Science and Technolgy blog
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Nabta Playa in Egypt is an ancient stone circle that researchers suspect was used to determine the summer solstice, which signaled rain was on the way.
A study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family has found that political identity is increasingly influencing the number of children young adults desire to have. Spanning three decades, the research found that young Republicans consistently expressed a stronger…
A recent study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, challenges previous assumptions about the automatic nature of the relationship between memory and attention. The researchers found that while eye movements are attracted to information retrieved…
As remote working remains common for many people, so does sitting in video calls. On many videoconferencing platforms users can set virtual backgrounds. But could this choice have varying effects on how tired people feel after a video call? Researchers investigated…
Sharks easily consumed large, spiky sea urchins – sometimes in just a few gulps.
A recent study published in Biological Psychiatry sheds new light on the neurological differences between different types of insomnia. The research suggests that structural brain connectivity – how different regions of the brain are wired together – differs across four…
Ancient human genomes reconstructed from remains at a southern African rock shelter show remarkable genetic continuity over time.
A recent study published in Scientific Reports has provided new insights into how partisan content spreads on social media during election campaigns. Focusing on Twitter activity during four consecutive national elections in Spain, the study suggests that positive messages about…
Maggie Aderin-Pocock tells us about the power of the James Webb Space Telescope and how she inspires disadvantaged students to enter STEM.
How to watch the Draconid meteor shower peak on Oct. 8 and 9 in the tail of a cosmic dragon.
A study involving tens of thousands of participants from 54 countries found that higher levels of compatibility between religious and scientific beliefs tend to be associated with better well-being. In some regions, pro-science beliefs were also stronger. The research was…
When satellites first started peering down on the craggy, glaciated Antarctic Peninsula about 40 years ago, they saw only a few tiny patches of vegetation covering a total of about 8,000 square feet—less than a football field. But since then,…
Oct. 2’s annular solar eclipse saw a small-looking new moon cross the face of the sun to create a perfect circle for about six minutes.
Researchers from the UC Davis MIND Institute and the Baby Siblings Research Consortium have found that siblings of autistic children have a significantly higher chance of being diagnosed with autism compared to the general population. The study, published in Pediatrics,…
The moon’s distance from Earth changes depending on where it is in its elliptical orbit.
NASA has turned off one of Voyager 2’s science instruments as power conservation becomes crucial for the interstellar exploring spacecraft located 12.8 billion miles from home.
A new study published in Psychological Reports sheds light on the complex relationship between addiction-prone personalities and creative thinking. The research found that individuals with a tendency toward addictive behaviors are more likely to generate a large number of ideas…
A recent study published in the journal Sociology of Race and Ethnicity reveals that Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012 had a significant impact on the mental health of Black men, though the effects were different depending on their level of…
New research can help us understand how supermassive black holes formed — and why many of them appear to be more massive than expected.
Many people have seen dogs fetch, but cats like to get into the game too. Despite their very different hunting and play styles, fetching appears to combine elements of predatory and social behavior for both species. Although their domestication histories…
Physicists showed that photons can seem to exit a material before entering it, revealing observational evidence of negative time
A recent study has found that by the age of three, children are already able to understand the intentions behind other people’s actions, thanks to a sophisticated neural system involving mirror neurons. This system allows young children to mimic and…
This living fossil can grow as large as an alligator, has two rows of needle-sharp teeth, and such strong armor that it survived predatory dinosaurs.
An analysis of millions of English-language tweets discussing ChatGPT in the first three months after its launch revealed that while the general public expressed excitement over this powerful new tool, there was also concern about its potential for misuse. Negative…
Dozens of neo-Nazis are fleeing Telegram and moving to a relatively unknown secret chat app that has received funding from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. In a report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue published on Friday morning, researchers found that…
Editor in chief Nancy Shute celebrates this year’s SN10: Scientists to Watch and novel approaches to research.
In control A high dose of the psychedelic psilocybin temporarily dissolves brain networks, Laura Sanders reported in “Psilocybin erases brain ‘fingerprints’” (SN: 8/10/24, p. 12). In the study, a generic form of the stimulant Ritalin served as a control against…
As satellite launches ramp up and the spacecraft clog the skies, astronomers fear for their data.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide at the surface of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, potentially shedding light on its origins.
Drinking water triggers a variety of complex biochemical reactions that reward rehydration and help satiate our thirst.
A recent study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology offers new insights into how testosterone influences men’s perceptions of women. While sexualized women are often dehumanized based on their appearance, the researchers discovered that elevated testosterone levels also lead men to dehumanize women…
Archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old tomb that belonged to an ancient Egyptian governor’s daughter.
The old-school Diablo games endure for a lot of reasons. Some players like the deep lore and world-building. Some like partnering with friends and working through dungeons as a team. Some like hunting for incredibly rare loot and maybe selling…
London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 attracted some 6 million people eager to experience more than 14,000 exhibitors showcasing 19th-century marvels of technology and engineering. The event took place in the Crystal Palace, a 990,000-square-foot building of cast iron and plate…
YouTube confirmed Friday that a bug mistakenly removing seemingly thousands of accounts wrongly marked as sharing spam and deceptive content was finally fixed. The problem started Thursday afternoon, 9to5Google reported, when non-content creators, including paid subscribers, complained that they had…
Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage and flooding to the Southeastern states may affect the country’s medical supply chain. Hospitals nationwide are bracing for a possible shortage of essential intravenous fluids after the cataclysmic storm inundated a vital manufacturing plant in North…
When a research team led by Amrit Kirpalani, a medical educator at Western University in Ontario, Canada, evaluated ChatGPT’s performance in diagnosing medical cases back in August 2024, one of the things that surprised them was the AI’s propensity to…
Two men involved in an elaborate scheme duping Apple into replacing about 6,000 counterfeit iPhones with genuine iPhones were sentenced to prison this week, the US Department of Justice announced Thursday. Together with their co-conspirators, the 34-year-old scammers, Haotian Sun…
On Thursday, OpenAI unveiled Canvas, a new interface for ChatGPT designed to enhance collaboration on writing and coding projects. The feature bears similarities to a feature called Artifacts in Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant, introduced in June. Canvas displays content in…
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, under contract for dozens of flights for the US military and Amazon’s Kuiper broadband network, lifted off from Florida on its second test flight Friday, suffered an anomaly with one of its strap-on boosters, and…
Late in the day on Thursday, Apple released the first software updates for its devices since last month’s rollout of iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. Those who’ve been following along know that several key features that didn’t make it into…
Data from the Southern Hemisphere hint that this year’s flu shot lowers the risk of hospitalization among vulnerable demographics.
A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology reveals that overhearing political conversations in the workplace can lead to negative emotional experiences for employees, particularly when they perceive their coworkers to have different political views. These overheard discussions…
Thousands of machines running Linux have been infected by a malware strain that’s notable for its stealth, the number of misconfigurations it can exploit, and the breadth of malicious activities it can perform, researchers reported Thursday. The malware has been…
Welcome to Edition 7.14 of the Rocket Report! For readers who don’t know, my second book was published last week. It’s titled Reentry, and tells the story behind the story of SpaceX’s development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon…
There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing…
In the outer reaches of the Solar System, beyond the ice giant Neptune, lies a ring of comets and dwarf planets known as the Kuiper Belt. The closest of these objects are billions of kilometers away. There is, however, an…
On Friday, Meta announced a preview of Movie Gen, a new suite of AI models designed to create and manipulate video, audio, and images, including creating a realistic video from a single photo of a person. The company claims the…
Whether you care about Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant or not, many new PCs introduced this year have included a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard; this is true whether the PC meets the requirements for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC program or…
