Science

Scientists have solved the mystery of one of the animal kingdom’s most disproportionately large penises thanks to a Dutch retiree recording bat sex in a church attic. The serotine bat does not use its strangely large penis for penetration, but instead as a “copulatory arm” during mating, a European team of researchers said on Monday.

Entropy is one of those fearsomely deep concepts that form the core of entire fields of physics (in this case, thermodynamics) that is unfortunately so mathematical that it’s difficult to explain in plain language. But we will give it a try. Whenever I see the word entropy, I like to replace it with the phrase

Seen through a lens of ongoing technological and medical progress it’s easy to feel optimistic about humanity’s future prosperity. Scratch a little deeper, it soon becomes clear that our success as a species is anything but guaranteed. New research led by a team from the University of Stockholm in Sweden outlines 14 different “evolutionary traps”

Vampires may be lurking in space in the most ironic way possible – by hiding evidence of their kills in broad daylight. What’s more, just as Dracula had a diabolical assistant, these life-draining stars might be getting a little help from another nearby object. A study of some of the brightest, hottest stars in the

With the world continuing to warm up, scientists are busy working on ways of cooling buildings without using vast amounts of energy – such as the record-breaking, ultra-white cooling ceramic composite that’s been developed by researchers from the City University of Hong Kong. It’s what’s known as a passive radiative cooling (PRC) material, and it

Undeterred after three decades of looking, and with some assistance from a supercomputer, mathematicians have finally discovered a new example of a special integer called a Dedekind number. Only the ninth of its kind, or D(9), it is calculated to equal 286 386 577 668 298 411 128 469 151 667 598 498 812 366,

BERLIN — A year after the launch of the Artemis 1 mission, NASA is continuing to study the performance of the heat shield on the Orion spacecraft, a review that may take several more months to complete. Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, said at a Nov. 17 meeting of the NASA

Close to the summit of an underwater mountain west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a jagged landscape of towers rises from the gloom. Their creamy carbonate walls and columns appear ghostly blue in the light of a remotely operated vehicle sent to explore. They range in height from tiny stacks the size of toadstools to a

At 5:29 am on the morning of 16 July 1945, in the state of New Mexico, a dreadful slice of history was made. The dawn calm was torn asunder as the United States Army detonated a plutonium implosion device known as the Gadget – the world’s very first test of a nuclear bomb, known as

Imagine the future. Where is it for you? Do you see yourself striding towards it? Perhaps it’s behind you. Maybe it’s even above you. And what about the past? Do you imagine looking over your shoulder to see it? How you answer these questions will depend on who you are and where you come from.

Swirling patterns etched into the surface of the Moon appear to be linked to changes in the shape of that surface, after all. In a close study of mysterious features known as lunar swirls, scientists have found that at least two of them are linked to lunar topography. This is a clue that could help

For now, life is flourishing on our oxygen-rich planet, but Earth wasn’t always that way – and scientists have predicted that, in the future, the atmosphere will revert back to one that’s rich in methane and low in oxygen. This probably won’t happen for another billion years or so. But when the change comes, it’s

A Phase Four plasma thruster. Credit: Phase Four For its latest Hyperspace Challenge accelerator, the U.S. Space Force selected three startups specializing in satellite propulsion, picks reflecting the military’s growing interest in nimble satellites that can maneuver to outplay adversaries. This marks a shift for the Pentagon, which traditionally has launched satellites into orbit and

North America may still be trembling with the aftershocks of two major earthquakes that struck the continent more than a century ago, according to new research. If the statistical inferences that scientists have made are correct, then that means some tremors of today were set in motion way back in the 1800s, after some of

You’re familiar with the states of matter we encounter daily – such as solid, liquid, and gas – but in more exotic and extreme conditions, new states can appear, and scientists from the US and China found one earlier this year. They’re calling it the chiral bose-liquid state, and as with every new arrangement of

Magicians might have an innovative trick up their psychological sleeve that sets them apart from other creative thinkers, like comedians or visual artists. Initial evidence suggests that on the whole, individuals who pursue the profession of magic lack a surprising disposition for psychoses and traits related to schizophrenia compared to other artists and even the

The most energetic cosmic-ray electrons ever detected are giving us some vital clues as to the origins of these enigmatic particles. Since 2015, more than 7 million particles have hit the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) strapped to the strong, broad back of the International Space Station. This large collection has given scientists a robust dataset

Human-driven climate change is increasingly shaping the Earth’s living environments. Rising temperatures, rapid shifts in rainfall and seasonality, and ocean acidification are presenting altered environments to many animal species. How do animals adjust to these new, often extreme, conditions? Animal nervous systems play a central role in both enabling and limiting how they respond to

Does ChatGPT ever give you the eerie sense you’re interacting with another human being? Artificial intelligence (AI) has reached an astounding level of realism, to the point that some tools can even fool people into thinking they are interacting with another human. The eeriness doesn’t stop there. In a study published today in Psychological Science,

SAN FRANCISCO – Telesat selected Aalyria Technologies to orchestrate communications for its Lightspeed low-Earth orbit broadband network. Under the contact announced Nov. 14, Aalyria’s Spacetime networking technology will organize the flow of data traffic in the broadband constellation for more than 10 years. The value of the contract was not disclosed. “Partnering with an industry

All the way back in 1879, botanist William Beal of Michigan State University (MSU) buried 20 bottles to start an experiment on seed longevity. More than 140 years later, some of the seeds from the latest bottle to be dug up have been germinating. In a new study, researchers from MSU evaluated the genomes of

Patterns on animal skin, such as zebra stripes and poison frog color patches, serve various biological functions, including temperature regulation, camouflage, and warning signals. The colors making up these patterns must be distinct and well separated to be effective. For instance, as a warning signal, distinct colors make them clearly visible to other animals. And

The general consensus is that the constant bombardment of information and distraction that comes with modern living means that our attention spans aren’t what they used to be. A new study suggests we might be coping rather well; our concentration performance is better today than it was prior to the rise of the internet. Researchers

China continues to take great strides as part of its goal to become a superpower in space and a direct competitor with NASA. In addition to its proposed expansion of the Tiangong space station and the creation of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), China is also planning on sending crewed missions to Mars in

Earth’s rapid defrosting is putting our ecosystems and our own personal health at risk of a litany of threats, including a slew of potential pathogens that may once have wreaked havoc among our ancestors. As reported by Newsweek’s Pandora Dewan, scientists are increasingly concerned that viruses successfully reawakened after tens of thousands of years preserved

As artificial intelligence (AI) reaches the peak of its popularity, researchers have warned the industry might be running out of training data – the fuel that runs powerful AI systems. This could slow down the growth of AI models, especially large language models, and may even alter the trajectory of the AI revolution. But why

WASHINGTON — Rogue Space Systems, a three-year-old startup developing small satellites for in-orbit servicing, launched its first demonstrator Nov. 11 on the SpaceX Transporter-9 rideshare mission. SpaceX launched more than 100 satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.  Rogue’s spacecraft, named Barry-1, will test the company’s

A mysterious primate appeared in North America 30 million years ago, long after the continent’s native primates had died out, and even longer before the next big influx of primates – humans – would arrive. This lemur-like species, named Ekgmowechashala, has long puzzled paleontologists. Was it the last holdout of North American primates, or did

A black hole analog could tell us a thing or two about an elusive radiation theoretically emitted by the real thing. Using a chain of atoms in single-file to simulate the event horizon of a black hole, a team of physicists in 2022 observed the equivalent of what we call Hawking radiation – particles born

For a while, limitations in technology meant that animators and researchers were only capable of creating human-like faces which seemed a little “off”. Films like 2004’s The Polar Express made some viewers uneasy because the characters’ faces looked almost human but not quite, and so they fell into what we call the “uncanny valley“. This