Science and Technolgy blog
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
On Thursday NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are scheduled to don spacesuits to exit the International Space Station. However, despite a plea from President Trump to bring them home as soon as possible, the pair won’t be coming…
A space rock dubbed 2024 YR4 has a 1.2% chance of smashing into our planet, scientists estimate.
A recent flurry of executive orders and surprise actions by the Trump administration have roiled WHO, the CDC and the international public health community.
Your brain can still make new neurons when you’re an adult. But how does the rare birth of these new neurons contribute to cognitive function? Neurons are the cells that govern brain function, and you are born with most of…
The Trump administration today withdrew a controversial order to freeze funding for a wide range of government programs, according to multiple news reports. Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Matthew Vaeth reportedly wrote in today’s memo, “OMB Memorandum…
Echoing Elon Musk’s approach to thinning out Twitter’s staff in 2022, Donald Trump’s plan to significantly slash the government workforce now, for a limited time only, includes offering resignation buyouts. In a Tuesday email that the Office of Personnel Management…
Alibaba claims that its Qwen2.5-Max artificial intelligence model outperformed its rivals at OpenAI, Meta and DeepSeek.
A miniature gold lock dated to the third to fourth centuries was found by a metal detectorist in Germany.
DeepSeek has quickly upended markets with the release of an R1 model that is competitive with OpenAI’s best-in-class reasoning models. But some have expressed worry that the model’s Chinese origins mean it will be subject to limits when talking about…
PC game storefront GOG, which has recently pledged to focus on restoring and preserving Good Gold Games, has now revamped its community wishlist for games to bring to its storefront. The GOG Dreamlist serves not only as a way to…
Sony’s game publishing arm has done a 180-degree turn on a controversial policy of requiring PC players to sign in with PlayStation accounts for some games, according to a blog post by the company. A PlayStation account will “become optional”…
An egg-cracking beam relies on a hyperelastic torque reversal mechanism similar to that used by mantis shrimp and jumping fleas. Credit: Seoul National University. An egg-cracking beam relies on a hyperelastic torque reversal mechanism similar to that used by mantis…
The Trump administration today withdrew a controversial order to freeze funding for a wide range of government programs, according to multiple news reports. Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Matthew Vaeth reportedly wrote in today’s memo, “OMB Memorandum…
Astronauts on board China’s “heavenly palace” space station have demonstrated a new way of making rocket fuel products and breathable oxygen by mimicking a chemical reaction in plants. The technology could be utilized in China’s planned moon base.
Ocean warming has more than quadrupled in recent decades and is likely to accelerate even faster if humanity fails to address climate change, scientists find.
A recent study published in the European Journal of Neuroscience sheds light on how childhood maltreatment may leave lasting impacts on brain structure, particularly in young adults who experience romantic relationship breakups. Researchers found that the combination of childhood maltreatment…
Starting a few days after the Trump inauguration, word spread within the research community that some grant spending might be on hold. On Monday, confirmation came in the form of a memo sent by the Office of Management and Budget…
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card was faster than the RTX 3080 card it replaced. But it was also faster than the RTX 3080 Ti, 3090, and 3090 Ti. One of the good things about a new graphics card generation…
Scientists have found all five nucelobases alongisde minerals essential for life as we know it on the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu.
A newly translated papyrus found in Israel provides information about criminal cases and slave ownership in the Roman Empire.
A recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology highlights the role that shared reality with romantic partners plays in reducing uncertainty and enhancing a sense of meaning in life. The research reveals that when couples share…
Casarabe people grew the nutritious crop year-round on savannas thanks to networks of drainage canals and ponds.
Samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission show the asteroid Bennu had organic molecules and minerals and possibly salty water and other life ingredients.
The concept of flying out to distant asteroids and mining them for precious metals is going to seem preposterous right up until the moment that someone actually does it. It’s a terrible business model because it requires years and years…
Global warming caused mainly by burning of fossil fuels made the hot, dry, and windy conditions that drove the recent deadly fires around Los Angeles about 35 times more likely to occur, an international team of scientists concluded in a…
A study in Taiwan found that 30 minutes of aerobic exercise induced cognition-enhancing effects in individuals with ADHD. These exercises enhanced short intracortical inhibition in individuals with ADHD while reducing it in healthy participants. The paper was published in Psychiatry…
US President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Transportation was sworn in to his new job yesterday. And as widely expected, Secretary Sean Duffy moved to immediately rip up the nation’s fuel efficiency standards. Duffy issued a memo…
Death by heartbreak doesn’t just happen in stories. In real life, severe stress can cause the sometimes-fatal takotsubo syndrome.
If you were hoping for a respite from rising streaming subscription fees in 2025, you’re out of luck. Several streaming providers have already increased monthly and/or annual subscription rates, continuing a disappointing trend from the past few years, with no…
Human evolution is far from a relic of the past, as a new study in Behavior Genetics demonstrates. By analyzing data from three generations of Americans, researchers found that natural selection is favoring certain health-related traits while selecting against traits…
In comic books, Spider-Man swings from skyscrapers, hanging from super-strong threads of silk. He shoots these sticky threads from his wrists. Now researchers have found a way to mimic this superhero material in real life. It’s the first adhesive that…
Objective: To investigate which liquid will keep sliced apples looking the freshest Areas of science: Chemistry, Food Science Difficulty: Hard beginner Time required: ≤ 1 day Prerequisites: None Material availability: Readily available Cost: under $20 Safety: Adult supervision when using…
A minor earthquake has hit Yellowstone National Park, and some people in the region experienced a tremor. The magnitude 3.9 earthquake struck near Norris Geyser Basin, which has a history of quakes.
Most exposures to black widow spider venom are accidental, but in a rare medical case, the exposure was intentional.
Why did so many Trump supporters continue to back him after his claims of election fraud in 2020 were disproven? A study published in PS: Political Science & Politics suggests that a deep psychological bond with the former president—referred to…
One of the new Trump administration’s first national security directives aims to defend against missile and drone attacks targeting the United States, and several elements of the plan require an expansion of the US military’s presence in space, the White…
For reasons that were not immediately clear, SpaceX founder Elon Musk took to his social media site X on Tuesday evening to make a perplexing space-based pronouncement. “The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on…
Found in a roughly 350-year-old manuscript by Dutch biologist Johannes Swammerdam, the scientific illustration shows the brain of a honeybee drone.
Bats may broadcast their personalities to others from a distance, new experiments suggest, which could play into social dynamics within a colony.
It’s only been a week since Chinese company DeepSeek launched its open-weights R1 reasoning model, which is reportedly competitive with OpenAI’s state-of-the-art o1 models despite being trained for a fraction of the cost. Already, American AI companies are in a…
By achieving a top speed of Mach 1.1, Boom Supersonic has broken records and is on course to revive supersonic passenger travel.
An ongoing tuberculosis outbreak in two Kansas counties has sickened dozens since January 2024.
By modifying 20 regions of the genome, scientists successfully bred mice with two male parents and raised them to maturity.
Weather data show how humankind’s burning of fossil fuels made the hot, dry, windy weather more likely, setting the stage for the Los Angeles wildfires.
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has released a new image generator, Janus-Pro-7B, which the company says is better than competitors.
US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is trying to block a plan to distribute Wi-Fi hotspots to schoolchildren, claiming it will lead to unsupervised Internet usage, endanger kids, and possibly restrict kids’ exposure to conservative viewpoints. “The government shouldn’t be complicit…
Apple-designed chips powering Macs, iPhones, and iPads contain two newly discovered vulnerabilities that leak credit card information, locations, and other sensitive data from the Chrome and Safari browsers as they visit sites such as iCloud Calendar, Google Maps, and Proton…
