve covered tricorders, tractor beams and other tech from the starship Enterprise making its way into the real world, too.)

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Opportunity

In the Pathways to Sustainable Invention webinar series, multigenerational panels of inventors from diverse backgrounds — including student inventors — share their experiences. The next event, “How Black inventors are transforming food science” will take place on May 10. Check out the recordings of past webinars, which are available on YouTube .

Find out more about the resources available for using Science News for Students stories for learning. And if you like this newsletter, please share it with a friend or colleague. Did someone share this with you? Subscribe to this newsletter here. If you’ve got questions, suggestions or comments, email us at sns@sciencenews.org. Thank you for reading!