A detailed independent study found that SpaceX's Starship is every bit as revolutionary as expected, while revealing both its impressive capabilities and its biggest remaining hurdles。 It also introduces an ambitious European rocket concept that could offer a very different route to affordable super heavy launches
NASA's Perseverance rover has reached an impressive new milestone on Mars, completing the equivalent of a full marathon by driving 26。2 miles (42。195 kilometers) across the Red Planet
A new book claims AI has been built on a flawed assumption dating back to Alan Turing's famous 1950 paper。 Denning argues that the most important parts of human intelligence, including common sense, intuition, culture, and practical know-how, cannot be encoded into computers。 He believes this makes true human-level AI impossible, regardless of how
A new study suggests the brain begins making decisions much earlier than scientists previously thought。 Researchers found that even primary sensory regions are influenced by higher brain areas through rapid feedback loops, rather than simply passing information forward。 This more dynamic view of brain function could help engineers design future AI
Scientists have created a programmable optical chip that can slow light on demand, giving engineers far greater control over how optical signals propagate through a circuit。 The technology could provide the delays, synchronization, and buffering functions needed to make light-based computing more practical。 A single chip could eventually perform se
A distant Sun-like star appears to have devoured one of its planets, leaving behind a surprising chemical fingerprint。 Researchers found an unusually high concentration of lithium, a strong sign that planetary material was mixed into the star。 Careful comparisons with dozens of similar stars confirmed the signal is highly unusual, and scientists th
NASA's PACE satellite captured the Black Sea glowing turquoise during its annual phytoplankton bloom。 The vivid color comes from massive numbers of coccolithophores, microscopic organisms whose reflective shells brighten the water enough to be seen from space。 An astronaut aboard the International Space Station also photographed the bloom spreading
NatGeo's Pompeii: Out of Time fuses historical fact and imagination to bring city's last 24 hours to life
Scientists say new technologies have reopened the debate over whether Mars could someday be terraformed, turning a once impossible idea into a serious research topic。 Before anyone tries to reshape the Red Planet, though, researchers say we must understand the risks, including what might be lost if Mars already harbors its own forms of life
Scientists have identified new clues that could help astronomers spot one of the most famous hypothetical alien megastructures: a Dyson sphere。 The study finds that red dwarfs and white dwarfs are the most promising stars to examine, since advanced civilizations could potentially build energy-harvesting swarms around them more easily。 These objects
Physicists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have examined a fundamental property of quantum mechanics in collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR)。 In the scientific journal Physical Review Letters, they show that this theory does not necessarily need to be formulated with imaginary numbers – real numbers can in fact also
A new particle detector called PLATON could replace millions of tiny detector components with a single block of light-producing material。 Using a light-field camera, highly sensitive photon sensors, and AI, it reconstructs particle paths in fast, detailed 3D。 Simulations suggest it could match or surpass today’s best detectors while being far easie
Gold may have a secret self-defense system that helps it resist tarnishing。 Researchers discovered that atoms on gold surfaces reorganize themselves into patterns that block oxygen from reacting with the metal, suppressing oxidation by up to a trillion-fold。 Beyond explaining why gold jewelry stays bright for generations, the finding could help sci
California and XPRIZE competition tests whether drones can stop wildfires early
Researchers have achieved a major milestone by creating a long-sought two-dimensional quantum material and confirming its unusual conducting edge states。 The ability to control these states through strain could make the material a promising platform for future room-temperature quantum electronics