Science and Technolgy blog
A new study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience suggests that exposure to artificial light at night may contribute to an increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease, particularly among younger individuals. The researchers found a significant correlation between higher levels of outdoor…
Enlarge / Hard drives, unfortunately, tend to die not with a spectacular and sparkly bang, but with a head-is-stuck whimper. (credit: Getty Images) One of the things enterprise storage and destruction company Iron Mountain does is handle the archiving of…
Enlarge / Emojipedia sample images of the new Unicode 16.0 emoji. (credit: Emojipedia) The Unicode Consortium has finalized and released version 16.0 of the Unicode standard, the elaborate character set that ensures that our phones, tablets, PCs, and other devices…
Enlarge (credit: Vlatko Gasparic via Getty Images) OpenAI finally unveiled its rumored “Strawberry” AI language model on Thursday, claiming significant improvements in what it calls “reasoning” and problem-solving capabilities over previous large language models (LLMs). Formally named “OpenAI o1,” the…
A composite image of an annular solar eclipse showing Baily’s Beads won top prize at the 2024 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest.
Enlarge / The “VP” on the cab light is a nice touch. (credit: Itch.io) Last month, in a profile of newly named Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, The New York Times included a throwaway line about “the time his…
Enlarge / A woman wearing a sweatshirt for the QAnon conspiracy theory on October 11, 2020 in Ronkonkoma, New York. (credit: Stephanie Keith | Getty Images) Belief in conspiracy theories is rampant, particularly in the US, where some estimates suggest…
AI might help lift conspiracy theorists out of the rabbit hole, but some researchers say proceed with caution.
Volcanoes spewing carbon dioxide 250 million years ago heated the climate so much that extreme El Niño events became the norm, pushing most life on Earth past its limits.
In September, a strange nine-day signal rocked our planet and baffled scientists. Now they have finally found the cause.
A recent study published in Scientific Reports has shed light on how different forms of narcissism influenced people’s thoughts and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers found that distinct types of narcissism led to both antisocial and prosocial responses.…
Enlarge (credit: Dmitri Toms | iStock / Getty Images Plus) Federal authorities have seized more than 350 websites after an undercover investigation revealed that the sites were used to illegally import gun parts into the US from China. To get…
Physicists have created a one dimensional gas out of light particles for the first time. Studying how the photon gas behaves could help researchers discover some yet-unknown quantum optical effects.
Detailed 3D images of the first tardigrade fossils ever discovered help scientists predict when tardigrades evolved their near-indestructibility — a trait that might have helped them survive multiple mass extinctions.
Archaeologists think the ancient helmet indicates that Celts settled in the region to protect their supplies of precious amber.
Enlarge / Are you getting gas station vibes? Because I’m getting gas station vibes. (credit: GM) Several years ago, General Motors and EVgo teamed up to build out a network of fast chargers for electric vehicles. As Tesla proved, giving…
A new tool can reveal whether someone has a “healthy” gut microbiome with a simple score — but how does it work?
A study published in Marketing Letters found that self-perceived attractiveness can promote prosocial behavior through increased public self-consciousness and impression management, but only when these actions are visible to others. While prior studies have explored how observers perceive the morality…
Enlarge / The primary mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope enters a vacuum test chamber at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 2017. (credit: NASA/Desiree Stover) A panel of independent experts reported this week that NASA lacks funding to maintain…
Enlarge (credit: iFixit) Not being able to solder puts a hard cap on the kinds of devices you can fix at home. As more modern devices add in circuit boards and discrete electronics (needed or otherwise), soldering is often the…
Enlarge / GM CEO Mary Barra (left) and Hyundai executive chair Euisun Chung (right) have agreed to have their companies collaborate. (credit: Hyundai Motor Group) Two of the world’s largest automakers are becoming closer friends, we learned this morning. Hyundai…
Enlarge / Google’s booth at the Integrated Systems Europe conference on January 31, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain. (credit: Getty Images | Cesc Maymo ) Google is under investigation by Europe’s privacy watchdog over its processing of personal data in the…
Scientists can estimate how much more likely or severe some past natural disasters were due to human-caused climate change. Here’s how.
Wildlife officials in Georgia stumbled across a pair of snakes that had been “expelled” by a larger serpent, only to discover that one of the regurgitated victims was still alive.
A new study sheds light on how highly creative individuals, such as visual artists and scientists, may have brains that function differently compared to others. The research, published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, reveals that people who…
Enlarge / Jared Isaacman emerges from the Dragon spacecraft on Thursday morning. (credit: SpaceX webcast) The Polaris Dawn mission took firm step into the future on Thursday morning when two private citizens, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, briefly ventured outside…
Enlarge / The Engo 2 smartglasses with heads-up display look slightly bulky. (credit: BradleyWarren Photography) When it comes to working out, I’m a data nerd. A Google spreadsheet contains every bike ride I’ve been on for the past four years,…
A recent study explored how students respond to AI-powered assistance in the context of peer feedback and its impact on their ability to self-regulate their learning. The researchers found that while AI tools improved the quality of student feedback, there…
Enlarge / An AI-generated image featuring my late father’s handwriting. (credit: Benj Edwards / Flux) Growing up, if I wanted to experiment with something technical, my dad made it happen. We shared dozens of tech adventures together, but those adventures…
Yellowstone National Park is known for its bubbling hot springs and steaming geysers. These hydrothermal wonders are powered by a massive cauldron of partly melted rock deep underground. It holds enough seething magma to build several Mount Everests. Yellowstone’s volcano…
Scientists in the U.S. have created a battery for electric cars that could be safer and offer better performance than the ones we have now thanks to a unique design.
The gigantic asteroid 2024 ON, about the size of a blue whale, will fly close to Earth next Tuesday, missing our planet by 2.6 times the distance between Earth and the moon.
Recent research published in the journal Cell has found a link between our mental state and the immune system, particularly through an interaction between the brain and the gut. The study focused on a little-known structure in the digestive system…
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Microsoft has updated a key cryptographic library with two new encryption algorithms designed to withstand attacks from quantum computers. The updates were made last week to SymCrypt, a core cryptographic code library for handing cryptographic functions…
Enlarge / It’s never explained what this collection of app icons quite represents. A disorganized app you tossed together by sideloading? A face that’s frowning because it’s rolling down a bar held up by app icons? It’s weird, but not…
Observations from the Event Horizon Telescope may reveal a secret merger in our supermassive black hole’s past, potentially explaining the cosmic monster’s unusual spin.
Enlarge / A screenshot of Taylor Swift’s Kamala Harris Instagram post, captured on September 11, 2024. (credit: Taylor Swift / Instagram) On Tuesday night, Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for US President on Instagram, citing concerns over AI-generated…
Enlarge / A staffer with the Paul, Weiss legal firm wheels boxes of legal documents into the Albert V. Bryan US Courthouse at the start of a Department of Justice antitrust trial against Google over its advertiing business in Alexandria,…
Enlarge / The moai of Rapa Nui. (credit: Don Farrall) Rapa Nui, often referred to as Easter Island, is one of the most remote populated islands in the world. It’s so distant that Europeans didn’t stumble onto it until centuries…
Enlarge / Notice anything missing from the one and only model of the PS5 Pro? (credit: Sony) Here at Ars, we’ve been publicly musing about whether the world was ready for a disc-free game console since as far back as…
Enlarge / A Waymo vehicle in San Francisco. (credit: Photo by JasonDoiy via Getty Images) On a Friday evening last November, police chased a silver sedan across the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The fleeing vehicle entered San Francisco and went…
Enlarge / A woman holds a placard saying “No Forced Births” as abortion rights activists gather at the Monroe County Courthouse for a protest vigil a few hours before Indianas near total abortion ban goes into effect on September 15,…
Three newfound thylacine relatives recently unearthed in Australia suggest that marsupial predators were more widespread in ancient Australia than previously thought.
Wild gorillas eat the same tree bark used by traditional healers, which can inhibit the growth of E. coli in petri dishes, according to a new study.
Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the sky, may have a secret sunlike companion that drives the star’s mysterious six-year-long “heartbeat,” new research suggests.
A large longitudinal study of romantic relationships found that relationship satisfaction tends to decline over time, but the decrease is sharper in relationships that eventually break up compared to those that endure. The study also identified a “critical value” for…
Enlarge / The latest Volkswagen Golf GTI isn’t perfect, but it has enough charm to overcome its flaws. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin) “They won’t make them like this much longer” is a pretty hackneyed aphorism, but it certainly applies to the…
New simulations reveal that there is an extremely small chance that the “city-killer” asteroid Apophis could be nudged onto a collision course with Earth by another asteroid before it flies past our planet in 2029.
If Atlantic Ocean currents collapse due to melting ice sheets, researchers predict there will be huge shifts in tropical monsoon systems — and the effects could be irreversible for at least 100 years.
Researchers exploring the seafloor off the coast of Chile recently captured mesmerizing footage of a flying spaghetti monster — a carnivorous, colonial creature with countless milky-white arms.
