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.

Collage with a hand holding a pen, hand grasping a light bulb for idea generation, and graphs depicting optimization.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
hawking radiation black hole decay
Black holes encode information on their surfaces, but evaporate away into Hawking radiation. Is that information preserved, and if so, how?
A glowing, abstract representation of a brain, with intricate patterns and lights reminiscent of the innovative spirit behind the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024, set against a dark backdrop.
Artificial intelligence is much more than image generation and smart-sounding chatbots; it's also a Nobel-worthy endeavor rooted in physics!
Illustration of Mars with overlaid data graphs and lines, offering analytical representations that unravel the mysteries of dark matter.
Watching for changes in the Red Planet’s orbit over time could be new way to detect passing dark matter.
Book cover titled "Infinite Cosmos" with a vibrant galaxy and stars. Includes "National Geographic" logo and the text "Visions from the James Webb Space Telescope." Introduction by Brian Greene.
National Geographic's first James Webb Space Telescope book shows us the cosmos like never before.
A starry sky with a magnified view highlights an orange, cloud-like structure representing one of the youngest astronomical objects in the Milky Way, shimmering as it subtly rotates.
The earliest Milky Way-like galaxy, REBELS-25, was spotted rotating about its axis. It's only 700 million years old: 5% of our present age.
A close-up of a rocket engine testing setup, showing a small blue flame at the nozzle and multiple cables and pipes connected to the engine.
Astro Mechanica’s “turboelectric” jet engines offer a way to transform both commercial flights and space launches.
Two observatory domes under a starry night sky, with the Milky Way visible, form a stunning backdrop as an optical interferometer captures the universe's secrets.
Interferometry gave us a black hole's event horizon, but that was in the radio. What can we accomplish with a new optical interferometer?
Two Guy Fawkes masks in a pixelated, digital art style with one mask smiling and the other frowning, set against a dark background with faint green patterns.
Hackers are in an arms race with cyber defenders. Will AI tip the balance?
Collaged image of text and a black-and-white scene with a dinosaur and mountainous backdrop. The year "1950" is visible in the bottom left corner.
Dinosaurs and other beasts were once thought to be the “undisputed masters” of Venus.
Planck CMB
Today, the deepest depths of intergalactic space aren't at absolute zero, but at a chill 2.73 K. How does that temperature change over time?
A clock face with moon phases as numbers, set against a blue sky with scattered clouds, creates a whimsical portrayal of lunar time.
Physicists recently created Coordinated Lunar Time, a time zone for our Moon.
A vibrant, high-resolution image of a spiral galaxy with rich clusters of stars and interstellar dust, where most stars formed.
The Universe has been creating stars for nearly all 13.8 billion years of its history. But those photons can't match the Big Bang's light.
A large telescope observatory under construction at dusk with a visible moon and stars in the sky. Cranes and construction equipment are present around the structure.
Comet A3, also known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, has sprung to life since 2024's last equinox. Here's how to catch the show for yourself.
Collage of scientific discovery elements including a portrait, butterfly, globe, molecular diagrams, a tree diagram, and a hand holding a test tube against a plain background.
Are breakthroughs really a matter of chance, or are they simply waiting to be uncovered by the right person at the right time?
A book spread showing a painting of a person, eyes filled with curiosity, looking outside on the left and four brain scan images on the right, overlaid on an orange background.
Research suggests curiosity triggers parts of the brain associated with anticipation, making answers more rewarding once discovered.
Aerial image of a Martian landscape with rough, textured surface featuring blue and reddish-brown hues marked by undulating ridges and valleys.
Scientists might be looking for Martian life in the wrong place.
dark matter substructure intracluster light
In theory, dark matter is cold, collisionless, and only interacts via gravity. What we see in ultra-diffuse galaxies indicates otherwise.
A spacecraft travels at the fastest spacecraft speed record through bright, yellow-orange streaks of plasma and solar wind near the Sun.
The Parker Solar Probe is about to undergo its seventh encounter with Venus on its journey toward the Sun. Here's how fast it'll go.
Image of a tomato and carrot, each partially overlaid with a black and white digital circuit pattern. The background is a gray, circuit-like texture.
A simple plate of vegetables has found the gaping blindspots in generative AI, and points the way to fixing them.