Smashing together lead particles at 99.9999991 percent the speed of light, scientists have recreated the first matter that appeared after the Big Bang. Out of the wreck came a primordial type of matter known as quark-gluon plasma, or QGP. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but for the first time, scientists were able to
Science
Most people aren’t trying to share fake news, but that’s part of the problem: Nobody thinks it’s their fault. In a recent survey of 8,285 Americans, 90 percent of respondents thought they were better than the average person at spotting false news on social media. Obviously, a lot of people were mistaken. When asked to
A huge cluster of stars has been found lurking in the Milky Way, just a relatively short cosmic distance from our own Solar System. Now around 75 million years old, the open cluster Valparaíso 1 is estimated to have contained around 10,000 solar masses’ worth of stars when it first blazed into existence. At just 7,000
Earth’s oceans are full of life, with multitudes of creatures making their home beneath the waves. But not everywhere in the deep blue sea is receptive to life’s presence. In recent years, scientists have become increasingly concerned about ‘dead zones’: areas of hypoxic waters in the ocean where oxygen levels are so low, marine animals
TAMPA, Fla. — Satellite operators have cleared a portion of C-band in a key step toward giving the spectrum to U.S. wireless companies in December. Work has now started on installing filters on ground antennas across the United States, so wireless operators can use the lower 120 MHz of C-band for 5G without interfering with
Discovering a new species and placing it on the tree of life is a big responsibility. I have been fortunate to name four species from some of the deepest, most remote and least sampled parts of the ocean. Each new species helps us uncover how life thrives in the hadal zone (anywhere deeper than 6,000
The legacy of one of the brightest stars in the physics firmament has been secured. Around 10,000 pages of the writings and other papers of legendary theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking will be preserved in a special archive by the Cambridge University Library in the UK. This will include a digitization project, to be made freely
A 2,300-year-old ceramic jar filled with the bones of a dismembered chicken was likely part of an ancient curse to paralyze and kill 55 people in ancient Athens, archaeologists say. The finding reveals new evidence for how people tried to use “magic” in the city. They discovered the jar, along with a coin, beneath the floor
A newly discovered repeating fast radio burst (FRB) named FRB 20200120E is deepening the mystery of these already deeply mysterious space signals. Astronomers have tracked its location to a galaxy 11.7 million light-years away, which makes it the closest known fast radio burst, 40 times closer than the next-closest extragalactic signal. But it also appears
A heavily used group of pesticides, designed to kill insects upon contact, is also poisoning bee colonies. Scientists have discovered a way to deliver an antidote using pollen-like microparticles. The medicine is composed of a special enzyme that can break down certain groups of insecticides called organophosphates. These insecticides pose a deadly threat, but if the
HELSINKI — Russia and China are looking to announce new partnerships for a joint initiative to construct a robotic moon base ahead of potential crewed lunar missions. The first responses to invitations to join the International Lunar Research Station project (ILRS) are expected during bilateral meetings during the Global Space Exploration Conference 2021 (GLEX 2021)
For some time, seismologists have been aware of brief, subtle anomalies in underground electrical fields leading up to an earthquake, sometimes occurring as soon as a few weeks before the quake happens. It’s tempting to think these electromagnetic bursts could be used to predict when a quake will strike. Up until now, however, the cause of
One of the oldest known war cemeteries, discovered in the Nile River Valley, did not necessarily originate from a single epic battle like we once thought. According to a full reanalysis of this ancient burial site, known as Jebel Sahaba, the humans buried here were probably subject to a series of violent skirmishes rather than
Astronomers have created the most comprehensive map yet of all the dark matter in the universe. That’s no easy feat, considering dark matter is invisible. Scientists know this shadowy cousin of regular matter exists, though, because its strong gravitational forces can pull entire galaxies together. Based on observations of its influence, astronomers estimate that dark
Greenland’s melting ice sheet is unleashing an astonishing amount of mercury into the nation’s rivers and fjords. Downstream of three glaciers in the southwest, researchers have found coastal ecosystems are swimming in high concentrations of the heavy metal, which can build up in the food web to toxic levels. The quantity of mercury observed in
TAMPA, Fla. — OneWeb’s broadband constellation is set to pass the 200th mark after Arianespace successfully launched its latest batch of satellites May 28. Arianespace launched 36 satellites on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket 1:38 p.m. Eastern from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, in Russia, which will enlarge OneWeb’s fleet to 218 satellites. The mission was initially scheduled for
A study has found that monkeys are capable of picking up new “accents” to be more friendly to their neighbors. The study, which was published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology journal, looked at two different species of monkeys that live in the Brazilian Amazon: The bald-headed white pied tamarins and their
To make some of the most precise measurements we can of the world around us, scientists tend to go small – right down to the atomic scale, using a technique called atom interferometry. Now, for the first time, scientists have performed this kind of measurement in space, using a sounding rocket specially designed to carry
A set of cut and sharpened turkey bones excavated decades ago from an ancient Native American grave seem to be the oldest tattooing tools we’ve found to date. A new, detailed analysis of these artifacts has allowed archaeologists to determine that they were likely used to tattoo skin, bringing us a little closer to understanding
Jupiter’s ice-encrusted moon Europa is increasingly looking like the best place in the Solar System to search for extraterrestrial life. New modeling suggests that the rocky mantle, deep below the thick ice and salty ocean, could actually be hot enough for volcanic activity. Moreover, it could have been this hot over most of its 4.5-billion
While the rest of the world continues to tackle the global pandemic, in eastern Australia, waves of mice are flooding farms and towns. For months now, this plague has been wreaking havoc on crops, damaging electrical wires in buildings, and even biting hospital patients, leaving a stench of rodent urine and feces in its wake.
Perovskite has a lot going for it in our search for a cheap, efficient way to harvest solar energy. With a dusting of organic molecules, these crystalline structures have been able to convert more than a quarter of the light falling onto them into electricity. Theoretically, perovskite crystals made with the right mix of materials
On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of its independence. America should commemorate this historical milestone in 2026 by landing humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. Sending humanity back to the moon in 2026 is not only technically feasible, but it also fits squarely in the
From the waters we creatures of the land emerged. Some animals, like whales, returned to it. Others, like frogs, never truly let go of their watery origins, and even now we’re still discovering clever ways in which terrestrial creatures can find refuge within this soothing liquid medium. Case in point: air-breathing anoles have developed a
The problem starts with Brazil nuts. The large edible seeds are a common fixture in mixed nut bags, but they’re not to everyone’s liking – especially since they get dry and bitter once past the peak of freshness. And to make matters worse, they always rise to the top. The phenomenon, colloquially known as the
The science replication crisis might be worse than we thought: new research reveals that studies with replicated results tend to be cited less often than studies which have failed to replicate. That’s not to say that these more widely cited studies with unreplicated experiments are necessarily wrong or misleading – but it does mean that,
New calculations from bored physicists have just brought us a bit closer to understanding how material can fall onto neutron stars to flare out powerful blasts of X-ray light. If enough plasma is gravitationally attracted to the dead star from a binary companion, its mass is sufficient to force a way through the barrier created
Almost 60 years after British nuclear tests ended, radioactive particles containing plutonium and uranium still contaminate the landscape around Maralinga in outback South Australia. These “hot particles” are not as stable as we once assumed. Our research shows they are likely releasing tiny chunks of plutonium and uranium which can be easily transported in dust
An online game developed by a team of social psychologists could be a useful tool in the fight against misinformation, helping internet users spot misinformation and call it out for what it is: manipulative. Misinformation – often spread by automated bots, but also unsuspecting people – worms its way into our heads by appealing to a
The Space Enterprise Consortium plans to issue a request for prototype proposals by June 30 WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force next month will solicit industry bids for deep-space radar sensors that can track active satellites and debris in high orbits above 22,000 miles. One or more contractors will be selected to develop prototype concepts