A ten-month Antarctic experiment found that astronauts may struggle not only with loneliness but also with spending too much time around the same people。 Frequent contact was linked to greater tension and mistrust, while the crew increasingly divided into cultural and language-based groups
Photons traveling through a cloud of atoms can emerge so early that they appear to have spent a negative amount of time inside。 Researchers tested whether this was merely a misleading feature of the light pulse by making extremely weak measurements of the atoms。 Surprisingly, the atoms confirmed the same negative dwell time
Scientists have created twisted laser beams that interact differently with right-handed and left-handed molecules, revealing their identity through the fragments they produce。 The approach could provide a faster, simpler, and more sensitive way to analyze important molecules used in chemistry and pharmaceuticals
A supermassive black hole has been found lurking about 30,000 light-years from the center of its galaxy—the first dormant black hole detected so far from a galactic core。 It revealed itself only after shredding a passing star and producing a brief, brilliant flare。 Astronomers think it may be the remnant of a devoured galaxy or a black hole flung o
Primordial black holes may occasionally pass through white dwarf stars and trigger enormous Type Ia supernova explosions。 Researchers found that these events could explain chemical patterns seen in supernova remnants, nearby explosions, and stars across the Milky Way
A person’s sleeping brain may reveal warning signs of dementia long before memory problems begin。 Researchers used machine learning to analyze EEG recordings from about 7,000 adults and found that an older-than-expected “brain age” was tied to a sharply higher dementia risk。 Every additional 10 years of brain aging raised that risk by nearly 40%
A mathematician working at Anthropic says he used the AI model Claude Fable 5 to uncover a remarkably simple counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture, a famous problem that has resisted mathematicians for more than a century。 The result shows that the conjecture is false in three dimensions and above, although the original two-dimensional version
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft aced its Mars flyby, using the planet’s gravity to speed toward its 2029 encounter with a metal-rich asteroid。 The spacecraft tested its cameras, magnetometer, and particle-detecting instruments, capturing unusual views of Mars and measuring its magnetic environment。 It also detected neutrons from the planet and spotted the
"Most people have completely forgotten how chaotic it really was
NASA’s Swift Observatory observed a supermassive black hole ripping apart a star more than 30,000 light-years from the center of a distant galaxy。 The extraordinary flare briefly outshone its entire host galaxy in ultraviolet light and revealed a black hole about a million times the Sun’s mass
Baseboard management controllers from the world's biggest manufacturers are a security mess
A massive magma reservoir has been detected deep beneath Tuscany, despite showing no obvious signs at the surface。 Scientists mapped the roughly 6,000-cubic-kilometer body using natural ground vibrations recorded by dozens of seismic sensors。 It poses no immediate danger, but the discovery reveals how enormous volcanic systems can remain hidden and
Europa’s hidden ocean has made the icy moon one of the solar system’s most promising places to search for habitable conditions。 Scientists have hoped that water from this deep ocean might rise through cracks and form shallow reservoirs that future spacecraft could more easily study。 New simulations suggest that journey is unlikely because turbulent