Science and Technolgy blog
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.
A recent study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior sheds light on the link between men’s habitual body gaze behavior and problematic attitudes related to sexual objectification. The researchers found that men who frequently direct their attention toward women’s…
Enlarge / Boeing’s uncrewed Starliner spaceraft backs away from the International Space Station moments after undocking on September 6, 2024. (credit: NASA) Nearly a decade ago to the day, I stood in the international terminal of Houston’s main airport checking…
DNA from a partial skeleton found in France indicates that European Neandertals consisted of at least two genetically distinct populations.
Thorin — nicknamed after a dwarf in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” — is also called the “last Neanderthal” because he may have lived as recently as 42,000 years ago.
A DNA analysis of 15 Rapa Nui individuals revealed that there was never a population collapse on Easter Island and that the inhabitants commingled with Native Americans.
(credit: BalticServers.com) Data centers powering the generative AI boom are gulping water and exhausting electricity at what some researchers view as an unsustainable pace. Two entrepreneurs who met in high school a few years ago want to overcome that crunch…
Personality traits like neuroticism and introversion are significant predictors of depression across the lifespan, according to research published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. Depression remains one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. While depression is often characterized by…
Droughts temporarily dampen the number of valley fever cases across the state, but cases spike in the years after rains return.
A new study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships has found that the negative effects of being cheated on by a romantic partner can extend beyond emotional pain to potentially harm your long-term health. Researchers found that…
This is another in our series of stories identifying new technologies and actions that can slow climate change, reduce its impacts or help communities cope with a rapidly changing world. When Gijsbert Cirkel coached his son’s soccer team, he remembers the kids laying…
The Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbor, glows brightly in a new Hubble Space Telescope image with swathes of ionized gas that fuel star formation.
Newly released images of Mars reveal a “smiley” salt deposit on the Red Planet’s surface. A related study suggests that similar deposits, which were left behind from ancient lakes, may be a good place to look for signs of former…
A recent study published in Social Science Quarterly has found evidence linking former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about COVID-19 to a surge in anti-Asian sentiment on social media. The study suggests that Trump’s repeated references to the coronavirus as the…
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) It’s not every day that a security researcher acquires the ability to generate counterfeit HTTPS certificates, track email activity, and execute code of his choice on thousands of servers—all in a single blow…
An eel inside the digestive tract of a dark sleeper fish before its escape attempt.
Batteries used in smartphones or in EVs normally charge for 10 hours on their first cycle, but turbo-charging them to 100% capacity in 20 minutes may lead to a 50% longer lifespan.
A new study published in Nature Microbiology has revealed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, evolves more rapidly in the brain than in the lungs, possibly explaining some of the neurological symptoms associated with the disease. This finding may…
Enlarge / Artist’s illustration of catch arms ensnaring SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster. (credit: SpaceX) The Federal Aviation Administration has signaled to SpaceX that it won’t approve a launch license for the next test flight of the Starship rocket until at…
A recent study published in Psychological Reports examined how individuals’ ideological rigidity and political conservatism influence their reactions to people with differing beliefs and their fears about death. The study found that people who hold rigid ideological beliefs tend to…
The US government recently announced multiple charges against the alleged leaders of the “Terrorgram Collective,” which does just what it sounds like—it promotes terrorism on the Telegram messaging platform. In this case, the terrorism was white racial terror, complete with…
Enlarge (credit: Westend61 | Westend61) Nevada will soon become the first state to use AI to help speed up the decision-making process when ruling on appeals that impact people’s unemployment benefits. The state’s Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation (DETR)…
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a pair of distant galaxies being twisted into a cosmic question mark thanks to a rare form of gravitational lensing.
NASA’s testing a solar sail system in space, and the spacecraft that brought the tech there has snapped a photo.
Shorter sleep and later bedtimes are linked to potentially harmful functional changes to parts of the brain important for coping with stress and controlling negative emotions, our recently published research found. And children in families with low economic resources are…
Enlarge / In the U.S., a folding phone has you carrying around nearly $2,000 of fragile, folding OLED phone. In China and export-friendly countries, the Mate XT adds $1,000 and yet another hinge. (credit: Huawei) Huawei’s Mate XT Ultimate is…
Enlarge (credit: Getty | MICHAEL KAPPELER) The human body is full of marvels, some even bordering on miraculous. That includes the limited ability for nerves to regenerate after injuries, allowing people to regain some function and feeling. But that wonder…
Getting an accurate estimate of when someone died is a critical part of forensic investigations. In extremely cold conditions, molecular biology can provide critical information that the naked eye cannot.
Researchers have discovered that people can infer the preferences of others by observing how quickly they make decisions in social scenarios. The study, published in PLOS Biology, reveals that decision-making speed can provide key insights into a person’s social preferences,…
Enlarge / “The only species of fish confirmed to be able to escape from the digestive tract of the predatory fish after being captured.” (credit: Hasegawa et al./Current Biology) Imagine you’re a Japanese eel, swimming around just minding your own…
Enlarge / More streamlined (but still user-replaceable) battery packs are responsible for some of the Reform Next’s space savings. (credit: MNT Research) The current booting prototype of the MNT Reform Next. [credit: MNT Research ] The original MNT Reform laptop…
Conforming to certain feminine norms, such as modesty, thinness, and appearance, is associated with increased psychological distress among college women, according to research published in Current Psychology. College women face unique stressors, including adapting to a new environment, developing new…
