Science and Technolgy blog
Enlarge (credit: Aleksandra Konoplia via Getty) Since around 2013, Jonathan Mann’s sole job has been writing and posting a song online each day. With titles ranging from “Yeah, I’m Rocking a Headband” to “Joe Biden, Retire” (posted July 1), his…
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Malicious hackers likely working on behalf of the Chinese government have been exploiting a high-severity zero-day vulnerability that allowed them to infect at least four US-based ISPs with malware that steals credentials used by downstream customers,…
In the hustle and bustle of family life, expressing gratitude is often touted as a key ingredient for happiness. However, it’s not just about showing appreciation—feeling appreciated is also important. A new study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology…
A new epinephrine nasal spray gives people a needle-free way to treat severe allergic reactions to food, insect venom and drugs.
A longitudinal study of a large number of Czech adolescents found that individuals scoring higher on physical aggression tended to play video games that are a bit more violent. This was particularly the case among younger participants. However, the study…
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Content warning: The following story describes instances of animal abuse. In 2017, the Des Moines, Iowa, lawyer Philip Colt Moss was facing felony drug charges after a raid on his townhome turned up marijuana, hash, OxyContin,…
Archaeologists, take note. There may be brains hiding inside excavated human skulls. New data show that human brains can resist decay for at least 12,000 years. When scientists find ancient preserved brains, they often call their finds unique or one-of-a-kind,…
Quantum compasses need six atom interferometers, each the size of a small room, to work. But scientists have made crucial steps to miniaturizing these devices.
Medical anthropologist and bioethicist Julia Brown says scientists and nonscientists need to talk about whether and how we should use CRISPR to edit the fetal genome.
Sleep, a basic human need, might be more intertwined with our political views than we ever imagined. A recent study conducted in Arizona reveals that Republicans generally enjoy better sleep than Democrats and Independents. The findings were recently published in…
Images by the James Webb telescope of six Jupiter-sized worlds, one of which may have a moon-forming disk, reveal clues into how planets and stars form.
A recent landslide along the banks of a river in British Columbia completely dammed the waterway, leading to evacuation warnings and potentially dooming an endangered fish population trapped on the wrong side of the debris.
Enlarge / An AI-generated example of the Cyberpunk 2077 LoRA, rendered with Flux dev. Last week, a hobbyist experimenting with the new Flux AI image synthesis model discovered that it’s unexpectedly good at rendering custom-trained reproductions of typefaces. While far…
Enlarge / A Samsung representative demonstrating Tizen OS in February. (credit: Samsung) Samsung will provide operating system updates for its newer TVs for at least seven years, the company announced last week. The updates will first apply to some TVs…
Enlarge / President of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Rick Doblin speaks onstage during the 2023 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York on September 18, 2023, in New York City. (credit: Getty | John Lamparski) There’s more bad…
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will spend at least eight consecutive months aboard the International Space Station as their Boeing Starliner spacecraft returns to Earth empty. Is their extended spaceflight record-setting?
Enlarge / Look! A wild Valve game appears! (credit: Valve) If you read Ars Technica regularly, you’ve known since May that Valve is working on Deadlock, a mishmash of genres that has been slowly amassing SteamDB-tracked players through an invite-only…
Enlarge / Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey arrives to testify at House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | Bill Clark) A federal judge ordered Missouri’s attorney general to halt an investigation into Media…
A mutation on the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19 could help it infect the brain by forcing it to use a cellular “back door.”
The small carving was made 14,000 years ago by a group of hunters.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have made a significant discovery about the aging process of brain cells, revealing that some brain cells age faster than others. They found that these rapidly aging cells are more abundant in…
Enlarge / Cursed Gold: A Shipwreck Scandal documents the spectacular rise and fall of treasure hunter Tommy Thompson. (credit: Recovery Limited Partnership Liquidating Trust) Many people dream of finding lost or hidden treasure, but sometimes realizing that dream turns out…
Enlarge / The crew of Polaris Dawn, from L to R: Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis, and Jared Isaacman. (credit: Polaris Program/John Kraus) SpaceX is set to launch the 14th crewed flight on its Dragon spacecraft early on…
As global temperatures continue to rise, so too does the urgency of understanding how people form their beliefs about climate change. A recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology explores a link between personal experiences of temperature anomalies…
(credit: DOE) While solar power is growing at an extremely rapid clip, in absolute terms, the use of natural gas for electricity production has continued to outpace renewables. But that looks set to change in 2024, as the US Energy…
Enlarge (credit: Apple) Apple’s next product announcement event is happening on September 9 at 1 pm ET, the company announced today. While most of Apple’s products are updated irregularly, Apple has reliably launched next-generation iPhones every September since the iPhone…
Enlarge / Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram, speaks at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 on September 21, 2015, in San Francisco, California. (credit: Getty Images | tSteve Jennings) After the arrest of Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov in…
The LZ dark matter experiment has ruled out weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, with a wide range of properties.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will not return to Earth on the troubled Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Instead, NASA will bring them home in February 2025 aboard a SpaceX vehicle, while Starliner falls to Earth uncrewed.
Enlarge / Mercedes-Benz got into the passenger infotainment game with the EQS. (credit: Mercedes-Benz) Jumping into a new car from the driver’s seat of something built before 2010 can cause quite the case of future shock. Over that time, automakers…
Dr. Neal Baer discusses a new book about the incredible promise and potential pitfalls of CRISPR gene-editing technology.
“Eugenics seeks to improve by eliminating the characteristics considered at a particular time and place to be disadvantages and to maximize those considered normal.”
A study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy has demonstrated that targeting a specific part of the brain with magnetic stimulation can disrupt the consolidation of traumatic memories, potentially paving the way for new treatments for conditions like anxiety and…
A phenomenon occurring deep underground may explain how vast plateaus form far away from tectonic plate boundaries.
Enlarge (credit: ) Ikea is taking on the likes of eBay, Craigslist, and Gumtree with a peer-to-peer marketplace for customers to sell secondhand furniture to each other. Ikea Preowned will be tested in Madrid and Oslo until the end of…
Enlarge (credit: ) Ikea is taking on the likes of eBay, Craigslist, and Gumtree with a peer-to-peer marketplace for customers to sell secondhand furniture to each other. Ikea Preowned will be tested in Madrid and Oslo until the end of…
As a species, humans like to think that we are fully in control of our decisions and behavior. But just below the surface, forces beyond our conscious control influence how we think and behave: our genes. Since the 1950s, scientists…
As a species, humans like to think that we are fully in control of our decisions and behavior. But just below the surface, forces beyond our conscious control influence how we think and behave: our genes. Since the 1950s, scientists…
As parts of the U.S. sizzle and others flood, Extreme Climate Update looks at the perfect storm this creates for mosquitoes and the diseases they carry.
Scientists build a new light source for quantum communications by combining existing technologies together to create a stronger and more robust quantum signal.
As pornography becomes increasingly accessible, the question of how its consumption impacts individuals is gaining attention. For some, viewing pornography is a casual activity with little consequence. However, for others, it can evolve into a pattern of behavior that disrupts…
Four thousand years ago, the world’s last woolly mammoth took its final breath. But the reason for that may not be what many scientists had long suspected. The last of this species lived on Wrangel Island. That’s off the coast…
Cosmic rays (noun, “KOZ-mick rayz”) Cosmic rays are high-energy particles that zoom through the cosmos. Most of these particles are protons. Others are proton-neutron clusters, or atomic nuclei. They race through space at nearly the speed of light and rain…
The Polar Ignite 3 Titanium offers a stylish upgrade to the mildly-received Polar Ignite 3, but does this fitness tracker deliver more than just good looks?
A series of four studies confirmed the link between feeling threatened and anti-establishment attitudes. The type of threat in question was not important, as both realistic and symbolic threats predicted anti-establishment attitudes. The research was published in Cognition and Emotion.…
Height loss could be an early sign of a more serious health condition.
New evidence from West Papua offers fresh clues about how and when humans first moved into the Pacific
A longitudinal study in the U.S. found that adolescents with less secure attachment to their fathers tend to have higher levels of both internalizing and externalizing mental health symptoms. More severe externalizing symptoms were associated with more frequent alcohol consumption…
The first signs of a potential hurricane can be detected days before a storm gains its fierce momentum.
When it comes to friendships between men and women, many people hold the belief that there’s always a potential for something more than just friendship. But how does this belief change when the woman in the friendship dresses or behaves…
