Science and Technolgy blog
Apple must face a potential class action alleging that Apple had a policy of paying men higher salaries than women for similar work. On Tuesday, California Superior Court Judge Ethan P. Schulman filed an order that largely denies Apple’s motions…
What could go wrong with eating an extremely high-fat diet of beef, cheese, and sticks of butter? Well, for one thing, your cholesterol levels could reach such stratospheric levels that lipids start oozing from your blood vessels, forming yellowish nodules…
The open source Wine project—sometimes stylized WINE, for Wine Is Not an Emulator—has become an important tool for companies and individuals who want to make Windows apps and games run on operating systems like Linux or even macOS. The CrossOver…
On Tuesday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI models may surpass human capabilities “in almost everything” within two to three years, according to a Wall Street Journal interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Speaking at Journal…
Reddit is staying out of the current revolt against social media website X and, to a lesser degree, Meta, on its platform. Since Tuesday, hundreds of subreddits have discussed and/or implemented bans against the site formerly called Twitter, as reported…
Researchers recently evaluated the ability of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models to answer questions about global history using a benchmark derived from the Seshat Global History Databank. The study, presented at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Vancouver, revealed…
Samsung announced the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra at its Unpacked event today. What is different from last year’s models? With the phones themselves, not much, other than a new chipset and a wide camera. But pure AI optimism? Samsung…
The Department of Homeland Security has terminated all members of advisory committees, including one that has been investigating a major Chinese hack of large US telecom firms. “The Cyber Safety Review Board—a Department of Homeland Security investigatory body stood up…
One need only glance at headlines about Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and other super-wealthy individuals to understand that wealth in America is increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Inequality is sharply on the rise. Until now, however, little has…
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are puzzling phenomena because their details are so difficult to resolve, and observations to date have been inconsistent. Astronomers added another piece to the puzzle with the detection of an FRB that seems to originate in…
When Trump’s move to leave WHO takes effect in a year, it may gut funding for global public health and limit U.S. access to crucial data, experts warn.
A historic winter snowstorm has reached the Gulf Coast, smothering the region in Arctic air and dropping record-breaking amounts of snow on northern Florida.
A new study suggests that the explosive deaths of the universe’s earliest stars created surprising quantities of water that may have sparked extraterrestrial life in the very first galaxies.
Scientists have found an elusive third form of magnetism that could help solve a longstanding puzzle about superconductors.
The FDA has given marketing authorization to Zyn nicotine pouches. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re safe to use, especially for young people, and experts say there’s little evidence that they help adults quit smoking.
A study recently published in Autism Research found that adults with autism process visual categories and generalize learned information differently compared to neurotypical adults. While individuals with autism can learn and apply visual categories, they do so more slowly, exhibit…
On Tuesday, OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX announced plans to form Stargate, a new company that will invest $500 billion in AI computing infrastructure across the United States over four years. The announcement came during a White House meeting with…
High radiation during a time of frenzied star formation in the Milky Way left one stellar population with few chances to form planets, a study reports.
Google is making a fresh investment of more than $1 billion into OpenAI rival Anthropic, boosting its position in the start-up as Silicon Valley titans rush to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems. The Alphabet-owned search behemoth had already committed about…
The self-declared “pro-crypto president” Donald Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht on Tuesday. Ulbricht, 40, was about 10 years into his life sentence for helming an online black market where drug dealers, money launderers, and traffickers used bitcoins to…
We’re only three weeks into 2025, and it’s already shaping up to be the year of Internet of Things-driven DDoSes. Reports are rolling in on threat actors infecting thousands of home and office routers, web cameras, and other Internet-connected devices.…
A new study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research explores how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) influence defensive gun use among adults with firearm access. The researchers found that individuals exposed to ACEs, such as abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction,…
A Jurassic pterosaur fossil, known to paleontologists for over 160 years, isn’t a new species. It is an odd specimen of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri.
A rare breed of star recently discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope spins faster by feeding on its stellar siblings.
New research reveals multiple pathways through which poor organ health may contribute to poor mental health. Researchers propose that exercise, sedentary behavior, diet, sleep quality, smoking, alcohol intake, education, and socioeconomic status may influence mental health through their impact on…
After literal years of speculation and leaks, it was nice to get an actual glimpse of the Switch 2 hardware (and its increased size) last week. But even with the console officially “revealed,” there’s still a wide range of important…
Artificial intelligence, or AI, tools are great for handling boring tasks. Like going through thousands of job applications and pulling out the most promising ones. So companies often use AI apps to shortlist job applications. But these tools tend to…
A man was diagnosed with skeletal fluorosis, which likely emerged due to him inhaling substances that damaged his bones.
Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator craft could become the first commercial jet to break the sound barrier since Concorde after acing its 11th test and reaching 0.95 Mach at low altitudes.
Children who struggle to manage their emotions and behavior during preschool years are at greater risk of developing symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other mental health concerns by age seven, according to a new study published in…
“As yet, nobody has managed to understand what gives rise to this strange phenomenon, and explaining dark energy remains one of the most formidable challenges of modern science.”
Bambu Lab, a major maker of 3D printers for home users and commercial “farms,” is pushing an update to its devices that it claims will improve security while still offering third-party tools “authorized” access. Some in the user community—and 3D…
Today Netflix, the biggest streaming service based on subscriber count, announced that it will increase subscription prices by up to $2.50 per month. In a letter to investors [PDF], Netflix announced price changes starting today in the US, Canada, Argentina,…
After 14 years, EA will retire its controversial Origin game distribution app for Windows, the company announced. Origin will stop working on April 17, 2025. Folks still using it will be directed to install the newer EA app, which launched…
Apple has sent out release candidate builds of the upcoming iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS 15.3 updates to developers today. But they come with one tweak that hasn’t been reported on, per MacRumors: They enable all of the AI-powered…
A nuclear fusion reactor in China, dubbed the “artificial sun,” has broken its own record to bring humanity one step closer to near-limitless clean energy.
It could be one of the best value smart bikes to come out in 2025.
New research in Applied Cognitive Psychology explores the relationship between postmodern beliefs, psychological distress, and left-wing authoritarianism. The study found that individuals with strong postmodern beliefs are more likely to exhibit authoritarian tendencies, particularly when their levels of psychological distress…
On Monday, Chinese AI lab DeepSeek released its new R1 model family under an open MIT license, with its largest version containing 671 billion parameters. The company claims the model performs at levels comparable to OpenAI’s o1 simulated reasoning (SR)…
Data collected by NASA’s InSight lander suggest that ancient internal processes are responsible for the “Martian dichotomy” that splits the Red Planet into two distinct halves.
A Roman-era cemetery, found ahead of a construction project in England, holds an unusual burial at its center.
New photos of comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) suggest that it could be disintegrating due to “thermal stress” from its recent slingshot around the sun. However, its fate is still unclear.
A recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology explored the relationship between the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in romantic relationships, social media addiction, and phubbing (the act of prioritizing a smartphone over face-to-face communication). Researchers found that when basic…
Physicist Mathieu Souzy of the University Twente was enjoying an evening of pasta and board games with several colleagues when the conversation turned to how adding salt to a pasta pot to make it boil faster can leave a white…
A potentially disruptive satellite company launched its first spacecraft last week as part of a Transporter mission flown on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The demonstration mission from a California-based firm named K2 aims to “burn down” the risk of the…
Researchers unveiled a super-strong nanoscale material made from the first two-dimensional mechanically interlocked polymers. The material resembles medieval chainmail at the molecular level and could be used in body armor.
New research suggests that dark energy isn’t needed to explain the acceleration in the expansion of the universe — instead suggesting giant voids in space are creating an illusion.
President Donald Trump’s flurry of day-one actions included a reprieve for TikTok, the creation of a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an order on social media “censorship,” a declaration of an energy emergency, and reversal of a Biden order on…
The new composite image, which combines hundreds of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the Andromeda Galaxy with more than 200 million individually resolved stars.
Have you ever noticed how a particular song can bring back a flood of memories? Maybe it’s the tune that was playing during your first dance, or the anthem of a memorable road trip. People often think of these musical…
