Science and Technolgy blog
Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico is home to 119 known caves, including North America’s largest cave chamber, the Big Room.
Gossip phrased with concern provides female gossipers a social advantage while harming the reputations of their targets, according to research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Research has documented that women engage in intrasexual competition through indirect tactics,…
A few months back, I put together a big fat guide on how to configure DNS and DHCP on your LAN the old-school way, with bind and dhcpd working together to seamlessly hand out addresses to hosts on your network…
Welcome to Edition 7.16 of the Rocket Report! Even several days later, it remains difficult to process the significance of what SpaceX achieved in South Texas last Sunday. The moment of seeing a rocket fall out of the sky and…
Elias Garcia-Pelegrin was looking for a quick magic trick that would capture the attention of people, not birds. He performed magic to help pay for university. And his “fast pass” fit the bill. But he soon realized that this trick…
The STAR1 robot can reach a top speed of 8 mph with the added help of a pair of sneakers.
From the discovery of gravity to the first mission to defend Earth from an asteroid, here are the most important physics experiments that changed the world.
A new study published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science sheds light on the motivations behind social media use among self-centered individuals. Contrary to the long-standing belief that such individuals use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok primarily to…
Viruses and bacteria have been around for billions of years, but which came first?
Climate change is putting monarch butterflies’ overwintering forests in Mexico at risk. Could planting new forests solve that problem?
The US Commerce Department announced Thursday it is easing restrictions on exports of space-related technology, answering a yearslong call from space companies to reform regulations governing international trade. This is the most significant update to space-related export regulations in a…
Recently, AI researcher Simon Willison wanted to add up his charges from using a cloud service, but the payment values and dates he needed were scattered among a dozen separate emails. Inputting them manually would have been tedious, so he…
It’s been a big year for Windows running on Arm chips, something that Microsoft and Arm chipmakers have been trying to get off the ground for well over a decade. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus are at the…
Since Redbox went bankrupt, many have wondered what will happen to those red kiosks and DVDs. Another question worth examining is: What will happen to all the data stored inside the Redboxes? Redbox parent company Chicken Soup for the Soul…
Dune: Prophecy will premiere on HBO and Max on November 17, 2024. New York Comic-Con kicked off today and among the highlights was an HBO panel devoted to the platform’s forthcoming new series, Dune: Prophecy—including the release of a two-and-a-half-minute…
Measles, whopping cough, polio, tetanus—devastating and sometimes deadly diseases await comebacks in the US as more and more parents are declining routine childhood vaccines that have proved safe and effective. The vaccination rates among kindergartners have fallen once again, dipping…
Between 1400 and 1775, a significant upsurge of witch trials swept across early-modern Europe, resulting in the execution of an estimated 40,000–60,000 accused witches. Historians and social scientists have long studied this period in hopes of learning more about how…
Don’t book your tickets for the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission next year just yet. We have had reason to doubt the official September 2025 launch date for the mission, the first crewed flight into deep space in more…
US officials charged a man with compromising the official Twitter/X account of the Securities and Exchange Commission for purposes of posting false information that caused the price of bitcoin to spike. The January attack, federal prosecutors said, started with a…
A metal detectorist in Germany has unearthed a hoard of nearly 3,000 Roman-era coins in an unusual place — north of the empire’s defensive lines.
Early screening for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism is important to ensure children have the support they need to gain the essential skills for daily life. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children be screened for developmental delays,…
A new study published in Nature Neuroscience has found that the presence, movements, and identity of human experimenters influence the activity of hippocampal neurons in Egyptian fruit bats. The research reveals that when these bats are flying, their brain cells…
Cops aren’t sure how to protect kids from an ever-escalating rise in fake child sex abuse imagery fueled by advances in generative AI. Last year, child safety experts warned of thousands of “AI-generated child sex images” rapidly spreading on the…
Android 15 started rolling out to Pixel devices Tuesday and will arrive, through various third-party efforts, on other Android devices at some point. There is always a bunch of little changes to discover in an Android release, whether by reading,…
European Union regulators warned Elon Musk’s X platform that it may calculate fines by including revenue from Musk’s other companies, including SpaceX, according to a Bloomberg article published today. X was previously accused of violating the Digital Services Act (DSA),…
Many factors affect the infectious period of seasonal influenza, commonly called “the flu,” but there are some good rules of thumb for when it’s safe to return to work or school.
A new analysis of a peculiar metallic cloud surrounding the exoplanet WASP-49 b provides further evidence that it may have been birthed by a volcanic satellite, which may become the first officially recognized “exomoon.”
Scientists combined two existing wireless technologies — high-speed electronics and millimeter wave photonics — for the first time to achieve record-breaking wireless data transmission speeds.
A probabilistic new map of the universe surrounding the Milky Way reveals that our galaxy is likely part of an even larger “basin of attraction” than we previously assumed.
Research published in Memory reveals that a significant portion of UK legal professionals, mental health professionals, and the public endorse beliefs in traumatic memory repression and dissociative amnesia, despite these concepts being scientifically contested. Many people believe in the repression…
Taking in seawater while filtering out dense salts lets unicellular phytoplankton migrate tens of meters vertically toward sunnier seas.
New research has detected high levels of flame retardants in some toys, kitchen utensils and other household items made from recycled black plastic. But the potential health effects remain unclear.
Meta has fired about two dozen staff in Los Angeles for using their $25 meal credits to buy household items including acne pads, wine glasses, and laundry detergent. The terminations took place last week, just days before the $1.5 trillion…
When the exhaust nozzle on one of the Vulcan rocket’s strap-on boosters failed shortly after liftoff earlier this month, it scattered debris across the beachfront landscape just east of the launch pad on Florida’s Space Coast. United Launch Alliance, the…
The annual Small World photomicrography competition, now in its 50th year, puts life’s smallest details under the microscope.
A new study in mice suggests that dysfunctional mitochondria may change the composition of the gut microbiome and thus drive Crohn’s disease.
The Smartmi Air Purifier E1 won several awards for its stylish design, but does its performance also deserve recognition?
See the top 20 winning photographs from the 50th Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.
Material harvested from asteroids could be used to sustain astronauts during long-duration space missions.
A new study published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging sheds light on the brain connections linked to withdrawn and depressive behaviors in children. By analyzing brain scans of over 6,000 children, researchers found that connections between the left amygdala, a part…
A study published in Nature Human Behaviour provides evidence that anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled in part by political rhetoric from Donald Trump and conservative media outlets, had serious economic consequences for Asian workers in the United States.…
A recent placebo-controlled study investigated the potential effects of medicinal cannabis oil taken for insomnia on cognitive and psychomotor abilities the following day. The study found no significant differences in 27 out of 28 tests of cognitive function, psychomotor skills,…
You probably know lots of things that are good for your brain. Reading and working puzzles, for instance. Getting enough exercise and sleep. Eating healthy foods. Now here’s something else to add to the list: arts. Arts engage many parts…
A new study published in Personality and Individual Differences highlights that romantic partners often exhibit similar levels of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—collectively known as the “dark triad” of personality traits. Researchers found evidence that these similarities are present early in…
The Orionid meteor shower will peak this week as Earth busts through a stream of meteoroids left in the inner solar system by the famous Halley’s comet.
Published in Autism Research, a recent study has uncovered how brain structure differs in children with autism compared to typically developing children. The study found lower total neurite density—an indicator of neuron structure and connectivity—in the right cerebellar cortex of…
Researchers working with Colossal Biosciences have assembled a near-complete Tasmanian tiger genome and developed artificial reproductive technologies that could help de-extinct the species.
Federal authorities have charged two Sudanese nationals with running an operation that performed tens of thousands of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against some of the world’s biggest technology companies, as well as critical infrastructure and government agencies. The…
For several months in 1898, a pair of male lions turned the Tsavo region of Kenya into their own human hunting grounds, killing many construction workers who were building the Kenya-Uganda railway. A team of scientists has now identified exactly…
Following an investigation, Elon Musk’s X has won its fight to avoid gatekeeper status under the European Union’s strict competition law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). On Wednesday, the European Commission (EC) announced that “X does indeed not qualify as a…
