Science and Technolgy blog
Donald Trump’s political rise has been closely tied to the grievances of White Americans who feel left behind by societal changes. A 2021 study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin provides insight into one source of this discontent:…
In hearings Wednesday and Thursday, senators questioned President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over his fitness to be the country’s top health official and control the mammoth $1.7 trillion agency. Kennedy would…
A mechanism that activates specific muscles in our ears is a leftover from our evolutionary past, back when our ancestors depended more on their hearing for survival.
Rather than helping each other out when they’re attacked, plants may have to eavesdrop on each other to know when to launch their own defenses.
New research from South Korea has found that for every 1°C increase in average annual atmospheric temperature (from the average temperature in the 1961–1990 period, due to climate change), the odds of having at least moderate depressive symptoms increased by…
In a lab test, chimps and orangutans can recognize their own reflection. But in the wild, baboons seemingly can’t do the same.
It’s a regrettable reality that there is never time to cover all the interesting scientific stories each month. In the past, we’ve featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we missed. This year, we’re experimenting with a monthly collection. January’s…
Upheaval Dome is a giant rock formation in southeastern Utah with two potential origin stories, although most scientists think it was created by an ancient meteor strike.
New research suggests that paranoia and excessive teleological thinking—two forms of distorted beliefs about intention—are associated with specific errors in visual perception. The findings, published in Communications Psychology, indicate that individuals with high levels of paranoia are more likely to…
The first season of Severance walked the line between science-fiction thriller and Office Space-like satire, using a clever conceit (characters can’t remember what happens at work while at home, and vice versa) to open up new storytelling possibilities. It hinted…
Welcome to Edition 7.29 of the Rocket Report! It may be difficult to believe, but we are already one full month into the new year. It will be hard to top this month in launch, however, given the historic debut…
Growing up, Roberto S. Luciani had hints that his brain worked differently than most people’s. He’d hear people talk about how they pictured what a character from a book should look like, for instance. He couldn’t relate to what they…
A new study published in Personal Relationships provides insight into how the age gap between romantic partners changes when people enter relationships at different life stages. Researchers analyzed data from 29 countries and found that as men grow older, they…
Ford provided flights from Albany to Charlotte and accommodation so Ars could attend its Ford Performance 2025 event. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. Ford’s no stranger to the NASCAR life. Ford driver Joey Logano was the 2024 Cup…
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS in a move that Democrats described as an attempt to intimidate the media. “I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement…
If you’ve been paying careful attention to YouTube recently, you may have noticed the rising trend of so-called “faceless YouTube channels” that never feature a visible human talking in the video frame. While some of these channels are simply authored…
Apple fell slightly short of investor expectations when it reported its first-quarter earnings today. While sales were up 4 percent overall, the iPhone showed signs of weakness, and sales in the Chinese market slipped by just over 11 percent. CEO…
The Video Game History Foundation has officially opened up digital access to a large portion of its massive archives today, offering fans and researchers unprecedented access to information and ephemera surrounding the past 50 years of the game industry. Today’s…
The US Copyright Office issued AI guidance this week that declared no laws need to be clarified when it comes to protecting authorship rights of humans producing AI-assisted works. “Questions of copyrightability and AI can be resolved pursuant to existing…
Let’s explore the possibility of traveling to universes beyond our own — if they so exist, that is.
A study published in Travel Behaviour and Society explores the role of gender associations in the adoption of electric vehicles. The research finds that countries with a more feminine cultural orientation tend to have higher rates of electric vehicle adoption.…
A recent study published in BMC Psychology has found that while dog owners tend to be more physically active than other pet owners, it is the physical activity they perform independently of their dogs and their general exercise habits that…
A cloud security firm found a publicly accessible, fully controllable database belonging to DeepSeek, the Chinese firm that has recently shaken up the AI world, “within minutes” of examining DeepSeek’s security, according to a blog post by Wiz. An analytical…
A woman with heart failure was kept alive long enough to receive a heart transplant, in part thanks to newly developed stem-cell-derived heart tissue grafts.
The motion kicks off inflammation but may also combat harmful bacteria
Why do podcast listeners feel so connected to hosts they have never met? A new study published in the Journal of Radio & Audio Media sheds light on this question, finding that authenticity plays a key role in forming these…
ChatGPT developer OpenAI and other players in the generative AI business were caught unawares this week by a Chinese company named DeepSeek, whose open source R1 simulated reasoning model provides results similar to OpenAI’s best paid models (with some notable…
On Thursday, OpenAI announced that it is deepening its ties with US government through a partnership with the National Laboratories and expects to use AI to “supercharge” research across a wide range of fields to better serve the public. “This…
A compact method of detecting neutrinos provides new tests of physics theories and could lead to new reactor-monitoring methods.
Astronomers have retracted the discovery of a new asteroid after realizing the object was the remains of Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster and its driver “Starman,” which were launched into space in 2018.
Fresh on the heels of a controversy in which ChatGPT-maker OpenAI accused the Chinese company behind DeepSeek R1 of using its AI model outputs against its terms of service, OpenAI’s largest investor, Microsoft, announced on Wednesday that it will now…
A recent study published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies sheds light on how Danish high school students use chatbots for social interactions. The study found that while most students do not engage in friend-like conversations with chatbots, a…
Microsoft switched the Surface Pro tablet and both sizes of Surface Laptop from Intel and AMD’s processors to Qualcomm’s Arm-based processors last summer, part of a renewed hardware and software push to make the Arm version of Windows a thing.…
Many blacktip reef sharks in French Polynesia are commonly fed by tourists. But the low-quality diet is changing the sharks’ behavior and physiology.
How much do you know about Alexander the Great?
A bright fireball streaked across the sky above mountains, glaciers, and spruce forest near the town of Revelstoke in British Columbia, Canada, on the evening of March 31, 1965. Fragments of this meteorite, discovered by beaver trappers, fell over a…
A neuroimaging study found that men and individuals with psychiatric symptoms who experience more pronounced anhedonia tend to have increased functional connectivity between the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus and the nucleus accumbens—two brain regions involved in reward processing. The…
Tesla released its financial results for 2024 on Wednesday afternoon, following the close of the markets. The maker of electric vehicles may have to invest in stocks of red ink, because 2024 results were even less impressive than the already-underwhelming…
Men have two birth control options: condoms and vasectomies. Why has it taken so long to develop more contraceptives?
“This process is like a cosmic CT scan, where we can look through different slices of cosmic history and track how matter clumped together at different epochs.”
A new study suggests the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has not weakened since the 1960s — but there’s no doubt the circulation will slow in the future, experts say.
A recent study published in the Journal of Sleep Research provides evidence that sleep, particularly rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, enhances problem-solving ability through analogical transfer. The researchers found that participants who took a nap were more successful at solving…
When you think a person is old, just how old are they? Does 50 seem old? What about 75? Or 100? That may be old for a human being. But for a glass sponge, turning 100 would be like a…
Alkaptonuria is an unusual disorder caused by a defect in protein metabolism.
A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that the long-standing stereotype of women being significantly more talkative than men is largely overstated. By analyzing the daily word use of thousands of participants across a…
When we developed the ability to convert various cells into a stem cell, it held the promise of an entirely new type of therapy. Rather than getting the body to try to fix itself with its cells or deal with…
US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) today proposed a law that would let copyright owners obtain court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to foreign piracy websites. The bill would also force DNS providers to block sites. Lofgren said…
Porsche provided flights from Daytona Beach to Valencia and accommodation so Ars could drive the new GT3. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. VALENCIA, SPAIN—A Porsche 911 is rather special compared to most “normal” cars. The rear-engined sports car…
“Our measurements imply that the supermassive black hole mass is 10% of the stellar mass in the galaxies we studied.”
Gravitational waves offer a ‘cosmic DNA test’ for black holes
