Tech, science, health, environment
New laboratory measurements of a key nuclear reaction are sharpening models of how stellar explosions unfold. The data reduce a longstanding source of uncertainty in predicted element production. Astronomers can now test the models against observed spectra.
A study in Science Advances found that AI agents shift their choices toward the majority view of other agents, and that more advanced models conform more strongly. The effect persisted even when the peer opinions were meaningless. The authors warn about cascading errors in multi-agent systems.
Astronomers describe GJ 523b, a mega-Earth with 23 times the mass of our planet packed into a body only 2.5 times as wide. The density implies an unusually large rocky or metallic interior. The find tests models of how such planets form.
Research finds that what people expect from their own aging influences how socially connected they remain later in life. Negative expectations correlate with withdrawal. The authors say expectations may be a modifiable target.
A bone feature in a 236-million-year-old mammal ancestor suggests the newborn was relatively large, more consistent with live birth than hatching from an egg. The evidence is indirect but would push the trait back further than previously documented. Researchers say more specimens are needed.
Analysis of trace elements is giving veterinary researchers new leads on the cause of dark eye lesions seen in cats. The condition can progress to serious disease. The findings point toward a metabolic rather than infectious origin.
New York City is not banning e-bikes but is cracking down on models that exceed new speed and power limits under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Riders face confusion over which bikes remain legal. The city has published specifications for compliant models.
A Yale study estimates that universal health coverage in the United States could save roughly $1 trillion and prevent about 114,000 deaths annually. The model attributes savings largely to administrative simplification and earlier care. Critics question the assumptions behind the projections.
A company is pursuing what it calls a moonshot replacement for wood pulp in paper products using a hardy desert plant. The crop grows on land unsuitable for timber and needs little water. Scaling production remains the main obstacle.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s effort to identify causes of autism has stalled, even as President Trump ordered changes to the childhood immunization schedule that researchers say lack supporting evidence. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician, called the overhaul a mistake and argued pro-life voters should be pro-vaccine. Public health groups have urged the administration to reverse course.
Opposition to new data centers is becoming a potent local issue in 2026 races, driven by concerns over electricity costs, water use and land. Candidates in both parties are running against proposed projects. Developers say the facilities bring tax revenue and jobs.
A sportscar priced under $7,000 is being pitched as a template for affordable personal transport. Its light weight and minimal features keep costs down. Reviewers say it is a serious argument against ever-larger vehicles.
A regulatory filing revealed that Nvidia holds a $21 billion stake in SpaceX. The disclosure follows Elon Musk's announcement of an exclusive arrangement for Nvidia to outfit SpaceX data centers. The size of the position makes Nvidia one of the company's largest outside holders.
Security researchers at Wiz found that an AI-generated GitHub Copilot 'Autofix' suggestion introduced a flaw that allowed the compromise of Snowflake's Jira instance. The finding highlights the risk of accepting machine-written security patches without review. Both companies were notified before disclosure.
Germany's Bundeskartellamt concluded that Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework applied looser standards to Apple's own apps than to rivals. The regulator says the asymmetry gave Apple a competitive advantage in advertising. Apple has disputed the characterization.
A study suggests that pushing a stroller alters running mechanics in ways that may lower the risk of overuse injuries. The changes include shorter strides and reduced impact loading. Researchers say more work is needed before recommending it as training.
The DuckDB project published a preview of version 2.0, outlining changes to the embedded analytical database. The release notes cover performance and API updates. A stable release is expected to follow.
About 270,000 square miles of ocean around Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, will become a marine reserve managed by the island's Indigenous community. Residents depend heavily on local fisheries. The arrangement gives Rapa Nui authority over enforcement and use.
An evaluation of GPT-5.6 Sol concludes it is the strongest vision model OpenAI has shipped, outperforming prior releases on document and scene understanding tests. The reviewer notes remaining weaknesses on fine-grained counting. Pricing and rate limits were not part of the assessment.
Satellite operators say a worsening shortage of launch capacity is leaving spacecraft grounded and business plans in doubt. Delays have cascaded across providers. Operators warn some constellations may miss regulatory deadlines.
OpenAI helped lead authorities to Darren Zhou, a 25-year-old South Palm Beach man who used ChatGPT to plot a violent revenge scheme against a former girlfriend. The company flagged the conversations to the FBI. The case is an early public example of an AI provider referring a user to law enforcement.
El Nino conditions combined with Saharan dust have suppressed this year's Atlantic hurricane season. Forecasters caution that a quiet season can still produce a single dangerous storm. Conditions could shift before the season closes.
Conservation researchers are using inexpensive picnic coolers to transport and preserve genetic samples from some of the world's most endangered animals. The improvised approach works where specialized equipment is unavailable. It has expanded biobanking to remote field sites.
Election administrators say prediction markets are already complicating the political process ahead of the midterms, from voters confusing odds with results to threats against poll workers. Officials are drafting guidance for handling market-driven claims. Regulators have not settled how the contracts should be treated.
Four states are taking Meta to trial, alleging Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to hook children and that the company concealed evidence of mental health harms. It is the first case of its kind to reach a jury. Meta says its products are built with teen safety features and disputes the claims.
Researchers found that a metabolite produced by gut bacteria can weaken the blood-brain barrier and promote changes associated with Alzheimer's disease. The finding strengthens a suspected gut-brain link in cognitive decline. Follow-up work will test whether altering the microbiome changes outcomes.
A McDonald's franchise says a scheduling app largely eliminated costly missed shifts by letting workers swap hours themselves. Managers spend less time filling gaps. Labor advocates caution that flexible scheduling can also shift risk onto workers.
Researchers are studying whether tadalafil, sold as Cialis, has effects on longevity beyond its approved use. Observational data hint at cardiovascular and cognitive benefits. Scientists caution that no trial has yet tested the claim directly.
Reticulum is a networking stack designed to run over unreliable and low-bandwidth links without central infrastructure. It supports encrypted addressing across radio, serial and internet transports. The project targets resilient communication where conventional networks fail.
An early evaluation finds Alibaba's Qwen 3.8 27B model strong across tasks but prone to excessive reasoning on simple prompts. The behavior inflates latency and token cost. The reviewer suggests configuration changes to curb it.
A widely read commentator argued that text alterations used to watermark Claude's output corrupt the writing itself. The critique says invisible modifications trade readability for provenance. Anthropic has described watermarking as a transparency measure.
Researchers report restoring roughly two hours of sleep in brains affected by Alzheimer's disease by targeting an overactive response that disrupts rest. The team compares the mechanism to sprinklers flooding a house over a small kitchen fire. The work is early but points to a treatable pathway.
New research finds wildfire smoke now poses a greater prenatal risk than human-generated sources of air pollution. Smoke exposure has grown as fire seasons lengthen. Researchers link it to lower birth weights and preterm delivery.
The orbits of Neptune's small inner moons appear to record the violence of the day Triton was captured, wrecking the system that existed before. Simulations now match what telescopes see.
Researchers report that a thin coating derived from seaweed kept strawberries edible for days at room temperature. The approach could cut spoilage in places where cold chains are unreliable.
GLP-1 drugs are showing effects far beyond the scale, from addiction and inflammation to heart and kidney outcomes. Researchers are still working out how one class of drug touches so many systems at once.
A plant-by-plant review of new U.S. generating capacity this year shows solar and storage accounting for the overwhelming majority of additions. Gas and wind trail far behind on both count and megawatts.
Prediction markets now let users wager on how many acres a wildfire will burn, and the contracts are drawing real money. Critics warn the incentives around disaster forecasting are about to get strange.
Doctors have developed a lung imaging technique that uses no ionizing radiation and detects disease earlier than existing scans. It is aimed first at children, who are most vulnerable to repeated radiation exposure.
New research indicates a Covid-19 infection can rouse viruses already sleeping in the body, which may worsen symptoms and prolong recovery. The finding offers a possible mechanism behind some long Covid cases.
An archaeologist who thought a medieval skeleton showed injuries like a modern car crash victim traced them instead to a trebuchet strike. The reconstruction gives a rare forensic look at siege warfare.
With the last Chromium holdouts completing their extension platform migration, Firefox stands alone in fully supporting uBlock Origin. Ad-blocking users are being pushed toward a browser choice they may not have considered.
Security researchers say a flaw that hands attackers complete control of Apple computers is being exploited in the wild, and users are urged to patch immediately. The bug bypasses protections Apple designed to keep untrusted code from touching the core of the system.
The biggest all-electric airplane yet built completed its maiden flight on roughly five dollars of electricity. Its makers argue the economics, not the engineering, are the real breakthrough for short-haul routes.
Orangutans rehabilitated and released into a remote forest have begun breeding, forming what conservationists describe as a genuinely new wild population. It is one of the strongest results yet for great ape reintroduction.
A litigant who believed a court was using AI to summarize filings buried hidden instructions in his documents to see whether a machine would follow them. The stunt has judges asking how to detect prompt injection in the record.
A state judge ordered the prediction market Kalshi to halt sports and event wagering in the state, rejecting its argument that federal regulation preempts local gambling law. The company faces a widening set of suits over its political and sports contracts.
Peering into the earliest epochs of the cosmos, astronomers have spotted objects that look like enormous clouds of gas wrapped around a feeding black hole. If confirmed, these "black hole stars" would explain how supermassive black holes grew so large so fast.
Google described a system that runs AI computations directly on encrypted data, so a server can answer a query without ever seeing it. Long dismissed as too slow, the approach is now fast enough for real products, the company says.
Five secretarybird chicks have hatched under a breeding program, the first time so many of the endangered raptors have been raised together in care. Keepers hope the birds will seed a reintroduction effort.