The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they don’t read regularly (up from 42% in 2015)and almost one in four young people aged 16-24 say they’ve never been readers, according to research by The Reading Agency. But what are the implications? Will people’s
Science
Our Sun is not a peaceful place. It roils with convection; its magnetic field snaps, finds a connection, snaps again. It unleashes eruptions of energy in the form of violent flares, and plasma in the form of coronal mass ejections. Most of this activity lacks sufficient punch to harm us… but every now and then,
A wildfire burning through Malibu that has sent thousands of people fleeing for safety, including Hollywood celebrities, forged west on Wednesday, as firefighters battled to save homes from the blaze. At least seven properties are known to have been destroyed in one of California’s most exclusive communities, as powerful winds pushed flames through steep canyons.
As the next administration takes shape, countless voices are vying for influence over the future of America’s space program. I’d wager one in particular — someone apparently very close to the President-elect — might be suggesting a bold new direction: “Sir. Forget racing China to the moon,” Elon Musk may be saying. “We’re almost ready
When modern humans first ventured out of Africa, they followed in the footsteps of another human species who dared leave before them. Eventually our bold ancestors caught up with their Neanderthal cousins and did a bit more than just make friends. A new genetic analysis of the earliest known modern human remains found in Ranis
Even in death, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter is helping us learn about Mars. The small aircraft met the demise of its main mission on 18 January 2024, after nearly three epic years of flitting around in the thin Martian atmosphere, like the piece of engineering marvel that it is. Its final flight was both sad and
The Arctic can feel like a far-off place, disconnected from daily life if you aren’t one of the 4 million people who live there. Yet, the changes underway in the Arctic as temperatures rise can profoundly affect lives around the world. Coastal flooding is worsening in many communities as Arctic glaciers and the Greenland Ice
In spite of the advances made towards making quantum computers practical, qubit-based systems remain unstable and highly vulnerable to errors, something Google may have taken a major step towards fixing. Through a newly unveiled quantum chip called Willow, Google engineers have passed a significant milestone in error handling. Specifically, they’ve been able to keep a
ORLANDO, Fla. — Entrepreneur and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman in remarks Dec. 11 outlined an ambitious vision for U.S. space leadership, emphasizing the critical need to maintain technological superiority in the global space race while highlighting the growing role of private sector innovation. Speaking at the Spacepower Conference hosted by the Space Force Association, Isaacman
Around 900,000 years ago stone tech 2.0 was released into Spain. University of Santiago de Compostela anthropologist Diego Lombao and colleagues found the earliest known European example of advanced stone tool techniques. Discovered at El Barranc de la Boella in northeastern Spain, the technological leap predates the evolutionary split between modern humans and Neanderthals, so
So often when we think we understand something, another thing comes along that forces us to pause, reconsider, and broaden our minds to encompass these new and fascinating pieces of information. Take, for example, space rocks. We thought we had them all neatly categorized. Comets are chunks of rock filled with ices that sublimate when
Just a few months after cocaine was detected in the bodies of sharks off the coast of South America, research has found fentanyl and other drugs in dozens of dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, adding to a growing record of pharmaceuticals infiltrating our marine environments. “Pharmaceuticals have become emerging micropollutants and are a growing
Nobody knows what sleeping mushrooms dream of when their vast mycelial networks flicker and pulse with electrochemical responses akin to those of our own brain cells. But given a chance, what might this web of impulses do if granted a moment of freedom? An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University in the US and
ORLANDO, Fla. — Lockheed Martin announced plans to launch its Tactical Satellite (TacSat) aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket in 2025, marking the second mission in a multi-launch agreement between the aerospace giant and the upstart rocket company. The mission, funded internally by Lockheed Martin, aims to showcase cutting-edge technologies targeting the defense market. TacSat, a
A new analysis of fossils found in a Spanish cave suggests Neanderthals were capable of abstract thought, before any interactions with Homo sapiens. A total of 15 small marine fossils were found in the Prado Vargas Cave in Burgos, and according to researchers from the University of Burgos and the University of Málaga in Spain,
The Moon bears its history on its skin. Earth’s only permanent natural satellite is scored and scarred with billions of years’ worth of cratering – a record of constant bombardment. The biggest and oldest of these scars is a monster crater, one of the largest, not just on the Moon, but in the entire Solar
WASHINGTON — The vice chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, Gen. Michael Guetlein, issued a stark warning this weekend about China’s accelerating advances in space technology and its growing capacity to challenge the United States’ dominance in orbit. Speaking Dec. 7 at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Guetlein
A lagging libido in males is commonly attributed to a decline in testosterone, leading many men to hit the gym or supplement their diet in the hopes extra testosterone will give them a boost. Yet in spite of testosterone’s role in reproduction, evidence that typical fluctuations may account for changes in an individual’s sexual appetite
One of the biggest existential mysteries – and the most difficult to answer – is whether Earth is all alone in this Universe in bearing a solitary candle of intelligent life in the darkness. Based on what we have observed, it seems like we’re unique. But there are a number of possible reasons why we
WASHINGTON — A defense authorization bill includes language to extend a “learning period” limiting commercial human spaceflight regulations as well as indemnification for commercial launches. House and Senate conferees released Dec. 7 the text of the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2025 after negotiations to reconcile differences between
Repetition has a strange relationship with the mind. Take the experience of déjà vu, when we wrongly believe we have experienced a novel situation in the past – leaving us with an spooky sense of pastness. But we have discovered that déjà vu is actually a window into the workings of our memory system. Our
When the latest cargo ‘shipment’ docked at the International Space Station (ISS) this weekend, it delivered more than astronauts had bargained for. Along with food, water, clothing, medical and hygiene supplies, and scientific equipment, the uncrewed Russian spacecraft burped up quite an unusual stench. Wafting through the open hatch, astronauts caught an unexpected and strange
The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could arrive as soon as this decade, warns a new study. Climatologists from Colorado University (CU) Boulder and the University of Gothenburg have used computer models to investigate when the Arctic might experience its first ice-free day. In this context, ‘ice-free’ means a sea ice area of
WASHINGTON — Portuguese space traffic management startup Neuraspace has installed a second optical telescope to help track low Earth orbit (LEO) objects across both hemispheres. Neuraspace said Dec. 6 it had activated a telescope in Chile to scan the southern hemisphere for objects as small as 10 centimeters, three months after setting up a similar
People whose ring finger is longer than their index digit tend to drink more alcohol, new research shows. But why is this so? The answer lies in our understanding of sex differences. Some sex differences are influenced by social factors, but others have their roots in our biology. There are marked differences between how much
When Oumuamua traversed our Solar System in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ISOs to visit our Solar System. Many more ISOs must have visited in our Solar System’s long history, and many more
New research highlights the stark choice we face when it comes to climate change: solve the crisis now, or spend a lot more money and resources solving the crisis in the future, after environmental tipping points have been passed. A team from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) crunched
WASHINGTON — Muon Space, a startup specializing in small satellites for Earth climate monitoring, has been awarded a $2.9 million contract by the U.S. Space Force to evaluate its satellite technology for military applications. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 agreement, announced Dec. 5, aims to assess whether Muon’s instruments can provide high-resolution
Tiny spoon-shaped implements carried by Roman era Germanic warriors may be evidence they used stimulants on the field of war. According to a new analysis of the mysterious artifacts and their context, archaeologists and biologists believe that the suspiciously round-ended fittings could have been used to dispense drugs that gave the warriors an edge when
Using the largest gravitational wave detector ever made, we have confirmed earlier reports that the fabric of the Universe is constantly vibrating. This background rumble is likely caused by collisions between the enormous black holes that reside in the hearts of galaxies. The results from our detector – an array of rapidly spinning neutron stars