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Science // Science & Exploration

The ISS has been leaking air for 5 years, and engineers still don’t know why

"This is a an engineering problem, and good engineers should be able to agree on it."

Stephen Clark– 11/18/2024 | 64

Trust in scientists hasn’t recovered from COVID. Some humility could help.

Intellectual humility could win back much-needed trust in science, study finds

Beth Mole– 11/18/2024 | 175

photograph of 5 spindles with stone whorls and tufts of fiber wrapped around them

To invent the wheel, did people first have to invent the spindle?

The physics of spinning objects may have seeded concepts key to the wheel.

Kiona N. Smith– 11/18/2024 | 35

earwig with its eggs

The amorous adventures of earwigs

Elaborate courtship, devoted parenthood, gregarious nature (and occasional cannibalism)—earwigs have a lot going for them.

Knowable Magazine– 11/18/2024 | 24

SpaceX president predicts rapid increase in Starship launch rate

"It's going to be hard to catch us, but I certainly hope people try."

Eric Berger– 11/18/2024 | 179

Drinking vessel in shape of Bes head

Study confirms Egyptians likely used hallucinogens in rituals

Special concoction also contained honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts, licorice, and grapes to make it look like blood.

Jennifer Ouellette– 11/18/2024 | 48

"We were able to assess that they were all in those cases looking at Starlink flares."

Stephen Clark– 11/15/2024 | 191

As ABL Space departs launch, the 1-ton rocket wars have a clear winner

"Our path to making a big contribution as a commercial launch company narrowed considerably."

Eric Berger– 11/15/2024 | 103

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Are standing desks good for you? The answer is getting clearer.

Whatever your office setup, the most important thing is to move.

Beth Mole– 11/14/2024 | 115

Image of a processor with the name Heron printed on it, and listing 156 qubits.

IBM boosts the amount of computation you can get done on quantum hardware

Incremental improvements across the hardware and software stacks add up.

John Timmer– 11/13/2024 | 39

Image of the globe oriented over Australia and the Pacific, with most of the ocean covered with light-colored ice.

What did the snowball Earth look like?

Entire continents, even in the tropics, seem to have been under sheets of ice.

John Timmer– 11/13/2024 | 75

Firefly Aerospace rakes in more cash as competitors struggle for footing

The Series D fundraising round was "oversubscribed" and netted Firefly $175 million.

Stephen Clark– 11/13/2024 | 45

Teen in critical condition with Canada’s first human case of H5 bird flu

The teen had no clear exposures to animals. No contacts have tested positive.

Beth Mole– 11/13/2024 | 113

Blond man dressed as prison guard wearing sunglasses, harassing prisoners in hospital gowns.

Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment 50 years later

Ars chats with director Juliette Eisner and original study participants in new documentary series.

Jennifer Ouellette– 11/13/2024 | 65

This elephant figured out how to use a hose to shower

A younger rival may have learned how to sabotage those showers by disrupting water flow.

Jennifer Ouellette– 11/12/2024 | 69

For the second time this year, NASA’s JPL center cuts its workforce

"If we hold strong together, we will come through this."

Eric Berger– 11/12/2024 | 104

There are some things the Crew-8 astronauts aren’t ready to talk about

"I did not say I was uncomfortable talking about it. I said we're not going to talk about it."

Stephen Clark– 11/11/2024 | 157

Aerial view of coal ships docked

Air quality problems spur $200 million in funds to cut pollution at ports

Diesel equipment will be replaced with hydrogen- or electric-power gear.

Inside Climate News– 11/11/2024 | 64

Russian launch graphic.

Russia: Fine, I guess we should have a Grasshopper rocket project, too

On this timeline Russia is nearly a decade and a half behind SpaceX.

Eric Berger– 11/11/2024 | 191

How a stubborn computer scientist accidentally launched the deep learning boom

"You’ve taken this idea way too far," a mentor told Prof. Fei-Fei Li.

Timothy B. Lee– 11/11/2024 | 150

Research monkeys still having a ball days after busting out of lab, police say

They pose no risk to human health, and they're living their best lives.

Beth Mole– 11/8/2024 | 192

Space policy is about to get pretty wild, y’all

Saddle up, space cowboys. It may get bumpy for a while.

Eric Berger– 11/8/2024 | 769

Pompeii body casts

DNA shows Pompeii’s dead aren’t who we thought they were

Integrating genetic data with historic and archaeological data can enrich or correct popular narratives.

Jennifer Ouellette– 11/8/2024 | 77

Rocket Report: Australia says yes to the launch; Russia delivers for Iran

The world's first wooden satellite arrived at the International Space Station this week.

Stephen Clark– 11/8/2024 | 342

After decades, FDA finally moves to pull ineffective decongestant off shelves

Last year, FDA advisers unanimously voted that oral phenylephrine is ineffective.

Beth Mole– 11/7/2024 | 214

a human hand gripping the baseball surface

What makes baseball’s “magic mud” so special?

It has just the right mix of spreadability, stickiness, and friction to give pitchers a better grip on the ball.

Jennifer Ouellette– 11/7/2024 | 47

Big white clouds against an azure sky.

Airborne microplastics aid in cloud formation

It turns out microplastics have an effect on the weather and climate.

The Conversation– 11/7/2024 | 55

Nearly three years since launch, Webb is a hit among astronomers

Demand for observing time on Webb outpaces supply by a factor of nine.

Stephen Clark– 11/6/2024 | 131

For fame or a death wish? Kids’ TikTok challenge injuries stump psychiatrists

As clinicians see more TikTok challenge injuries, explaining them is often hard.

Beth Mole– 11/6/2024 | 90

The next Starship launch may occur in less than two weeks

Starship will launch during the late afternoon so its descent into Indian Ocean is visible.

Eric Berger– 11/6/2024 | 387

Conceptual image of a gloved hand holding a syringe.

“Havard”-trained spa owner injected clients with bogus Botox, prosecutors say

Woman claims to have a degree from "Havard" and be licensed by the "Estate Board."

Beth Mole– 11/5/2024 | 77

The stern of the good ship Endurance.

Endurance tells story of two expeditions, centuries apart

New NatGeo documentary was directed by the same duo who brought us the Oscar-winning Free Solo.

Jennifer Ouellette– 11/5/2024 | 37

NRO chief: “You can’t hide” from our new swarm of SpaceX-built spy satellites

"A satellite is always coming over an area within a given reasonable amount of time."

Stephen Clark– 11/5/2024 | 167

After 31 cargo missions, NASA finds Dragon still has some new tricks

Typically, most of the ISS propulsion comes from the Russian segment of the space station.

Eric Berger– 11/5/2024 | 83

Drugmaker shut down after black schmutz found in injectable weight-loss drug

The warning comes amid a legal war over compounded weight-loss drugs.

Beth Mole– 11/4/2024 | 114

An illustration of a reddish, glowing disc of material centered on a black sphere, with matter jetting away rom that sphere

Researchers spot black hole feeding at 40x its theoretical limit

Similar feeding events could explain the rapid growth of supermassive black holes.

John Timmer– 11/4/2024 | 67

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