Science

Severance, which imagines a world where a person’s work and personal lives are surgically separated, will soon return to Apple TV+ for a second season. While the concept of this gripping piece of science fiction is far-fetched, it touches on some interesting neuroscience. Can a person’s mind really be surgically split in two? Remarkably, “split-brain”

The space debris problem won’t solve itself. We’ve been kicking the can down the road for years as we continue launching more rockets and payloads into space. In the last couple of years, organizations – especially the European Space Agency (ESA) – have begun to address the problem more seriously. Now they’re asking this question:

Los Angeles is burning, but it isn’t alone. In recent years, fires have blasted through cities in Colorado, the southern Appalachians and the island of Maui, along with Canada, Australia, Portugal, and Greece. What wasn’t burned was smoked in. Is this another case of a future not only dire but strange, without a narrative to

Roblox isn’t just another video game – it’s a massive virtual universe where nearly 90 million people from around the world create, play and socialise. This includes some 34 million children under 13 who spend an average of 2.6 hours daily on the platform, making Roblox one of the most influential digital platforms for kids

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office (CSCO) has announced contracting opportunities worth approximately $2.3 billion for commercial satellite services over the coming year. The procurement forecast, released in December, outlines major initiatives for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with the centerpiece being a nearly $900 million program focused on maneuverable satellites

An ancient skull that was found in Turkey close to a century ago does not belong to Cleopatra’s younger, rebellious sister, after all. A new analysis of the ancient bone reveals it isn’t even that of a 20-year-old woman. Instead, the skull belongs to a male who died between the ages of 11 and 14

NASA’s Curiosity Rover has been exploring Mars since 2012 and more recently has found evidence of ice-free ancient ponds and lakes on the surface. The rover found small undulations like those seen in sandy lakebeds on Earth. They would have been created by wind-driven water moving back and forth across the surface. The inescapable conclusion

The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average since 1979. Svalbard, an archipelago near the northeast coast of Greenland, is at the frontline of this climate change, warming up to seven times faster than the rest of the world. More than half of Svalbard is covered by glaciers. If they were

In this episode of Commercial Space Transformers SpaceNews Senior Staff Writer Jason Rainbow speaks with Alex Greenberg, Co-founder and COO, Loft Orbital. The discussion centers on Loft Orbital’s innovative approach as a “space-as-a-service” provider, simplifying satellite deployment for customers. The company recently announced $170 million in a Series C funding round. Loft Orbital’s focus on

Thousands of years ago, people on what is now the Danish island of Bornholm threw hundreds of mysteriously carved stones into a ditch before burying them. The purpose of these so-called ‘sun stones’, and the reasons for throwing them into ditches en masse, have been something of a mystery – but ancient ice excavated from

Mars is home to perhaps the greatest mystery of the Solar System: the so-called Martian dichotomy, which has baffled scientists since it was discovered in the 1970s. The southern highlands of Mars (which cover about two-thirds of the planet’s surface) rise as much as five or six kilometres higher than the northern lowlands. Nowhere else

The year 2024 was the world’s warmest on record globally, and the first calendar year in which global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above its pre-industrial levels. The official declaration was made on Friday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union’s Earth observation program. It comes as wildfires continue to tear through Los Angeles, California

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration says it is investigating reports that debris from the failed Starship test flight landed, and caused property damage in, the Turks and Caicos Islands. In a Jan. 17 statement, the FAA confirmed that it would require SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation for the Starship/Super Heavy test flight the

Claims that we ought to subscribe to a low-carb, high-protein ‘paleo diet‘ are typically based on assertions our ancestors avoided complicated plant processing in favor of simpler meals consisting of meats, nuts, fruit, and raw vegetables. Evidence is mounting that this dietary advice is based on a misconception. A new study has found Pleistocene hominins

We can judge the value of any scientific endeavour based on how much of our knowledge it overturns or transforms. By that metric, the ESA’s Gaia mission is a resounding success. The spacecraft gave us a precise, 3D map of our Milky Way galaxy and has forced us to abandon old ideas and replace them

The wildfires in the Los Angeles area have destroyed thousands of structures, many of them homes, and firefighters continue to battle the infernos. Parts of Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena and other California communities are now unrecognizable. As evacuation orders are lifted, safe drinking water should be top of mind for those residents able to return

TAMPA, Fla. — Thaicom’s board is urging shareholders to reject a takeover bid for the Thai geostationary satellite operator if its stock remains above the 11 baht ($0.32) per share offer until the tender closes Feb. 6. The offer, from Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi, power producer Gulf Energy Development and mobile operator Intouch Holdings, falls

Picturing how our species might appear in the far future often invites wild speculation over stand-out features such as height, brain size, and skin complexion. Yet subtle shifts in our anatomy today demonstrate how unpredictable evolution can be. Take something as mundane as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which going by current trends

A fluffy cluster of stars spilling across the sky may have a secret hidden in its heart: a swarm of over 100 stellar-mass black holes. The star cluster in question is called Palomar 5. It’s a stellar stream that stretches out across 30,000 light-years, and is located around 80,000 light-years away. Such globular clusters are

A series of savage lurches from intensely dry to fiercely wet conditions helped fuel the horrific winter fires we’re currently watching destroy parts of Los Angeles and surrounding wilderness. A new review of over 200 papers finds this ‘hydroclimate whiplash’ has increased considerably, most likely due to the atmosphere’s rising capacity for absorbing and retaining

TAMPA, Fla. — Agility Beyond Space (ABS) is keen to embrace new business models and strategic partnerships as the rapidly evolving satellite market shifts beneath the Dubai-based geostationary operator’s feet. “We live in interesting times,” quipped Mark Rigolle, a satellite industry veteran who took the helm of ABS last year in the latest shake-up for

Around 2,000 years ago, before the Roman Empire conquered Great Britain, women were at the very front and center of Iron Age society. Researchers have sequenced the genomes of around 50 Celtic Britons buried together in southern England and uncovered strong evidence of female-line descent. Among the large kin group, who lived before and after

When some of the biggest stars reach the end of their lives, they explode in spectacular supernovas and leave behind incredibly dense cores called neutron stars. Some of these remnants emit powerful radio beams from their magnetic poles. As the star spins, these beams sweep past Earth and produce periodic pulses of radio waves, much

A colossal ice core sample drilled in Antarctica may contain the oldest, unbroken timeline of Earth’s climate, stretching back more than a million years. Laid horizontally, the entire ice core’s 2,800-meter (9,186-foot) length could extend across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and then some. Each meter-long segment contains up to 13,000 years of deep, compressed

TAMPA, Fla. — Emirati operator Space42 said Jan. 15 it has established communications with its recently launched Foresight-2 satellite, the second synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload for the hybrid imaging and connectivity provider. Provided by Finnish SAR operator Iceye, Foresight-2 was one of 131 payloads SpaceX sent to sun-synchronous orbit Jan. 14 on a Falcon

We are surrounded by random events every day. Will the stock market rise or fall tomorrow? Will the next penalty kick in a soccer match go left or right? Will your lottery ticket finally win? Often, we experience these events not as isolated occurrences but as part of a sequence. In these sequences, our brains

Carbon-rich cosmic dust comes from different sources and spreads out into space, where it’s necessary for life and for the formation of rocky planets like ours. When astronomers aim their telescopes at objects in the sky, they often have to contend with this cosmic dust that obscures their targets and confounds their observations. One reason

Firefighters battling the deadly wildfires that raced through the Los Angeles area in January 2025 have been hampered by a limited supply of freshwater. So, when the winds are calm enough, skilled pilots flying planes aptly named Super Scoopers are skimming off 1,500 gallons of seawater at a time and dumping it with high precision

NEW ORLEANS – Weather intelligence startup Tomorrow.io unveiled NextGen, a global-precipitation forecasting platform, Jan. 14 at the American Meteorological Society annual meeting here. NextGen ingests data from Boston-based Tomorrow.io satellites to provide global precipitation forecasts with a resolution of 2.5 kilometers, updated every five minutes. With NextGen, Tomorrow.io is filling “critical radar gaps worldwide” to

The Bible’s lex talionis – “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Exodus 21:24-27) – has captured the human imagination for millennia. This idea of fairness has been a model for ensuring justice when bodily harm is inflicted. Thanks to the work of linguists, historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, researchers know