Science and Technolgy blog
A new ecological model suggests Neanderthals and modern humans interbred in the Zagros Mountains in what is now Iran before going their separate ways 80,000 years ago.
Waymo’s robotaxis are going to get a lot more angular in the future. Today, the autonomous driving startup and Hyundai announced that they have formed a strategic partnership, and the first product will be the integration of Waymo’s autonomous vehicle…
The team behind iA Writer, a distraction-free writing app that syncs across platforms, has left its Android app “frozen in carbonite.” The app is still alive for those who had it installed, but it cannot sync with Drive or be…
A few weeks before Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey, announced in May 2024 that they were expecting, the pop icon posted a selfie where he appears tearful and distraught. While media attention quickly pivoted to the pregnancy, there was…
Any striking marketing claims in companies’ ads about the gut benefits of a popular probiotic may be full of, well, the same thing that has their target audience backed up. In a randomized controlled trial, the probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis subsp.…
We tend to think of agriculture as a human innovation. But insects beat us to it by millions of years. Various ant species cooperate with fungi, creating a home for them, providing them with nutrients, and harvesting them as food.…
Samsung issued a software update on October 2 that bricked some older Galaxy smartphones. While Samsung has stopped the update from rolling out further, those with broken phones have received a harsh reminder of the importance of data backups. On…
Eiffinger’s tree frog babies store their solid waste in an intestinal pouch, releasing less ammonia into their watery cribs than other frog species.
Researchers created a seismic map of Earth’s interior beneath the southeastern Pacific Ocean and discovered an ancient slab of oceanic crust that appears to be stuck midway through the mantle.
A recent study published in the journal Sex Roles highlights a troubling reality for many women in the world of online gaming. The research shows that women gamers who identify as feminists or engage in actions promoting gender equality are…
After decades of searching, a telltale gravitational wobble points to an exoplanet orbiting the nearby red dwarf every 3.15 days.
The sun has unleashed the most powerful solar flare since 2017, just days after it spat out another monster explosion. Both outbursts have launched solar storms that will likely hit Earth this weekend and trigger vibrant aurora displays.
Six earthquakes were recorded at Mount Adams in September — the highest number in a single month since records began in 1982.
Scientists first described the flooded cave in 2016 but determined its extraordinary extent years later.
A study conducted in Spain found that individuals’ perceptions of adulthood—specifically, how much they believe they have achieved what it takes to be an adult—are associated with their mental health. These perceptions were linked to nearly every index of mental…
Even a microwave oven is not immune to bacteria. With microwave radiation bouncing around inside them, these ovens might seem a threatening place to microbes. But scientists have just turned up more than up 100 different strains of bacteria living…
A rare nova explosion will soon bring a “new star” to the night sky, and scientists are excited.
A recent study published in Cerebral Cortex has deepened our understanding of how the brain processes six distinct types of love. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers examined the neural activity triggered when people experience love for romantic partners,…
The newfound wreck could help maritime archaeologists better understand how 20th-century warships were designed.
A recent study published in the journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior found that smartphones can negatively impact social connectedness and well-being, but the extent of these effects depends on the situation and varies by the gender of the user. Men,…
Archaeologists think the coin dates to the first years of the region’s rule by the Ottoman Empire.
An mRNA vaccine that targets several aspects of C. difficile’s ability to cause severe disease prevented major symptoms and death in mice.
On Oct. 2, a partial “ring of fire” solar eclipse was visible from the remote island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, where around 1,000 stone moai statues stand. You can see the whole celestial event play out…
A study published in the Journal of Political Marketing sheds light on the relationship between online social networks and voting behavior. The analysis of Republican Twitter users during the 2022 U.S. Senate elections found that individuals in tightly connected social…
I was on vacation last week, the kind of vacation in which entire days had no particular plan. I had brought the ROG Ally X with me, and, with the review done and Windows still annoying me, I looked around…
The second flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, planned for Friday morning, has a primary goal of validating the launcher’s reliability for delivering critical US military satellites to orbit. Tory Bruno, ULA’s chief executive, told reporters Wednesday that he…
Upholding the First Amendment, a senior US district judge has blocked California’s deepfakes law, AB 2839, which was designed to stop deceptive AI-generated content from impacting election outcomes. Last month, a parody video creator known as “Mr Reagan” on YouTube…
A new physical model suggests meltwater from thawing permafrost on Russia’s Yamal Peninsula can unlock methane sources at depth, triggering explosions that open enormous craters at the surface.
Images captured by Curiosity’s onboard cameras show several large tears in the tire of one of the rover’s wheels. However, the damage does not appear to be slowing the roaming robot down.
The Thule Inuit people and Norse both hunted walrus in the High Arctic in the 13th century, according to a new study.
New research published in Science shows that for some people who believe in conspiracy theories, a fact-based conversation with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can “pull them out of the rabbit hole”. Better yet, it seems to keep them out…
On Monday, Microsoft unveiled updates to its consumer AI assistant Copilot, introducing two new experimental features for a limited group of $20/month Copilot Pro subscribers: Copilot Labs and Copilot Vision. Labs integrates OpenAI’s latest o1 “reasoning” model, and Vision allows…
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the uncontrolled reentry of part of a Falcon 9 rocket that delivered passengers to the International Space Station in a capsule that will return stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth…
Screen devices are everywhere: we use them for entertainment, connection, and critical day-to-day functions. But Estonian scientists find that screens can have a negative effect on children’s language development. They surveyed hundreds of families about their screen use and their…
The electric vehicle charging company EVgo has secured conditional approval for a $1.05 billion loan from the US Department of Energy, the company revealed this morning. EVgo has applied to DOE’s Title 17 program, which exists to provide US Treasury-backed…
A recent study published in Communications Psychology investigates how certain beliefs about politics influence people’s willingness to engage in political discussions. Researchers found that individuals who see politics as a zero-sum game — where one side’s gain is inevitably another’s…
Bionics engineers typically view biology as something to be worked around. “Anatomics” engineers the body to be part of the system.
Save $60 and get the Celestron TrailSeeker 8×42 binoculars for $239.95 at Amazon — but you’ll have to be quick as we’ve seen the deal expire briefly this week already.
An analysis of data from several previous studies indicated that individuals who experienced more childhood adversity tend to show dampened subjective responses to methamphetamine and d-amphetamine 90 to 180 minutes after administration. However, their subjective responses to buprenorphine were not…
Every second, cells throughout your body send out small electrical signals. Tiny jolts control your heartbeat. In your brain, cells use electricity to release chemicals that make you feel happy or sad. In your muscles, they send signals that help…
Our daily lives seem to run on electricity. Electric lights illuminate our rooms. Electric power runs our computers, microwave ovens, cell phones and countless features on our cars. When we lose access to electricity, it can feel like we also…
Your heart beats about 100,000 times per day. That’s around 3 billion times over an average lifetime. Each beat pumps blood to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen. From there, it flows on to all of the rest of…
Save $400 on one of the best telescopes — Celestron Advanced VX 8-inch EdgeHD is now 14% off at Adorama in this price drop before Amazon Prime Day.
This 2015 photo from the International Space Station showcases the deep tidal channels that cut through a line of cays in the Bahamas. Astronauts say it is “one of the most recognizable points on the planet.”
New research published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement has found that older adults who regularly participated in mentally challenging activities, such as reading or puzzles, maintained higher levels of memory, working memory, attention, and processing speed over several years…
Subscribers to Prime Video’s ad tier will start seeing more commercials next year, further testing how much advertising streamers will tolerate. Speaking to the Financial Times today, Kelly Day, VP of Prime Video International, said that Amazon will offer more…
Attackers are actively exploiting a critical vulnerability in mail servers sold by Zimbra in an attempt to remotely execute malicious commands that install a backdoor, researchers warn. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-45519, resides in the Zimbra email and collaboration server…
Two Harvard students recently revealed that it’s possible to combine Meta smart glasses with face image search technology to “reveal anyone’s personal details,” including their name, address, and phone number, “just from looking at them.” In a Google document, AnhPhu…
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has now raised $6.6 billion in a new funding round that values the company at $157 billion, nearly doubling its previous valuation of $86 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The…
A study of avalanche survival data shows that survival rates have increased and rescues are faster, but time is still critical for buried victims.
