Science and Technolgy blog
Imagine feeling lost in a maze, a wave of anxiety washing over you as you struggle to find your way. Now picture that same maze with nostalgic images from your past lining the walls. Would these fond memories help you…
Enlarge / Absolute temperatures show how similar July 2023 and 2024 were. (credit: C3S/ECMWF) The past several years have been absolute scorchers, with 2023 being the warmest year ever recorded. And things did not slow down in 2024. As a…
Enlarge (credit: Benj Edwards / Google DeepMind) On Wednesday, researchers at Google DeepMind revealed the first AI-powered robotic table tennis player capable of competing at an amateur human level. The system combines an industrial robot arm called the ABB IRB…
Enlarge / Apple’s M2 Pro Mac mini. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) Apple hasn’t updated its Mac mini desktop lineup since the beginning of 2023, when it added M2 and M2 Pro chips and discontinued the last of the Intel models. Bloomberg’s…
Enlarge / For a true representation of the people-search industry, a couple of these folks should have lanyards that connect them by the pockets. (credit: Getty Images) If you’ve searched your name online in the last few years, you know…
Enlarge / The Humane AI Pin. (credit: Humane) Humane AI Pins were returned at faster rate than they were sold between May and August, according to a report from The Verge on Wednesday. The AI gadget released in April to…
Enlarge (credit: Anadolu / Contributor | Anadolu) The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially launched a probe into Amazon’s $4 billion partnership with the AI firm Anthropic, as it continues to monitor how the largest tech companies…
Scientists just pulled the longest hunk of Earth’s mantle from beneath the ocean.
A study involving several thousand teens in Quebec, Canada, found that individuals who experienced maltreatment as children were at a heightened risk of experiencing dating violence as teens. The study authors propose that survivors of childhood maltreatment are less able…
Enlarge / EUS panel test weld at the Michoud Assembly Facility on Tuesday, February 9, 2021. (credit: Michael DeMocker/NASA) The NASA program to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket is seven years behind schedule and…
Enlarge / A little auto-tiling on the Cosmic desktop. (credit: System76) System76 has released an alpha version of its Cosmic desktop environment for Linux and Unix-like systems. The Linux hardware firm isn’t targeting only its customers with its GNOME replacement;…
When politicians commit moral transgressions, how do voters respond? A recent study published in American Politics Research sought to answer this question by examining whether partisan voters in the United States differ in their desire to punish politicians for moral…
A new survey of meteors that leave persistent trails found that speed and brightness don’t matter as much as atmospheric chemistry.
Archaeologists discovered a 2,000-year-old rock quarry in Jerusalem which may have provided the massive stone building blocks used in the Second Temple.
Enlarge (credit: Maskot via Getty) Google and Meta made a secret deal to target advertisements for Instagram to teenagers on YouTube, skirting the search company’s own rules for how minors are treated online. According to documents seen by the Financial…
Enlarge / The new ChargePoint Omni Port is actually a pair of cables. (credit: ChargePoint) Last year, a remarkable thing happened in the car world. Just as it looked like everyone other than Tesla had settled on an industry-standard charging…
A recent study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment sheds light on the core psychopathological features of malignant narcissism, revealing its strong associations with Machiavellianism and psychopathy. The findings confirm that malignant narcissism is primarily an antagonistic…
Evolving immunity to the Bd fungus and a reintroduction project saved a California frog. The key to rescuing other species might be in the frog’s genes.
The Sea of Tranquility is home to at least one lunar lava tube, which could preserve a pristine and unweathered record of lunar volcanism.
The sea surface temperature around the Great Barrier Reef this year is the hottest it has ever been in 400 years, posing huge threats to the coral reef ecosystem in the area.
A recent study has found that adolescents who are overweight or obese are more susceptible to cognitive impairments following sleep restriction compared to their peers with healthy weight. This research was published in JAMA Neurology. Previous research has established a…
If you’ve never had COVID-19, you’re not alone. Others, too, have dodged the infected for more than four years. And some may have achieved this with some help from a newly discovered immune response. That’s the finding of a new…
The elusive Higgs particle has the power to undo physics as we know it. The fact that it hasn’t could have big implications about the nature of the universe.
Have you ever wondered why social interactions can be so challenging for you, or why certain sensory experiences seem overwhelming? Perhaps you’ve been told you’re a bit different, or you’ve struggled to fit in despite your best efforts. These experiences…
The 13,000-year-old carvings found in Turkey track the phases of the sun, moon and constellations, making it the earliest known lunisolar calendar.
The unsettling experience of nightmares is something many people have faced, but new research has found that loneliness might be a significant predictor of their frequency. A recent study published in The Journal of Psychology explored this connection, suggesting that…
Enlarge / Boeing’s Starliner is seen atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) During a news conference on Wednesday, NASA officials for the first time publicly discussed divisions within the agency…
Enlarge / A scene from Secret Invasion, a Disney+ exclusive. (credit: Marvel) Yesterday, The Walt Disney company announced it will soon raise prices for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Today, it revealed that its streaming business has become profitable for the…
Enlarge / A 2003 photo of the arms and legs of a 4-year-old girl infected with mpox in Liberia. (credit: Getty | BSIP) A deadly outbreak of mpox (previously called monkeypox) is spilling out of the Democratic Republic of the…
Enlarge / Joe Biden—or is it his AI-powered hologram? (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg) At 1:18 pm ET on July 21, 2023, President Joe Biden stepped to the podium in the White House’s Roosevelt Room and announced, “I’m the AI.”…
Scientists found three distinct great-white-shark populations that congregate in different oceans and do not interbreed. Their separation may have implications for conservation.
California officials are investigating cases of valley fever tied to a recent music festival.
In a new study published in Psychiatry Research, scientists have discovered that artificial intelligence (AI) can detect loneliness by analyzing unstructured speech. This research offers promising new methods for identifying and addressing loneliness, particularly in older adults, through the nuanced…
Enlarge / The Mac’s Gatekeeper feature has been pushing developers to digitally sign their apps since it was introduced in 2012. (credit: Apple/Andrew Cunningham) It has always been easier to run third-party software on a Mac than on an iPhone…
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson) After US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google has a monopoly in two markets—general search services and general text advertising—everybody is wondering how Google might be forced to change its search business. Specifically, the judge…
Enlarge (credit: Benj Edwards / Getty Images) Over the past week, OpenAI experienced a significant leadership shake-up as three key figures announced major changes. Greg Brockman, the company’s president and co-founder, is taking an extended sabbatical until the end of…
The World Health Organization will soon convene a committee to decide if the ongoing mpox outbreak constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern.”
Enlarge (credit: Getty) Reddit executives discussed plans on Tuesday for making more money from the platform, including showing ads in more places and possibly putting some content behind a paywall. On Tuesday, Reddit shared its Q2 2024 earnings report (PDF).…
Blood clots can be dangerous, especially if all or part of them break off and then travel through the bloodstream.
New research finds why some asteroids have weird, watermelon-shaped moons trapped in orbit around them, contrary to what typical asteroid formation theories predict.
In the hustle and bustle of adolescence, finding activities that foster personal growth can be challenging. Yet, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE suggests that playing music in an ensemble might be a key to unlocking valuable…
Enlarge / Delta Air Lines customers looking for missing bags wait in line at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on July 24, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | Patrick T. Fallon ) Microsoft says that Delta Air Lines’ ancient IT infrastructure…
Enlarge / Polio victim Larry Montoya is at the airport for the arrival of cases of vaccine, which were distributed as part of the KO Polio campaign, September 5, 1962. (credit: Getty | John McBride) Public sentiment on the importance…
Enlarge / Apple’s external DVD-burning SuperDrive may be fading away. (credit: Apple) Apple has always been eager to dump technologies when the company feels they have outlived their usefulness. The original iMac came without a floppy drive. The iPhone 7…
Broken bodies found at the archaeological site indicate that earthquakes played a role in the legendary tragedy.
A collision between subatomic particles in the Large Hadron Collider’s CMS detector. (credit: Research.gov) Particle physics is poised to hit the bright lights of Broadway with the adaptation into a musical of the 2013 documentary Particle Fever, which charts the…
Mummified woolly rhino discovered by miners in Russia’s Sakha Republic to be fully excavated in the coming months, as researchers begin studying its intact horn.
Solar activity is expected to remain high this week.
Dramatic cliffs and high plateaus are caused by the same wave triggered in Earth’s middle layer when continents pull apart, a new study finds.
We often think our brains tick away time in perfect synchronization with the clocks on our walls and electronic devices. However, groundbreaking research published in the journal Current Biology provides evidence that our perception of time is not governed by…
