Science and Technolgy blog
Recent research published in Frontiers in Psychiatry has shed new light on the psychological mechanisms underpinning pathological narcissism. The study found that individuals with higher levels of narcissism are more likely to engage in grandiose fantasizing—a form of daydreaming about…
If we can see at most 3% of the universe, how can we estimate the total number of galaxies in it?
“Sailors believed they grew underwater at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, and it was thought that male trees uprooted themselves on stormy nights and walked to find female trees, embracing them to pollinate their large flowers.”
Kepler’s sun drawings are the oldest sunspot records with known dates.
Enlarge (credit: The Gemini prompt box in the ) Have you seen Google’s “Dear Sydney” ad? The one where a young girl wants to write a fan letter to Olympic hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone? To which the girl’s dad responds that…
Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto) The US Department of Justice sued TikTok today, accusing the short-video platform of illegally collecting data on millions of kids and demanding a permanent injunction “to put an end to TikTok’s unlawful massive-scale…
Enlarge (credit: ) Buying counterfeit weight loss drugs from illegal online pharmacies that don’t require prescriptions is, in fact, a very bad idea, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. The counterfeit drugs are sold as equivalents…
Enlarge / A thing that exists through ROM hacking, and ROMHacking.net: Super Mario Land 2, in color. (credit: Nintendo/Toruzz) If there was something wrong with an old game, or you wanted to make a different version of it, and you…
A drug-resistant bacterium that causes severe infections has been spreading globally, and it’s now in at least 16 countries, the WHO warns.
The coins were found beneath a home and were likely hidden by mercenaries.
Enlarge / Some solar panels, along with a diagram of a perovskite’s crystal structure. (credit: Subhakitnibhat Kewiko) As the price of silicon panels has continued to come down, we’ve reached the point where they’re a small and shrinking cost of…
Enlarge / NZXT’s subscription program charges $169/month for this build. (credit: NZXT) NZXT, which sells gaming PCs, components, and peripherals, has a subscription program that charges a monthly fee to rent one of its gaming desktops. Subscribers don’t own the…
A tiny extinct penguin from New Zealand is key to understanding penguin wing evolution, researchers say.
Enlarge / AI-generated image by FLUX.1 dev: “A beautiful queen of the universe holding up her hands, face in the background.” (credit: FLUX.1) On Thursday, AI-startup Black Forest Labs announced the launch of its company and the release of its…
Enlarge / Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, during an interview at Bloomberg House on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg) OpenAI…
The light from the most distant galaxy in the known universe suggests that there’s something off about our current cosmological models, a new James Webb Space Telescope study finds. The explanations remain elusive.
Tanzania’s outlandish Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, the only volcano on Earth that is currently erupting carbonatite lava, has been sinking at a rate of 1.4 inches per year for the past decade.
Wildfires can generate tornado-like fire whirls and other “unpredictable and erratic” weather. An atmospheric scientist explains how.
Enlarge / There is something so wonderfully obscene about having a town with hundreds of people living their lives, running into conflict, hoping for better, and your omnipotent self is stuck on which bookcase best fits this living room corner.…
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) The US Department of Justice is investigating Nvidia’s acquisition of Run:ai, an Israeli artificial intelligence startup, for potential antitrust violations, said a person familiar with discussions the government agency has had with third parties. The DoJ…
Blood biomarker tests could help doctors know if a person’s cognitive symptoms are due to Alzheimer’s or something else.
Enlarge / Muscle atrophy is a known hazard of spending time on the International Space Station. (credit: NASA) Muscle-on-chip systems are three-dimensional human muscle cell bundles cultured on collagen scaffolds. A Stanford University research team sent some of these systems…
The T Coronae Borealis nova will soon burst into life above our heads for the first time in 78 years.
Listening to classical music could help stroke survivors recover language skills and increase brain connectivity, according to a new study published in the Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. Stroke-induced aphasia, a condition that impairs language abilities (e.g. speaking, writing,…
Enlarge / Even mainstream CPUs like the Core i5-13400 could theoretically be affected by Intel’s crashing issues. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) Intel will be releasing a microcode update to prevent further damage to crashing 13th- and 14th-generation desktop processors sometime this…
The shards contain nine metals that the famous astronomer may have used, including one not formally identified until 180 years after his death.
Researchers say they’ve discovered evidence for the recently proposed ‘law of increasing functional information’ by proving that minerals evolve as life does.
Enlarge / The Pocket 386 is fun for a while, but the shortcomings and the broken stuff start to wear on you after a while. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) The Book 8088 was a neat experiment, but as a clone of…
The mummy was well preserved with an expensive embalming material. Her organs were still intact, showing an unusual mummification technique, a CT scan revealed.
Could your personality influence your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease? An analysis of UK Biobank data showed that individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment who also have high genetic risk for neuroticism are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers…
Welcome to Edition 7.05 of the Rocket Report! The Federal Aviation Administration grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for 15 days after a rare failure of its upper stage earlier this month. The FAA gave the green light for Falcon 9…
Artificial intelligence explores new ideas by tapping human intuition, a step toward humanlike intelligence.
The Salar de Uyuni desert is famous for its gleaming surface waters and hexagonal salt crust patterns, but below this otherworldly landscape lie about 11 million tons of highly sought-after lithium.
“Look for the gap!” “Move into space!” “Who’s free?” Sound familiar? From the sidelines to the field, court or pitch, no matter the team sport, looking for relevant information in the playing environment can be as important as any other…
In a new study published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, researchers have found that cannabidiol, a compound derived from cannabis, can significantly reduce symptoms resembling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in mice. This effect hinges on cannabidiol’s ability to curb neuroinflammation…
Enlarge / CT scans and other techniques allowed scientists to “virtually dissect” this 3,500-year-old “Screaming Woman” mummy. (credit: Sahar Saleem/CC BY) There have been a handful of ancient Egyptian mummies discovered with their mouths wide open, as if mid-scream. This…
A rare muscle-stiffening reaction could explain the open-mouthed expression of a mummy known as the Screaming Woman, scientists suggest.
Enlarge (credit: Tony C. French/Getty) A small study in Texas suggests that human bird flu cases are being missed on dairy farms where the H5N1 virus has taken off in cows, sparking an unprecedented nationwide outbreak. The finding adds some…
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) As part of today’s blockbuster prisoner swap between the US and Russia, which freed the journalist Evan Gershkovich and several Russian opposition figures, Russia received in return a motley collection of serious criminals, including an assassin…
Enlarge / Samsung’s 2022 The Frame is one of the edge-lit TVs that RTINGs tested. (credit: Samsung) Thin LCD-LED TVs are appealing because they’re easy to find space for and are aesthetically pleasing. To stay slim, most thin TVs, like…
Enlarge / Astroscale’s ADRAS-J spacecraft captured these views of the H-IIA rocket upper stage on July 15. (credit: Astroscale) There are more than 2,000 mostly intact dead rockets circling the Earth, but until this year, no one ever launched a…
Enlarge / Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is seen docked at the International Space Station on June 13. (credit: NASA) It has now been eight weeks since Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launched into orbit on an Atlas V rocket, bound for the International…
Enlarge / Apple CEO Tim Cook. (credit: Lionel Hahn/Getty Images) Apple reported its earnings results for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, and it satisfied investors’ expectations at the top level with 5 percent growth year over year.…
What did Bronze Age people do with all that bronze? New research revives old arguments about the nature of money
The last gasp of a “cannibal” coronal mass ejection that slammed Earth on Tuesday will bring lovely auroras to parts of the northern US and most of Canada tonight, with more northern lights displays on the way this weekend.
Enlarge / View of San Francisco with Russian Hill in the background. (credit: Getty Images | Terraxplorer) San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors this week approved a ban on software that is allegedly used by landlords to collude on rent prices.…
New methods applied in live mice suggest that molecules called neuropeptides, not neurotransmitters, play the main role in our response to danger.
Enlarge (credit: Maria Korneeva via Getty Images) On Wednesday, US Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Marsha Blackburn (R.-Tenn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act of 2024. The…
Enlarge (credit: David Tran | iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has joined progressive groups—including Demand Progress, Open Markets Institute, and the Tech Oversight Project—pressuring the US Department of Justice to investigate Nvidia’s dominance in the…
Art can stir emotions, inspire awe, and sometimes even feel otherworldly. A recent study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology reveals that the way people engage with art is associated with their sense of meaning in life. Specifically, experiencing…
