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.

first contact
Life arose on Earth very early on. After a few billion years, here we are: intelligent and technologically advanced. Where's everyone else?
future of money
Digital currencies are set to upend paper currencies, but it likely won't be the decentralized utopia some hope it will be.
climate model
Driving Teslas and planting trees are nice, but methane reduction, industrial efficiency, carbon removal, and a moderate carbon tax are the most efficient ways to fight climate change.
Parker Solar Probe
How can you "touch the Sun" if you've always been inside the solar corona, yet will never reach the Sun's photosphere?
expanding universe
Astrophysicists once believed in a static Universe, containing only the Milky Way galaxy. Science definitively proved otherwise.
Newly discovered planet is relatively close to its star.
A newly discovered “ultrahot Jupiter” has the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.
expanding universe
After more than two decades of precision measurements, we've now reached the "gold standard" for how the pieces don't fit.
An elephant without any tusks in Addo Elephant Park.
Tusks suddenly became a liability, even though in natural circumstances, tusks are very useful.
What was this mammoth tusk doing on the ocean floor 150 miles from land?
James Webb Space Telescope
After decades of development, whether NASA's Webb succeeds or fails all comes down to five critical milestones that are only days away.
diabetes cure
One patient’s surprising results have experts cautiously optimistic.
A woman stands looking at her phone in the center of an artistic display of data.
“Think defensively about how you can protect yourself from an almost inevitable attack, rather than assuming you’ll avoid harm.”
carbon dioxide + water → glucose + oxygen
Life largely owes its existence to this equation. Be sure to hug your house plant today.
sex robot
The AI remembers that you are 32 years old and like to eat sushi, except on Thursdays.
A hand holding an old photo of three girls over the present day location.
Memory errors may actually indicate a way in which the human cognitive system is “optimal” or “rational.”
spinal cord injuries
The scientists are headed "straight to the FDA" to begin human trials.
gpt-3
GPT-3, which features 175 billion parameters, just might fool you in a conversation.
Silhouettes of three people watching a screen.
In spreading politics, videos may not be much more persuasive than their text-based counterparts.
galaxies without dark matter
A few years ago, the first dark matter-free galaxies were announced, and then immediately disputed. Now, there are too many to ignore.
scientism
Science is a method of inquiry about nature, while scientism is philosophy. And scientism is no longer up to the challenge of meeting the most pressing issues of our day.