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Trump rejects AI regulation, citing parallels with climate change, in U.N. address
The president also said artificial intelligence should be rebranded as “super intelligence”
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Latest science news, discoveries and scientific developments.
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Scientists identify 'sweet spot' for early stage of life on Earth that preceded LUCA, the ancestor of all living things
Scientists have identified a "sweet spot" in Earth's deep past when conditions were optimal for a proposed early stage of life to take hold — a phase known as the RNA World.The sweet spot was 4.33 billion years ago, although Earth may have become suitable for the RNA World as early as 4.4 billion years ago, given that extreme bombardment by asteroids, comets and other rocky leftovers of planet formation had largely stopped by then, the researchers reported in a study published Tuesday (Sept. 22) in the journal Nature Communications.The findings give a more precise estimate of the RNA World's onset than previous studies based on geochemical modeling, biomolecular analyses and simulations of e...
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Methane beneath the Greenland ice sheet shapes microbial life and influences the carbon cycle
A new study involving researchers from the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, shows that methane concentration is among the key factors determining the composition of microbial communities at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The findings, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, provide new insights into processes that influence carbon and methane cycling in a rapidly warming Arctic.
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Milky Way's first microblazar may produce fastest particles in the galaxy
An international team of astronomers from ASTRON, JIVE, the University of Amsterdam and other institutions has found the first so-called "microblazar" in the Milky Way. This stellar system is composed of a massive star and a black hole with a jet that is pointed toward Earth. The researchers also identified the region where the jet hits a molecular cloud as a place where particles are accelerated to ultra-high energies, likely up to petaelectronvolts. This would make microblazars one of the most powerful particle accelerators in the galaxy. The research was appears in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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Can a long-lived seabird evolve fast enough to avoid extinction under a changing climate?
As the climate changes, species face a critical question: Can they evolve quickly enough to keep pace with their changing environment?
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UN warns super El Niño a 'significant' threat to world health
El Niño represents a "significant" threat to global health, the United Nations warned Tuesday, as the world braces for a cycle of the climate phenomenon predicted to be the most intense on record.
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The tilt in Earth's axis makes the apparent position of continents shift with the seasons
Most kids learn in elementary school that the seasons are caused by Earth rotating on a tilted axis during its yearly orbit around the sun. The substantial tilt, about 23.5 degrees, is thought to be the result of an ancient planetary body, Theia, smashing into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, in the same cataclysmic collision that formed the moon.
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Meet the ‘fire amoeba,’ a record-breaking survivor of extreme heat
Incendiamoeba cascadensis can replicate at 145° F, breaking the heat tolerance record for eukaryotes, a domain of life that includes plants and animals.
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RFK, Jr., is focusing attention on electromagnetic fields. Here’s what the science says about exposure
The research into how electromagnetic waves and radio frequency radiation influence health has been plagued by low-quality studies
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This year’s El Niño just broke another sobering record
“This is probably going to be the superlative El Niño event of our lives so far,” a climate scientist says
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Giant caves beneath sinkhole reveal origin of mystery trenches that score Australia's Nullarbor Plain
Mysterious trenches stretching for miles across the vast Nullarbor Plain in Australia are the surface scars of huge ancient caves collapsing deep underground, according to new research."They look like some kind of river channel, but they start and end so abruptly that it triggered us to investigate them," Matej Lipar, a researcher at the Anton Melik Geographical Institute in Slovenia and first author of the study, told Live Science.The Nullarbor Plain is an arid, flat, almost-treeless expanse in southern Australia. Nestled between the Great Victoria Desert and the Great Australian Bight coast, it has existed for more than 14 million years. Along the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain are fi...
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Coffee doesn’t have to keep you awake to disrupt your sleep
Caffeine may make sleep less restorative even when you fall asleep normally and stay in bed for eight hours, with EEG recordings revealing fewer of the slow brain waves associated with deep sleep. Individual sensitivity varies dramatically, meaning even caffeine consumed earlier in the day could affect nighttime recovery for some people.
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This emerging treatment could help people avoid knee replacement surgery
A minimally invasive procedure called genicular artery embolization could offer a new middle ground between conservative treatments and knee replacement for osteoarthritis. By blocking tiny blood vessels associated with inflammation, GAE can significantly reduce pain, with some patients reporting little or no pain afterward. Studies suggest the benefits may last two to four years in people who respond well.
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For the first time, scientists watch sound jump between quantum states
Stanford researchers have recorded the first real-time quantum jumps of sound, watching single phonons abruptly vanish from one energy state to another. The breakthrough could open new paths for quantum computing, error correction, highly sensitive biological sensors, and next-generation sound-based devices.
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Humpback whale mother may have mourned her dead calf for days
Researchers observed a humpback whale mother staying beside her presumed stillborn calf for hours and possibly days off Australia’s Gold Coast. She maintained eye contact and remained close to the calf in behavior resembling caregiving and nurturing. Scientists say the rare observation may provide new insight into grief, maternal attachment, and emotional complexity in humpback whales.
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‘Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!’ is a joyous guide to eating wild plants
The joy that author Alexis Nikole Nelson injects into this cookbook makes foraging approachable.
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MIT’s tiny flying robot gets 450% faster with AI
A new AI control system lets MIT’s tiny flying robot move with insect-like agility, boosting its speed by about 450 percent and allowing it to pull off 10 somersaults in 11 seconds. The technology could eventually enable miniature robots to search earthquake rubble and navigate dangerous spaces that conventional drones cannot reach.
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Nearly 2,400-year-old school where Aristotle taught Alexander the Great discovered in Greece
The school where Alexander the Great was educated by Aristotle more than 2,300 years ago has been uncovered in the ancient Macedonian city of Mieza, now in northern Greece, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture said in a translated statement. Archaeologists unearthed a building complex containing two banquet halls, a sporting arena, a stadium, a roofed porch and a lecture hall with stone desks, according to the statement. Mosaic floors and columns decorated the complex. The banquet halls had raised pedestals where nearly a dozen couches would originally have been placed. The decoration and architecture of the school is similar to that of the Macedonian royal palace at Aigai (modern Vergina in nor...
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This new concrete is stronger and pulls CO2 from the air
Researchers have created a concrete mixture that is both stronger and capable of absorbing carbon dioxide. The best formula, combining zeolite with bamboo biochar, boosted compressive strength by 7.48% and tensile strength by 15% compared with conventional concrete. It also captured about 1.2 grams of CO₂ per day in laboratory testing.
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'Once every 130 years': A huge new crater on the moon could be a giant leap for lunar science, researcher says
Since launching in 2009, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) — a robotic satellite about the size of a minivan — has taken more than 3 million photos of the lunar surface. This week, scientists studying a few hundred of those photos announced what they're calling a "once-in-a-century" discovery: the biggest, freshest impact crater ever seen in the solar system. It's the result of a building-size meteorite that slammed into the moon just two years ago.The new lunar pockmark, named McGetchin crater after the late geologist and lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, is about 728 feet (222 meters) wide, on average, and 141 feet (43 m) deep — imagine a hole as long as two American football field...