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.

Book cover for "More Everything Forever" by Adam Becker, featuring a cosmic background with vertical blue streaks and white text, blending AI, space, humanity’s future, and echoes of Star Trek’s vision of exploration.
As we shape our future we should ask: Which interpretations of classic sci-fi fables hold sway with today’s powerful tech leaders?
An artist's rendering of an alien planet and a red star.
A Cambridge-based team claims to find molecules on an exoplanet that are only produced by life on Earth. Don't fall for the unfounded hype.
According to Stephen Hawking, spontaneously emitted radiation should cause all black holes to decay. But we've never seen it: not even once.
In all the known Universe, Earth is the only planet known to have native life. What should guide us in expanding humanity beyond our world?
Book cover of "Target Earth" by Govert Schilling, featuring a meteor streaking toward Earth—a striking visual of cosmic catastrophe—set against space, clouds below, and an orange background.
If an asteroid hadn't killed off the dinosaurs, humans would almost certainly have never walked the Earth.
An astronaut stands proudly on the moon's surface near scientific equipment and a lunar lander, as the American flag waves in the background, symbolizing a pioneering USA nation.
After drastic cuts to the NIH, the FDA, the NSF, and the DOE, NASA science faces down its smallest budget ever. All of society will suffer.
black hole baby universe
Perhaps no existential question looms larger than that of our ultimate cosmic origins. At long last, science has provided the answers.
Colorful abstract depiction of a human silhouette surrounded by layered, radiant patterns in various colors against a textured background.
From religious iconography to modern mysticism, the human aura has been a subject of fascination across centuries and cultures.
A vast view of deep space, captured in one of NASA's most important images, displays numerous galaxies of varying shapes and colors against a dark backdrop scattered with distant stars.
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was originally seen as a colossal mistake. This one image, taken in 1995, changed everything.
Illustration of a clock showing 10:10 with zoomed-in views highlighting both '10' markings, on an orange background.
Surprisingly, multimodal large language models struggle to read time on analog clocks.
lab leak SARS-CoV-2
In theory, scientists could've produced a deadly virus that accidentally infected lab workers. In practice, we know that didn't happen.
uranium oxide oklo nuclear reactor
Planets can create nuclear power on their own, naturally, without any intelligence or technology. Earth already did: 1.7 billion years ago.
The spiral galaxy, surrounded by dim stars and interstellar dust, stands out against a dark background, shining brighter than astronomers once imagined.
The most famous Hubble images show glittering stars and galaxies amidst the black backdrop of space. But more was captured than we realized.
People in early 20th-century attire gather outside a building, as an intriguing green geometric pattern overlays the scene. This blend of classic and modern elements evokes the innovative spirit of AI art.
Hugo-winning author Ken Liu explores what early cinema and Chinese poetry can teach us about AI's potential as a new artistic medium.
In a futuristic setting, a medical professional in scrubs interacts with a holographic heart and data display, showcasing their understanding of AI to enhance patient care.
By looking outside the current wave of hype, we can create a framework for weighing up the practical impact of AI on any business.
Diagram of the universe's expansion with grid patterns and cosmic elements, framed by "Consensus or Crisis?" in white text on black background. This visual encapsulates how cosmology changed from 2000 to 2025, highlighting key theories and discoveries.
25 years ago, our concordance picture of cosmology, also known as ΛCDM, came into focus. 25 years later, are we about to break that model?
planetary nebulae
In around 7 billion years, we expect the Sun to run out of fuel, dying in a planetary nebula/white dwarf combination. Is that for certain?
A glowing orange planet casts a shadow in space amid a backdrop of stars.
Exoplanets can exist anywhere around their parent stars, even so close that they evaporate or disintegrate. Even the rocky ones.
Two visualizations map the cosmos, displaying color-coded cosmic microwave background radiation. Blue and orange patches indicate temperature variations across a spherical and an oval projection.
It's difficult to project a sphere onto a flat, two-dimensional surface. All maps of the Earth have flaws; the same is true for the cosmos.
Abstract image featuring a luminous, symmetrical pattern of blue and white swirling lines against a dark background, resembling a cosmic or nebula-like formation.
A look inside Mindstate Design Labs' effort to design drugs that reliably produce specific states of mind.