An artist’s illustration of an planet — though not LHS 1140 b — outside the Solar System. A planet relatively close to Earth could be the first ever detected with a potentially life-sustaining liquid ocean outside our Solar System, according to scientists using the James Webb space telescope. More than 5,000 planets have been discovered … Read more
This image from video provided by SpaceX shows the upper stage engine of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted off from California on Thursday, July 11, 2024. The rocket, carrying 20 Starlink satellites, malfunctioned during the blast, leaving the company’s internet satellites in a precariously low orbit. Credit: SpaceX via AP A SpaceX rocket … Read more
In this photo provided by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, two interacting galaxies are captured by the Webb Space Telescope in the infrared. Scientists say the neighboring galaxies, nicknamed Penguin, right, and the Egg, left, have been tangled up for tens of millions of years. Credit: NASA and Space Telescope Science Institute via … Read more
Researchers say that climate change is causing thicker, more hazardous ice to choke the fabled “northwest passage” long-sought by navigators seeking a faster route from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans. Melting sea ice in the fast-warming Arctic Ocean is not making it easier for sailors to navigate a legendary shortcut between Europe and Asia … Read more
Tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT can help individuals with their creative writing, but also decrease originality on a collective level, a study shows. Books and movies of the future could all start to feel the same if creative industries embrace artificial intelligence to help write stories, a study published on Friday warned. The research, which drew … Read more
The globular cluster Omega Centauri — with as many as ten million stars — is seen in all its splendor in this image captured with the WFI camera from ESO’s La Silla Observatory. Credit: ESO, CC BY 4.0 This week: Physicists conducted a biological study, engineers built a waste-recycling suit for astronauts (and worm riders), … Read more
A schematic overview of the formose reservoir computer. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07567-x Researchers from the Institute for Molecules and Materials at Radboud University, Netherlands, have demonstrated that a complex self-organizing chemical reaction network can perform various computational tasks, such as nonlinear classification and complex dynamics prediction. The field of molecular computing interests researchers who … Read more
Large areas of the Mediterranean have been under ‘alert drought conditions’, says the European Drought Observatory. In a sun-baked village north of Morocco’s capital Rabat, Mustapha Loubaoui and other itinerant workers wait idly by the roadside for farm work made scarce by a six-year drought. Loubaoui, 40, rode his combine harvester for 280 kilometers (175 … Read more
In this photo provided by the Brevard Zoo, Bubba, a 375-plus-pound loggerhead sea turtle, is released back into the Atlantic Ocean at Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach, Fla., Wednesday, July 10, 2024. Credit: Brevard Zoo via AP A 375-pound (170-kilogram) sea turtle has been released back into the Atlantic Ocean after three months of … Read more
Zebrafish larvae. Credit: Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) Light can be used to activate drugs in specific parts of the body through photopharmacology. This innovative approach involves modifying the chemical structure of a drug by adding a light-activated molecular switch, such as azobenzene. This allows the drug to be activated only when exposed to … Read more
