Science & Tech

Science & Tech

Explore the discoveries that reveal how the world works, alongside the technologies that extend, reshape, and sometimes challenge what’s possible.

Four people wearing backpacks and outdoor gear hike through a grassy, forested area with trees in the background under an overcast sky.
The soils of "managed forests" can take decades to rebuild the carbon stocks and microbial communities found in undisturbed forests.
A dense star field and distant galaxies with bright galaxy clusters and several white squares highlighting specific points in the image.
Only nearby objects appear to the naked eye. With telescopes of all types, especially in space, we've smashed those records many times over.
A detailed view of Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, showing its icy surface with light and dark regions, photographed against a black background.
Triton is Neptune's largest moon today, but it was once the undisputed king of the Kuiper belt. Here's why the outer solar system matters.
A deep space image showing numerous distant galaxies of various shapes and sizes scattered across a dark background, revealing just how empty is space between these cosmic islands.
There's a lot of room in interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic space, but just how low the densities go is truly mind-boggling.
two particles different wavelength speed of light
Contrary to common experience, not everything needs a medium to travel through. Overcoming that assumption removes the need for an aether.
Two people examine scientific equipment in a laboratory, working on a large metallic device surrounded by cables and tools, as they investigate the physics mystery G—the elusive mystery gravitational constant.
Newton's gravitational constant, G, is still known to just 3 significant figures in 2026. New measurements merely highlight our uncertainty.
pluto moons hubble
In 2006, the IAU defined "planet" for the first time, excluding Pluto and all other dwarf planets. In 2026, is it now time for a change?
A vibrant cosmic scene reveals a galaxy with bright jets of energy, hottest stars twinkling vividly amidst scattered stars against a dark backdrop.
From within our own galaxy to behemoths billions of light-years away, supermassive black holes create jets like nothing else in the cosmos.
A colored pixelated grid with rectangular outlines; a legend in the top right labels blue as F115W, green as F200W, and red as F277W—capturing data from the JWST to record a distant galaxy.
It takes incredible energies to accelerate masses near the speed of light. So how do the farthest galaxies speed away from us so quickly?
A color-enhanced image shows Pluto planet in the foreground with its moon Charon in the background, both set against a black space backdrop.
In 2006, Pluto was controversially demoted to "dwarf planet" by the IAU. Unless you ignore most of astrophysics, it won't ever be one again.
Gloved hands arrange Scrabble tiles on a grid, forming the words "ABRACADABRA," "FART," "HEART," "SHIT," "BIRD," and "LAST.
From WEIRD psychology to SHIT telescopes, researchers keep turning complex ideas into catchy shorthand.
Bullet Cluster separation mass gravity x-ray lensing
The first colliding galaxy cluster to reveal dark matter, empirically, turns 20 this year. Here's why it cements dark matter's existence.
A person with hair floating upwards looks out of a spacecraft window at Earth, filled with hope as clouds and oceans shimmer below—a view reminiscent of the Artemis II mission’s journey.
NASA has just sent astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since 1972 with Artemis II. So why would we cut NASA and NSF science now?
Chart illustrating the Standard Model of Elementary Particles, as found in the early universe, divided into quarks, leptons, gauge bosons, and the Higgs boson, with details on mass, charge, and generation.
Today, we have the Standard Model of particles with four fundamental forces governing them. But things weren't always the way they are now.
A colorful nebula with a bright center and symmetrical, wing-like clouds of gas and dust extends outward in space, as seen in a JWST reveal that uncovers stars and galaxies in the universe beyond.
Many facts are well-known to professionals, but are unappreciated or even rejected outright by the public. "How stars work" takes the cake.
Antimatter rocket with a glowing blue exhaust travels through deep space, showcasing the marvels of interstellar travel amid distant galaxies and stars.
Our dream of journeying to other star systems has a big obstacle to overcome: the vast interstellar distances. Can antimatter get us there?
Night view of a city skyline with illuminated skyscrapers and a bridge, home to a self-healing power grid, all reflected in the water below.
A new generation of self-healing tools could make the U.S.'s aging power grid far more resilient against modern threats.
Illustration of server racks, a yellow high voltage warning sign, a green dollar symbol, and faint graphs in the background.
Data centers consume enormous amounts of power, but their steady demand could make the grid more efficient — and lower costs for everyone.
A fork holds a piece of lettuce, partially obscured by a bright yellow glow against a dark background.
A growing movement is trying to turn energy directly into food — reviving an old dream of escaping the violence and inefficiency of eating.
Abstract illustration of a person running, shown in silhouette with layered, wavy bands of green, blue, black, and yellow in the background.
A Columbia researcher argues that everything from stress to aging comes down to how energy moves through your body.