Science and Technolgy blog
Taking action in the final days of the Biden administration, the Federal Communications Commission dismissed three complaints and a petition filed against broadcast television stations. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the action is important because “the incoming President has called…
Cell phones are magnets for our attention, but you can, of course, face significant legal jeopardy for giving them that attention. Just ask the “safety driver” of an Uber self-driving vehicle, which hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona in…
The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they don’t read regularly (up from 42% in 2015) and almost one in four young people aged 16-24 say they’ve never…
SpaceX plans to launch the seventh full-scale test flight of its massive Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket Thursday afternoon. It’s the first of what might be a dozen or more demonstration flights this year as SpaceX tries new things…
Microsoft has two announcements for subscribers to its Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans today. First, you’re getting the Copilot-powered AI features that Microsoft has been rolling out to businesses and Copilot Pro subscribers, like summarizing or generating text in…
The battery system on an electric car can either charge—from regenerative braking or an external power supply—or discharge—powering the EV’s motor(s) or supplying that power via so-called vehicle-to-load. As a rule, it can’t do both at once, but General Motors…
Google has added AI features to its regular Workspace accounts for business while slightly raising the baseline prices of Workspace plans. Previously, AI tools in the Gemini Business plan were a $20 per seat add-on to existing Workspace accounts, which…
Just a few days after more than 700 million new users flooded RedNote—which Time noted is “the most apolitical social platform in China”—rumors began swirling that RedNote may soon start segregating American users and other foreign IPs from the app’s…
Are superheroes and supervillains the product of their childhood experiences? Not if they belong to the MCEU or DCU, according to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE. Canadian researchers watched many hours of those movies and looked…
One of the most extreme megadroughts has helped fuel wildfires in Los Angeles County and elsewhere in California.
Chemicals in the tooth enamel of Australopithecus suggest the early human ancestors ate very little meat, dining on vegetation instead.
Scientists have unveiled a giant horned dinosaur from Egypt called Tameryraptor markgrafi after discovering lost photos of fossils destroyed in WWII.
New research published in Sociology of Sport suggests that the rhetoric of the “save women’s sports” movement may reflect ideological motivations rather than a genuine commitment to advancing opportunities for female athletes. Using data collected between 2018 and 2019, researchers…
AT&T has stopped offering its 5G home Internet service in New York instead of complying with a new state law that requires ISPs to offer $15 or $20 plans to people with low incomes. The decision was reported yesterday by…
Archaeologists have unearthed a unique stone structure in East Jerusalem, providing evidence of cultic activity and possibly animal sacrifice in the Kingdom of Judah during the First Temple period.
Physicists have long-suspected that the building blocks of protons experienced quantum entanglement. Now, researchers have the first direct evidence — after using a trick to infer subatomic particles’ entropy.
Experts lay bare the health effects of breathing in wildfire smoke and the steps that can be taken to reduce one’s risk.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Wednesday and deployed two commercial lunar landers on separate trajectories to reach the Moon in the next few months. The mission began with a middle-of-the-night…
Large language models surpass human experts in predicting neuroscience results, according to a study published in Nature Human Behaviour. Scientific research is increasingly challenging due to the immense growth in published literature. Integrating noisy and voluminous findings to predict outcomes…
NASA astronaut Don Pettit has snapped a striking shot of the super-bright comet racing past our planet for the first time in 160,000 years, as it lit up the night skies across the globe.
Pension funds are dipping their toes into buying bitcoin, in a sign that even typically staid corners of finance are finding it hard to ignore the potential outsized returns from cryptocurrencies. Pension schemes for the states of Wisconsin and Michigan…
Astronomers have determined the internal composition of a distant, disintegrating planet for the first time.
Errors in quantum computers are an obstacle for their widespread use. But a team of scientists say that, by using an antimony atom and the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment, they could have found a way to stop them.
How much of your cognitive ability is shaped by your genetic inheritance compared to the environment you grow up in? A new study published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility suggests that the transmission of cognitive ability from parents…
For the past seven months—and likely longer—an industry-wide standard that protects Windows devices from firmware infections could be bypassed using a simple technique. On Tuesday, Microsoft finally patched the vulnerability. The status of Linux systems is still unclear. Tracked as…
After months and years of rumors and official hints, Nintendo has finally pulled back the curtain on the Switch 2 with a first-look trailer (and sparse promo web site) highlighting many small changes from the old Switch. The short trailer…
Making the seventh Civilization game is a tall order. With six prior entries, each with a different flavor, it’s challenging to create a unique identity to get people to buy it while ensuring it’s familiar enough that it doesn’t drive…
Intel’s Arc B580 graphics cards have been its best-reviewed to date, maintaining the aggressive pricing of the old A-series Arc cards with fewer driver bugs, fewer weird performance outliers, and fewer caveats all around. And this appears to be translating…
Pluto may have got romantic to capture its largest moon, colliding and engaging in a passionate but icy 10 hour kiss with Charon billions of years ago.
Yesterday was Wikipedia Day, celebrating the first edit made to the online encyclopedia on January 15, 2001. It’s a tricky kind of celebration because, for many of us, every day is a Wikipedia Day. Scanning a new Wikipedia tab can…
Electric vehicle chargers are increasingly a target of vandals, often in search of copper. “Even at our headquarter site here in Campbell, in Silicon Valley, we’ve had our site vandalized twice,” said Rick Wilmer, CEO of ChargePoint. His customers are…
Since early 2024, the U.S. has logged 66 human cases of H5N1. Scientists are keeping a watchful eye on the virus’s spread as we enter a new year.
There are around 2 million pieces that make up the Alexander the Great mosaic, but where did they come from?
Recent research has found that older individuals with a higher intake of caffeinated coffee, particularly the unsweetened variety, are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias, and Parkinson’s disease. This association was not observed for sweetened or artificially…
A soft, thick coat of snow makes a lot of the world seem to slow down or even stop — at least temporarily. The fluffy piles absorb sound and make the world quiet and still. But deep underneath, in pockets…
Argyria is caused by a buildup of silver in the body, which discolors the skin.
A recent study published in Translational Psychiatry has found a connection between the bacteria in our mouths and mental health. Researchers analyzed the salivary microbiome of individuals experiencing mental health symptoms comparing it to the microbiome of mentally healthy individuals.…
Are UFO sightings a 20th-century phenomena, or did people report seeing them earlier in history?
In case you forgot it was still up there.
Early on Thursday morning, a Saturn V-sized rocket ignited its seven main engines, a prelude to lifting off from Earth. But then, the New Glenn rocket didn’t move. And still, the engines produced their blue flame, furiously burning away methane.…
Members of a Stone Age culture in Denmark may have ritually buried stones to counter the effects of a volcanic eruption.
Hundreds of stone artifacts discovered on a Danish island may have been offered to the gods to ward off a climate crisis.
Evidence that the synthetic dye Red No. 3 is harmful comes from studies in rats, not people. Food companies now have two years to remove it from products.
A new study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery highlights the potential of focused ultrasound technology in treating Alzheimer’s disease. The clinical trial demonstrated that repetitive opening of the blood-brain barrier using focused ultrasound reduced amyloid plaques—protein buildups linked to…
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments that could determine if a Texas age-gating law preventing kids from accessing pornography online is overly burdensome for adults. A ruling against Texas could put an end to allegedly invasive age-verification laws in…
Lots of startups use Google’s productivity suite, known as Workspace, to handle email, documents, and other back-office matters. Relatedly, lots of business-minded webapps use Google’s OAuth, i.e. “Sign in with Google.” It’s a low-friction feedback loop—up until the startup fails,…
The FDA will no longer allow red dye No. 3 in foods or ingested drugs, citing evidence that high doses of the dye can cause cancer in male rats. There is no evidence it’s carcinogenic in humans.
The Bárðarbunga volcano system was responsible for Iceland’s largest eruption for 300 years back in 2014. After a recent increase in seismic activity, could it be about to erupt again?
AI-generated summaries of scientific studies are not only simpler and more accessible to general readers but also improve public perceptions of scientists’ trustworthiness and credibility, according to recent research published in PNAS Nexus. By comparing traditional summaries written by researchers…
Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock returns in Marvel’s new series Daredevil: Born Again. Daredevil is among my favorite stories in the Netflix Defenders universe—along with Jessica Jones—in large part because Wilson Fisk (aka Kingpin, played to perfection by Vincent D’Onofrio), was…
