Chemists broke a 100-year-old rule to make extremely unstable molecules

Scientists have just broken a 100-year-old chemistry rule and synthesized a type of 3D, unstable molecule called an anti-Bredt olefin.
Science and Technolgy blog
Scientists have just broken a 100-year-old chemistry rule and synthesized a type of 3D, unstable molecule called an anti-Bredt olefin.
The western North Carolina plant that makes 60 percent of the country’s intravenous fluid supply has restarted its highest-producing manufacturing line after being ravaged by flooding brought by Hurricane Helene last month. While it’s an encouraging sign of recovery as…
Starlink’s home Internet service has come to the National Radio Quiet Zone after a multi-year engineering project that had the goal of minimizing interference with radio telescopes. Starlink operator SpaceX began “a one-year assessment period to offer residential satellite Internet…
Swine can act as so-called “mixing vessels” for human and bird flus, giving avian viruses an opportunity to adapt for spreading in people.
The remains of a 5,000-year-old structure that likely had cultic purposes is one of the oldest public buildings ever found in Israel.
A new study sheds light on how political power influences ideological prejudice in the United States, revealing that people’s ideological bias against opposing beliefs intensifies when their own party is not in power. The research analyzed data spanning nearly five…
Jude Law stars as Force-user Jod Na Nawood in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. It’s no secret that the new spinoff series, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, was inspired by the 1985 film The Goonies. Executive Producer Kathleen Kennedy (who co-produced The…
Startup Clone Robotics has created an ultra-creepy humanoid torso with artificial muscles that are activated through a battery-powered hydraulic system and covered in ghostly-white “skin.”
Many species of bats use echolocation to avoid obstacles like tree branches and hunt small insects as they fly through the dark. But it turns out echolocation for bats is much more than just a short-range obstacle-avoidance and prey-targeting system.…
Humane’s AI Pin was already struggling to take off, but the company’s troubles deepened on Thursday as it recalled the product’s portable charging case. Humane released the AI Pin in April 2024. It’s a lapel pin that features an integrated…
Pixelmator, the Lithuania-based firm that makes popular Mac-based photo editing tools, has agreed to be acquired by Apple. The company says that, pending regulatory approval, there will be “no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator…
New research published in The Humanistic Psychologist introduces the Five-Factor Personality Assessment System (FFPAS), a novel method for individualizing psychological assessments. The five-factor model (FFM) of personality (or the Big Five) has been a dominant framework in psychological research. While…
Anyone familiar with HR practices probably knows of the decades of studies showing that résumé with Black- and/or female-presenting names at the top get fewer callbacks and interviews than those with white- and/or male-presenting names—even if the rest of the…
Humans who think they can multitask while sitting at the wheel of a moving car continue to be a problem—one that claimed more than 3,300 lives in 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The problem is almost…
Using face filters to alter expressions manipulated feelings of attraction, raising questions about how such technology may influence social interactions.
Physiological traits that help Tibetan women survive at high altitudes are being selected for within the population, meaning they may be becoming more common, new research hints.
Land mammals
Bears
A recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology has found that individuals who undergo jaw surgery for jaw deformities may experience improvements in self-perception and a heightened sensitivity to emotional aspects of objects around them. The study suggests that these…
When Microsoft launched its Copilot+ AI PC initiative over the summer, one of the flagship features was Recall, a feature that would log months’ worth of your PC usage, with the stated goal of helping you remember things you did…
In 1974, astronomers discovered Jupiter’s 13th moon. They now know of at least 95 moons and have launched missions to study some up close.
Eating licorice regularly, in large quantities or with certain medications can cause serious side effects. But why is that?
Becky Carroll was missing a few teeth, others were stained or crooked. Ashamed, she smiled with lips pressed closed. Her dentist offered to fix most of her teeth with root canals and crowns, Carroll said, but she was wary of…
A study in Russia has shown that machine-learning systems can predict certain personality traits in adolescents using eye-movement data with accuracy slightly better than chance. The research identified Machiavellianism and Extraversion as the most predictable traits. The study was published…
The black hole’s mass is over half that of all the stars in the surrounding galaxy, a record for any galaxy hosting a quasar.
Vietnam’s Son Doong cave is so large, you could squeeze 15 Great Pyramids of Giza inside it and fly a Boeing 747 airplane through some of its passages.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft safely landed empty in the New Mexico desert about eight weeks ago, marking a hollow end to the company’s historic first human spaceflight. The vehicle’s passengers during its upward flight to the International Space Station earlier this…
Quantum computers will one day outpace the fastest supercomputers on the planet, but what will they be used to accomplish?
A new study published in Neuropsychopharmacology has revealed how the drug ketamine changes the way our brains process touch, especially the difference between touch from ourselves versus someone else. Researchers found that under ketamine, the brain struggles to make this…
Welcome to Edition 7.18 of the Rocket Report! One of the most intriguing bits of news this week is the rolling of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket out to its launch complex in Florida. With two months remaining in 2024,…
Our brains are very flexible. Some people use their brains to create art. Others use them to solve math problems. Some do both — plus a host of other actions. Our brain is made up of two halves called hemispheres.…
While such organisms may or may not exist in the universe, the research has important implications for future human endeavors in space.
A recent study published in Injury Epidemiology finds that the size of a person’s social network may be linked to their support for political violence in the United States. According to findings, people with either very few or very many…
The European Commission announced Thursday it plans to sign a contract with the continent’s leading space companies before the end of the year to begin development of a 290-satellite broadband Internet network estimated to cost more than 10 billion euros…
Earlier this week, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. used a Zoom call to tell his supporters that Donald Trump had promised him “control” of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal agency that includes the Centers for Disease…
You might think that since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (which was released last Friday) is the 21st game in the franchise, it wouldn’t be that highly anticipated. You’d be wrong. Last week’s entry set multiple records when it…
The Colorado Department of State said it accidentally posted a spreadsheet containing “partial passwords” for voting systems. The department said there is no “immediate security threat” because two passwords are needed for each component, but it is trying to complete…
There’s a lot going on in the world of Mac apps for popular AI services. In the past week, Anthropic has released a desktop app for its popular Claude chatbot, and Perplexity launched a native app for its AI-driven search…
An artist’s rendering of a black hole
Residents in the Southwest District Health in Idaho are no longer able to get COVID-19 vaccines from public health clinics after the district’s board of directors voted 4–3 recently to stop administering the shot. The vote came during a hearing…
A father and daughter team based in the U.S. have decoded a mock “alien signal” beamed from ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter a year ago — but the meaning of the extraterrestrial message remains a mystery.
Scientists reprogrammed a woman’s fat cells to become insulin-making beta cells, reversing her type 1 diabetes.
What’s the point of recruiting hundreds of thousands of X users to fact-check misleading posts before they go viral if those users’ accurate Community Notes are never displayed? That’s the question the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is asking…
With record-high Mediterranean temperatures and a year’s worth of rain falling in mere hours, Spain has been devastated by the weather phenomenon known as DANA.
Countless parents across the country recently dropped their kids off at college for the first time. This transition can stir a whirlwind of feelings: the heartache of parting, sadness over a permanently changed family dynamic, the uncertainty of what lies…
Halloween is upon us, which means costumes, candy, and settling in for a nice long night of scary movies. For those who crave a bit of humor with their blood-soaked scares, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite…
Google’s stated mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” For a very long time, then, it has been odd that one of its biggest platforms, Android, lacked for a real default weather app.…
Tweaking the chemical composition of a parrot-specific pigment can shift feathers from red to yellow or green.
Children who experienced sugar rationing during World War II were less likely to develop some chronic illnesses as adults than those with no rationing.
The subject of blockbuster films, history museum exhibits and much more, dinosaurs continue to interest people today after first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. Here’s all the news on dinosaurs.