Science
The latest in science news, from the depths of space to the quantum realm.
Camera captures the world as animals see it, with up to 99% accuracy
January 25, 2024
It’s easy to forget that most animals don’t see the world the way humans do. In fact, many perceive colors that are invisible to us. But now, for the first time, scientists have found a way to capture footage as seen by animals, and it's mesmerizing.
Energy
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World's first superyacht to run on hydrogen
May 16, 2024A luxury superyacht is the testbed for green hydrogen technology as the ship, formally known as Project 821, is put in the water at Feadship's Amsterdam base. It's the largest motor yacht ever launched in the Netherlands. -
40% of US lithium needs could come from unlikely source in Pennsylvania
May 15, 2024Thanks to the increase of electric vehicles and other battery-using technologies, the demand for lithium is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. One odd but potent source of the metal is a Pennsylvania wastewater stream, says a new study. -
Fusion record paves way for commercial reactors
May 14, 2024The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) hits a new fusion reactor endurance record that could open the door to practical fusion power on a commercial scale. Using a tungsten lining, the WEST reactor held a reaction for six minutes.
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Medical
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Brain-hacking weight-loss drug works even after you stop taking it
May 16, 2024The current breakthrough weight-loss drugs are only the beginning, according to Danish researchers hard at work on a new treatment that targets the brain's natural plasticity, which could offset bad side effects and provide more long-term benefits. -
Blood pressure drugs double the risk of bone fractures in older adults
May 15, 2024Healthcare workers have urged for a greater duty of care with older adults who start taking common blood pressure medicines, with a study highlighting that they're more than twice as likely to experience fall-related fractures after starting treatment. -
CRISPR restores some vision to blind patients in clinical trial
May 13, 2024CRISPR gene-editing has improved the vision of patients with a form of blindness in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial. The results give new hope to patients with the condition, and show that CRISPR could be put to use in humans to treat a range of conditions.
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Space
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NASA video: Solar storms are as impressive as the auroras they caused
May 17, 2024While millions of people who couldn't normally see the aurora took in the recent color-filled spectacle in the night sky, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was looking straight at the sun to catch the action. The fiery footage is well worth a watch. -
NASA wants to end lunar faceplants by giving astronauts extra robot limbs
May 17, 2024It's a genuine joy watching Apollo-era astronauts bounce around on the lunar surface, and it's hysterically funny watching them fall over and struggle to get back up in their spacesuits. MIT wishes to rob us of this hilarity for future missions. -
Video: Death by black hole looks absolutely stunning
May 08, 2024What would it look like to fall into a black hole? It’s a question basically everyone has pondered, and now NASA has finally given us a first-person view of the experience with scientifically-accurate visualizations produced by a supercomputer.
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Materials
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Transparent bamboo: A fireproof and waterproof alternative to glass
May 15, 2024Glass might soon have some competition from an unlikely rival – bamboo. Scientists in China have turned regular old bamboo into a transparent material that’s also resistant to fire and water, and suppresses smoke. -
Special silk sheets suppress sound by giving off good vibrations
May 09, 2024There may be new hope for people with noisy neighbors. Scientists at MIT have developed a method of using thin sheets of fabric to either cancel or block sound – in the latter case, the racket even gets reflected back to its maker. -
Glass waste and trash-ash find their way into better, greener bricks
May 08, 2024Bricks made of discarded glass and recycling-waste ash have been shown to insulate better than regular bricks, while also requiring less energy to produce. And of course, they additionally use materials which would otherwise end up in landfills.
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Biology
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Coordinated jet propulsion of sea salps could inspire better submersibles
May 16, 2024A strange sea creature known as the salp reproduces asexually, building long chains of clones. Researchers have now decoded the way these long salp chains propel themselves, a finding that could lead to better propulsion systems for underwater vehicles. -
Watch: Mantis shrimp takes .22-caliber bullet punch using built-in shield
May 13, 2024The infamous mantis shrimp is in possession of a club-shaped claw that can deliver fatal blows to everything from hard-shelled prey to thick aquarium glass. So what happens when they thump a fellow mantis shrimp foe? Thanks to science, we now know. -
Google maps the human brain in breathtaking 3D images
May 10, 2024Harvard and Google Research have mapped thousands of cells and millions of synapses in a poppy seed-sized sample of tissue. The result is a set of truly stunning images and marks a major step towards understanding of the biggest challenges in science.
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Environment
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This 50,000-year-old block of ice reveals the true state of CO2 levels now
May 14, 2024Despite evidence that indicates we're now living beneath unprecedented levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, a lack of historical records has meant we've had little to compare it to. So scientists decided to consult the planet's own record books. -
Human hair: A surprisingly effective way to soak up oil spills
May 12, 2024In a world of weird, this one ranks up there... A non-profit out of San Francisco, California, is cleaning up oil spills using the naturally adsorbent properties of human hair, woven into thick mats that soak up a gallon and a half at a time. -
Earth's 'Gateway to Hell' is growing by 35 million cubic feet each year
May 08, 2024Whether a John Carpenter fan or not, you shouldn't need much convincing to see that the thawing of subterranean permafrost at the poles is not really a good thing. Siberia's biggest sinkhole is now devouring the landscape around it at an alarming rate.
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Physics
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Think you understand evaporation? Think again, says MIT
April 25, 2024We all know that water evaporates when the temperature climbs, but researchers have just shown that there's another factor at play. The breakthrough could solve long-standing atmospheric mysteries and lead to future technological advances. -
Free software lets you design and test warp drives with real physics
April 16, 2024Warp drives are among the more plausible of science fiction concepts, at least from a physics perspective. Now, a group of scientists and engineers has launched open-source software that lets you design and test scientifically accurate warp drives. -
Professor Peter Higgs, renowned for Higgs boson prediction, dies aged 94
April 09, 2024Professor Peter Higgs has died aged 94. The theoretical physicist was best known for his prediction of a key elementary particle, the Higgs boson, which earned him the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics soon after its discovery.
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Electronics
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AI synthesizer bridges technology and creativity in music composition
February 15, 2024SPIN challenges conventional notions of music creation by inviting users to collaborate with an AI language model called MusicGen. With its distinctive blend of a turntable and a drum machine, SPIN offers users a creative music composition tool. -
Eye-tracking window tech tells sightseers about what they're looking at
January 05, 2024If you're on a sightseeing tour in a bus, you really don't want to be looking away from the passing attractions to Google them on your smartphone. The AR Interactive Vehicle Display is intended to help, by showing relevant information on the vehicle's window glass. -
Diamond data storage breakthrough writes and rewrites down to single atom
December 05, 2023Diamond is a promising material for data storage, and now scientists have demonstrated a new way to cram more data onto it, down to a single atom. The technique bypasses a physical limit by writing data to the same spots in different-colored light.
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Quantum Computing
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Diamond-stretching technique makes qubits more stable and controllable
November 30, 2023Researchers are claiming a breakthrough in quantum communications, thanks to a new diamond-stretching technique they say greatly increases the temperatures at which qubits remain entangled, while also making them microwave-controllable. -
Perovskite LED unlocks next-level quantum random number generation
September 05, 2023Random numbers are critical to encryption algorithms, but they're nigh-on impossible for computers to generate. Now, Swedish researchers say they've created a new, super-secure quantum random number generator using cheap perovskite LEDs. -
Silicon quantum computing surpasses 99% accuracy in three studies
January 19, 2022Three teams of scientists have achieved a major milestone in quantum computing. All three groups demonstrated better than 99 percent accuracy in silicon-based quantum devices, paving the way for practical, scalable, error-free quantum computers.
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