Science

Getting into ‘the zone’ when being creative can be tricky, even if you’ve been there before. People strive for this famous mental state in a wide range of endeavors, many hoping for even just a few moments of fun, effortless productivity. Also known as ‘flow,’ the state of mind is a real psychological phenomenon, albeit

Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket, flew further and faster than ever before during its third test launch Thursday, although it was eventually lost as it re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, SpaceX said. Lift-off from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas came at 8:25 am local time (1325 GMT) and was carried

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Efforts by scientists to use a Mars rover to collect samples are continuing even as NASA wraps up a new assessment of when and how those samples will be brought back to Earth. The Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in February 2021, has filled 26 of its 43 sample tubes,

As a clinical psychologist, I often have clients say they are having trouble with thoughts “on a loop” in their head, which they find difficult to manage. While rumination and overthinking are often considered the same thing, they are slightly different (though linked). Rumination is having thoughts on repeat in our minds. This can lead

In a scarred and scored terrain on the face of Mars, a giant secret lurks. There, beneath the region known as Noctis Labyrinthus (Labyrinth of the Night), scientists have found evidence of an enormous, ancient volcano – and, possibly, a buried sheet of glacier ice. The discovery makes the equatorial site an attractive option in

TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. regulators have approved ground rules for allowing SpaceX and other satellite operators to use radio waves from terrestrial mobile partners to keep smartphone users connected outside cell tower coverage. The Federal Communications Commission voted March 14 unanimously in favor of its Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) regulatory framework. SCS providers would

A man who died around 5,300 years ago was tattooed using methods fascinatingly similar to modern ones. Ötzi the Iceman, whose exceptionally mummified remains were found decades ago in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps, was covered in tattoos. Scientists carefully studying his remains have counted 61 carbon pigment markings on his lower back, abdomen,

Our Solar System does not exist in isolation. It formed within a stellar nursery along with hundreds of sibling stars, and even today has the occasional interaction with interstellar objects such as Oumuamua and Borisov. So it’s reasonable to presume that some interstellar material has reached Earth. Recently Avi Loeb and his team earned quite

This winter was the warmest ever recorded in the mainland United States, data showed Friday – the latest sign the world is moving towards an unprecedented era as a result of the climate crisis. The average temperature in the so-called lower 48 US states from December 2023 to February 2024 was 37.6 degrees Fahrenheit (3.1

In recent weeks, fighters from Yemen’s Houthi movement have reportedly knocked out four of the Red Sea’s underwater communication cables between Saudi Arabia and Djibouti. The cables, which are thought to belong to the AAE-1, Seacom, EIG and TGN systems, are among those that connect Europe and Asia. Though there has been no official confirmation

Archeologists have discovered a collection of stud-shaped objects that wouldn’t look all that out of place decorating the lips of people today. Found in the graves of a Neolithic settlement in south-east Türkiye, they could represent the earliest convincing examples of body piercing. The site, Boncuklu Tarla, is renowned for its exceptional collection of diverse

A new, precise measurement of the expansion rate of the Universe is in, and it’s serving up a huge cosmic pickle. Using Hubble data and new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team led by physicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University has confirmed that previous measurements are correct after all, despite

Our world may seem fragile, but Earth has been around for a very long time. If we ventured far back into the past, would we reach a time when it looked fundamentally different? The answer lies in some of the earliest extensive relics of Earth’s surface, found in a remote corner of southern Africa’s highveld

Imagine your laptop running twice as fast without any hardware upgrades; only the application of smarter software algorithms. That’s the promise of new research that could change how today’s devices function. The team behind the research, from the University of California, Riverside (UCR), says that the work has huge potential, not just for boosting hardware

Standalone terminals that can switch between satellites in geostationary and low Earth orbit (LEO) are about to get into customer hands for the first time, delivering a real-world test of multi-orbit broadband capabilities operators are increasingly pinning their businesses on. Legacy geostationary operators have been busy drawing up acquisitions, partnerships, and new constellations to offer

Archaeologists digging in the German city of Nuremberg ahead of the construction of a new retirement home have uncovered what may be the largest mass burial of plague victims ever uncovered in Europe. Excavations are ongoing, but the centuries-old remains of more than 500 individuals have been unearthed so far, and the team believes there

When a galaxy runs out of gas and dust, the process of star birth stops. That takes billions of years. But, there’s a galaxy out there that was already dead when the Universe was only 700 million years old. What happened to it? That’s what an international team of astronomers wants to know. “The first

A new review of literature on global climate change written by an international team of more than 200 researchers leaves no room for doubt: humanity is heading for disaster, unless significant steps are taken to change that course. How disastrous? The research team mentions trillions of US dollars in climate-related damage, billions of people pushed

WASHINGTON — Stratolaunch conducted the first powered flight of its Talon vehicle March 9, reaching “high supersonic” speeds in the uncrewed test. The Talon-A vehicle, designated TA-1, took off attached to the company’s Roc aircraft from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 10:17 a.m. Eastern according to flight tracking data. The plane

Stone tools found buried deep in the sediment of the Korolevo quarry in Ukraine are rewriting the history of human migration. The seemingly unassuming chunks of rock are tools once used by Homo erectus, a direct ancestor of ours, and new dating reveals they represent the earliest evidence of hominid habitation on the European continent.

Jupiter‘s icy moon Europa has long been thought of as one of the most habitable worlds in the Solar System. Now the Juno mission to Jupiter has directly sampled its atmosphere in detail for the first time. The results, published in Nature Astronomy, show that Europa’s icy surface produces less oxygen than we thought. There

If you stand at practically any point on Earth, there is water moving through the ground beneath your feet. Groundwater provides about half of the world’s population with drinking water and nearly half of all water used to irrigate crops. It sustains rivers, lakes and wetlands during droughts. Groundwater is a renewable resource, but it

WASHINGTON — The first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has slipped from late April to early May because of International Space Station schedule conflicts and not due to any issues with the spacecraft itself. In a media advisory released by NASA late March 8, the agency said the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, previously

The afterlife could be a lonely place with your loved ones staying behind in the land of the living. In the ancient Coclé culture, which existed in Panama between 200 BCE and 1550 CE, elite individuals didn’t have to worry about eternal solitude. The tomb of a young Coclé lord from roughly 1,200 years ago

We know that there are thousands of exoplanets out there, with many millions more waiting to be discovered. But the vast majority of exoplanets are simply uninhabitable. For the few that may be habitable, we can only determine if they are by examining their atmospheres. LIFE, the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets, can help. The search

The United Nations Environment Assembly this week considered a resolution on solar radiation modification, which refers to controversial technologies intended to mask the heating effect of greenhouse gases by reflecting some sunlight back to space. Proponents argue the technologies will limit the effects of climate change. In reality, this type of “geoengineering” risks further destabilising

A global race to build powerful computer chips that are essential for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools could have a major impact on global politics and security. The US is currently leading the race in the design of these chips, also known as semiconductors. But most of the manufacturing is carried out

WASHINGTON — Kurs Orbital, an Italian startup developing technology for in-space satellite servicing, announced March 7 it has secured $4 million in seed funding. Based in Turin, Italy, Kurs was co-founded in 2021 by former director of Ukraine’s space agency Volodymyr Usov. The company relocated to Italy in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine and set

A medieval astronomical instrument discovered entirely by accident has turned out to be a powerful record of cross-cultural scientific collaboration. The brass astrolabe dates back to 11th century Spain – but was subsequently engraved with annotations and amendments over the centuries, in multiple languages, as changing owners adapted and updated it for their own use.

A few years ago, astronomers ruled out the chance of a potentially hazardous asteroid named Apophis redirecting and hitting Earth as it whizzes by. That’s a huge relief. But we weren’t entirely out of the woods. We’ve seen, thanks to the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, that it’s possible to change the orbital course of an