Imagine the Milky Way’s 100 billion stars as a flat, tranquil pool of water. Now, picture someone dropping a stone the size of 400 million suns into that water. The tranquility is shattered. Wave after wave of energy ripples across the galaxy’s surface, jostling and bouncing its stars in a chaotic dance that takes eons […]
A rare type of diamond may suggest that water can penetrate deeper into Earth’s interior than scientists previously thought. Though more than 70% of our planet is covered with water, there is also water in minerals more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) underground, including in the upper mantle, the semi malleable layer that the crust […]
Scientists have been using sophisticated forensic techniques to create snapshots of life in prehistoric Britain. By discovering, recording and analysing ancient footprints, they have been able to reconstruct in considerable detail specific moments in the lives of Britons who lived up to 8,500 years ago. The research has been carried out on a beach near […]
Scientists from Google DeepMind have been awarded a $3 million prize for developing an artificial intelligence (AI) system that has predicted how nearly every known protein folds into its 3D shape. One of this year’s Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences went to Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, which created the protein-predicting program […]
Using ultrapowerful lasers, scientists have blasted cheap plastic and transformed it into tiny “nanodiamonds” — and, in doing so, confirmed the existence of an exotic new type of water. . The findings could potentially reveal the existence of diamond rain on ice giants in our solar system and explain why these frigid worlds have such […]
A close-up of one of the mysterious “blue goo” creatures discovered by researchers using an ROV near Saint Croix in the Caribbean. (Image credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022) (opens in new tab) Unidentified deep-sea “blue goo” creatures recently left scientists scratching their heads after they spotted the mysterious blobs hanging out […]
Five patients with hard-to-treat lupus entered remission after scientists tweaked their immune cells using a technique normally used to treat cancer. After the one-time therapy, all five patients with the autoimmune disease stopped their standard treatments and haven’t had a relapse. This treatment, known as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, needs to be tested […]
The researcher onboard the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer as it sits in front of Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. (Image credit: Alexandra Mazur/University of Gothenburg) (opens in new tab) Underwater robots that peered under Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier,” saw that its doom may come sooner than expected with an extreme spike in ice […]
By firing a Fibonacci laser pulse at atoms inside a quantum computer, physicists have created a completely new, strange phase of matter that behaves as if it had two dimensions of time. The new phase of matter, created by using lasers to rhythmically jiggle a strand of 10 ytterbium ions, enables scientists to store information […]
For the first time, scientists have named a heat wave. They called it Zoe. According to USA Today (opens in new tab), the Spanish scientists bestowed the moniker on a heat wave that sent temperatures soaring to 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 degrees Celsius) in Seville between July 24 and July 27. It’s a new effort […]
