Your Daily Science News Source from Around the Globe
Could a massive barrier erected in the ocean shield New York from the devastation of superstorm surges like Hurricane Sandy in 2012? The truth is, nobody knows for sure, but…
Scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder have created what The New York Times calls a “living concrete”, teeming with photosynthetic bacteria, that can grow itself and regenerate itself –…
In another lifetime, if they had been allowed to follow their natural development, the stem cells taken from embryonic frogs would have turned into skin and heart tissue within living,…
Scientists may have solved one of the great Leonardo da Vinci painting mysteries – why the glass orb in the Salvator Mundi painting (dated to around 1500 CE) shows no…
To protect its hosts, Airbnb is now using an AI-powered tool to scan the internet for clues that a guest might not be a reliable customer. According to patent documents…
Something strange has been happening in eastern Colorado at night. Since the week of Christmas, giant drones measuring up to 6 feet (1.8 metres) across have been spotted in the…
The future had arrived. There was only one problem: it was deafening. In the 1960s, the development of supersonic passenger aircraft promised to revolutionise the concept of international travel, teasing…
In March, Chinese researchers predicted that the nation’s HL-2M tokamak – a device designed to replicate nuclear fusion, the same reaction that powers the Sun – would be built before…
The world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft took its inaugural test flight on Tuesday, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver and offering hope that airlines may one day…
Scientists said Wednesday they have come up with an environmentally-friendly method that uses artificial sunlight to transform plastic into power-generating chemicals, as countries worldwide battle to reduce waste. Huge quantities…
Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionise the processing power at our fingertips, but for the moment a lot of it is just potential. Researchers have been uncertain on whether…
Artificial flesh is growing ever closer to the real thing. Scientists in Australia have now created a new jelly-like material which they claim has the strength and durability of actual…
Cyborg super soldiers enhanced by advancements in bioengineering and other research fields are coming, but the Department of Defence is not prepared for what that will mean for the warfighter,…
Nearly 3,000 feet (900 metres) below the surface of Monterey Bay, a network of deep sea cables helps scientists to study marine life. Spanning 32 miles (51 kilometres) across the…
A long-awaited international deal governing how the world’s technology companies should roll out 5G technology poses serious risks to weather forecast accuracy, according to data from federal agencies and the…
Artificial intelligence, it seems, can figure out how to do just about anything. It can simulate the Universe, learn to solve a Rubik’s Cube with just one hand, and even…
The brain is the ultimate computing machine, so it’s no wonder researchers are keen to try and emulate it. Now, new research has taken an intriguing step in that direction…
Tesla finally revealed its outrageous Blade Runner-style pickup truck, the “Cybertruck”, at an event in LA on Thursday evening. But an on-stage demonstration by Tesla CEO Elon Musk seemingly backfired,…
Having insults hurled our way is never going to do wonders for our self-esteem, but it turns out that disparaging remarks can cut us even when they’re delivered by a…
A new startup backed by Bill Gates says it has managed to harness solar energy to greater effect than ever before, generating enough heat from a field of mirrored panels…
When it comes to cutting water consumption to be kinder to the planet, changing the coating on your loo might not be the first step you think of – but…
It took just 2 1/2 hours for the Titanic to sink after it collided with an iceberg in 1912. Before the disaster, the ship was said to be unsinkable thanks…
Next to the famous Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, is an abandoned coal mine protecting a different kind of resource against the end of the world: all of GitHub’s…
Artificial intelligence is already making great strides forward, but taking it to the next level might require a more drastic approach. According to two researchers, we could try giving AI…
You might take it for granted that you can load up Twitter or browse through Reddit whenever you like, but around half of the 7.7 billion people living on the…
What is the deadliest weapon of the 20th century? Perhaps you think first of the atomic bomb, estimated to have killed as many as 200,000 people when the United States…
Cupid was late this year. More than eight months late. Hundreds of people reported on social media that overnight on November 8 they had received texts from partners, employers and…
There is no doubt that climate change is a very serious (and worsening) problem. According to a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), even if all…
Software detected the woman almost six seconds before Uber’s self-driving car struck her, investigators say, in the crash that would lead to her death and prompt the ride-share giant to…
Electron microscopes are great at producing high-resolution images of a material’s atomic structure – if the material is hard, that is. Unfortunately, the devices’ electron beams can destroy softer materials,…
When it comes to squeezing maximum amounts of energy out of the daylight hours, plants have a head start thanks to evolution. Now, engineers have designed solar panels that mimic…
Smart speakers have become a home addition for many, but the choice requires some vigilance over potential security breaches. Now, researchers have shown that hackers could get these small devices…
It’s the closest thing we’ve seen to real-life Transformers: robotic blocks that can travel independently, attach themselves to each other in predefined structures, follow paths and light sources, and more.…
California has been caught in the midst of a fiery assault fueled by historically powerful winds, humidity levels stuck in the single digits, and the effects of long-term climate change.…
It’s called ‘range anxiety’, and it’s often pointed to as one of the key reasons why consumer uptake of battery-powered electric vehicles still hasn’t really taken off. In a nutshell,…
Video games were invented for humans, by humans. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re the best when it comes to playing them. In a new achievement that signifies just how…
A team of scientists from the universities of Alberta and Toronto have laid out the blueprints for a “quantum battery” that never loses its charge. To be clear, this battery…
Hydrogen peroxide, water’s short-tempered sibling, has helped humans to fight infection since we discovered its antiseptic properties nearly two centuries ago. Unfortunately, it’s pretty unstable, making it tricky to transport…
A powerhouse team led by researchers from Google, NASA, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is officially claiming to have achieved the technological milestone of quantum supremacy. In a new…
We’ve made plenty of progress with sustainable energy in recent years, but there’s still a lot of work left to do. Now, there’s encouraging news on the development of an…
OpenAI, the artificial intelligence development company co-founded by Elon Musk, just built an AI-powered robot hand that can solve a Rubik’s cube by itself. After years of practicing in simulations,…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already re-configuring the world in conspicuous ways. Data drives our global digital ecosystem, and AI technologies reveal patterns in data. Smartphones, smart homes, and smart cities…
When the end of the world comes, how will you tweet? Thankfully for those of us who didn’t have a plan ready, Motherboard reports that software developer Virgil Dupras has…
Those Knightscope security robots may not be so great at their jobs. When a woman in a park near Los Angeles saw people fighting and tried to summon help via…
A new gel-like fluid that sticks to vegetation for months on end could be an ingenious new way to stop mother nature from burning. Devised by an engineer and a…
The bigger they come, the harder they fall, the old saying goes – or in this case, the more popular the game, the more user data is at risk, should…
Tesla’s “Smart Summon” feature, which lets cars navigate themselves in parking lots, isn’t even out of beta yet. But Tesla owners are already using it in some mind-bogglingly stupid ways,…
There is such a thing as not enough chaos. In a new study, scientists have discovered that complex calculations performed by computers can be off by as much as 15…