Science

Kindergarten-age kids excel at lots of things, but focusing efficiently on a task is not typically one of their strong suits. Research suggests many children at this age find it hard to concentrate on details most relevant to an assignment, often spending time and energy collecting information that won’t help them. According to a new

It’s not every day that humans get to walk on the Moon. In fact, it’s been more than 50 years since humans last set foot on the lunar surface, during NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Such a momentous occasion as a return to Earth’s dusty gunpowder satellite requires nothing short of the fanciest of

TAMPA, Fla. — Intelsat 33e has lost power in geostationary orbit and the satellite is no longer providing communications for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific, its operator announced Oct. 19. Intelsat said it is working with satellite maker Boeing to address the anomaly, but “believe it is unlikely that the satellite will

Lightning storms are some of the most spectacular, wild, and dramatic events our world has to offer – but the effects are not just directed towards Earth’s surface. According to new research, lightning storms can rip high-energy “killer” electrons out of the planet’s radiation belt and fling them in all directions. It’s a new link

Bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay in Florida and Barataria Bay in Louisiana are exhaling microplastic fibers, according to our new research published in the journal PLOS One. Tiny plastic pieces have spread all over the planet – on land, in the air, and even in clouds. An estimated 170 trillion bits of microplastic are estimated

MILAN — Refurbishment of ground systems like a mobile launch platform could become another factor in the schedule for the Artemis 2 mission that NASA says is still planned for launch next September. A report by the Government Accountability Office Oct. 17 found that work on the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program, which includes the

Cats have a reputation for aloofness (and flooffiness), but if you and your feline friend aren’t bonding, maybe you’re just not speaking their language. Never fear – research from 2020 has shown that it’s not so difficult. You just need to smile at them more. Not the human way, by baring your teeth, but the

In 1995, Caltech researchers at the Institute’s Palomar Observatory first observed what appeared to be a brown dwarf orbiting Gliese 229 – a red dwarf star located about 19 light-years from Earth. Since then, this brown dwarf (Gliese 229 B) has mystified astronomers because it appeared too dim for its mass. With 70 times the

Our research group has bred corals able to better survive marine heatwaves. Our work, now published in Nature Communications, shows that it is possible to improve coral heat tolerance even within a single generation. We did this using selective breeding: a technique used by humans for thousands of years to produce animals and plants with

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Commerce announced long-awaited changes to export control rules for space technologies, a move aimed at bolstering American competitiveness in the global space industry. The new regulations will make it easier for U.S. companies to sell satellites, launch vehicles, and other space-related technologies to close allies, including the United Kingdom,

One of the most famous facades in all the world has been concealing a deep secret. Underneath the iconic and intricately carved Treasury building at the center of the renowned archaeological site Petra, excavators have stumbled upon a long-lost crypt holding 12 skeletons. One of the buried individuals was found clutching the top of a

Until now, only a small fraction of meteorites that land on Earth had been firmly linked back to their parent body out in space – but a set of new studies has just given us compelling origin stories for more than 90 percent of meteorites today. Past analyses of meteorites striking our planet today suggest

WASHINGTON – Airbus’ defense and space division announced plans to cut up to 2,500 positions by mid-2026, citing a “continued complex business environment, especially in the space systems segment,” the company said Oct. 16. The workforce reduction comes as Europe’s aerospace giant faces mounting financial challenges in its space programs, with executives emphasizing the need

Millions of scientific papers are published globally every year. These papers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine present discoveries that range from the mundane to the profound. Since 1900, the number of published scientific articles has doubled about every 10 to 15 years; since 1980, about 8 percent to 9 percent annually. This acceleration

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) has been shrouded in mystery since its maiden flight in 2011. Designed by Boeing and operated by the US Space Force (USSF), this remotely operated, reusable space plane is designed to operate in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), 240 to 800 kilometers (150 to 500 miles) above the Earth, and test

From soaring coastal redwoods to dinosaur-era Wollemi pines and firs that make the perfect Christmas trees, even our most revered woody plants are in an awful lot of trouble. But it turns out that losing some species won’t just endanger local forests; it will threaten entire ecosystems, research shows. In 2021, a global assessment titled

Google on Monday signed a deal to get electricity from small nuclear reactors to help power artificial intelligence. The agreement to buy energy from reactors built by Kairos Power came just weeks after word that Three Mile Island, the site of America’s worst nuclear accident, will restart operations to provide energy to Microsoft. “We believe

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has wrapped up a one-year pilot project exploring outsourcing satellite communications services to private companies, but the long-term future of such arrangements remains unclear. Under the pilot, the Army selected satellite operators Intelsat and SES to provide “satcom as a managed service,” a model where the provider handles all satellite

Around a neighboring star just 635 light-years away, astronomers have found even more evidence of a moon absolutely livid with volcanoes. There is a giant cloud of sodium consistent with volcanic activity, orbiting an exoplanet named WASP-49b, orbiting in turn a yellow dwarf star named WASP-49. And how do we know that the sodium is

The Sunshine State is bracing for more severe weather in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified to a Category 5 storm on Monday, leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency for 51 counties along Florida’s western shores. Several counties, including Charlotte, Hillsborough, and Manatee, have mandatory evacuation orders,

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought both benefits and risk. One concerning trend is the misuse of voice cloning. In seconds, scammers can clone a voice and trick people into thinking a friend or a family member urgently needs money. News outlets, including CNN, warn these types of scams have the potential

Updated 9:45 a.m. Eastern with Starship landing. MILAN — SpaceX launched its fifth Starship vehicle Oct. 13, successfully making an unprecedented “catch” of its Super Heavy booster back at the launch site. The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from the company’s Starbase site at Boca Chica, Texas, at 8:25 a.m. Eastern on a mission called

Our gleaming blue marble of a planet is a treasure that shimmers and sparkles in the darkness of space. Most of humanity will never get a first-person view of this magnificent sight. But the rare few that experience the wonder of extraterrestrial travel have documented their journeys in detail, giving us a breathtaking, beautiful glimpse

You don’t have to look far to see what climate change is doing to the planet. The word “unprecedented” is everywhere this year. We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam. Unprecedented fires in Canada have destroyed towns. Unprecedented drought

The 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry recognized Demis Hassabis, John Jumper and David Baker for using machine learning to tackle one of biology’s biggest challenges: predicting the 3D shape of proteins and designing them from scratch. This year’s award stood out because it honored research that originated at a tech company: DeepMind, an AI research

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration will allow SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 flights after an upper stage anomaly nearly two weeks ago as the company awaits approval for its next Starship launch. In a statement late Oct. 11, the FAA said it cleared launches of the Falcon 9 that, with one exception, had been

Near-Earth asteroid Bennu has taught us a lot about the nature of asteroids and the history of our planet, and it’s not done yet. A new study of Bennu tracking data gives us fresh clues on a potential fifth fundamental force in the Universe. If in fact it does exist, the fifth force of nature

As Hurricane Milton roared ashore near Sarasota, Florida, tens of thousands of people were in evacuation shelters. Hundreds of thousands more had fled coastal regions ahead of the storm, crowding highways headed north and south as their counties issued evacuation orders. But not everyone left, despite dire warnings about a hurricane that had been one

Imagine three people huddled in a circle so when one speaks, only one other hears. Scientists have created a device that works like that, ensuring sound waves ripple in one direction only. The device, developed by scientists at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, is made up of a disk-shaped cavity