The James Webb telescope reveals that the interstellar messenger 3I/ATLAS may be as old as the universe itself.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is up to 12 billion years old, unlike anything found in our solar system, new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations suggest. Comet 3I/ATLAS became a celestial celebrity last year after an interstellar visitor was discovered hurtling through space near us. Soon after, speculation spread online that the space rock could be […]
Bonobos are just as aggressive as chimpanzees, but with a crucial difference – female bonobos
A new study says “hippie” bonobos are just as aggressive as “warrior” chimpanzees. But the findings also reveal some important details about which gender provokes aggression. Female bonobos tended to attack males, and male chimpanzees were more aggressive towards females. They found significantly lower female-to-female aggression in both species. The study focused on animals kept […]
Study finds hidden early warning indicators in the Gulf Stream could signal AMOC collapse
The Gulf Stream holds tantalizing clues about when other major Atlantic currents may disrupt due to climate change, a new study finds. The Gulf Stream, which originates in the Gulf of Mexico and exits the U.S. East Coast near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, is a tributary of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a large […]
Research shows that AI hallucinations go both ways – using chatbots can amplify and strengthen our own delusions
There are many examples of hallucinations and their effects caused by artificial intelligence (AI) systems. But new research highlights the potential dangers of the opposite. Humans hallucinate through AI because AI tends to confirm our delusions. Generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Grok generate content that responds to user prompts. This is achieved by learning […]
Giant 10-seater flying taxi passes first flight test in China
In a new feat for electric aircraft, a Chinese company has successfully flown a 5-ton (4,536 kg) electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. Manufacturer Fengfei Aviation claims this is the largest eVTOL to have completed test flights to date. During the test flight, the V5000 aircraft took off in VTOL mode, switched to fixed-wing […]
AI verified a proof that won one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics. Mathematics is never the same | Kit Yates
Earlier this month, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup announced that its AI agents had seen evidence of two cases of the devilishly difficult “high-dimensional sphere filling problem.” In 2022, this proof earned Ukrainian mathematician Marina Vyazovska the Fields Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics. This is a huge step forward and signals […]
‘Mass migration’ of stars away from the center of the Milky Way galaxy could explain why life exists in our solar system
Thousands of solar “twins” discovered by space telescopes could shed new light on how our star came to host at least one life-friendly world, and whether large-scale stellar migration was involved. The researchers used data from the Gaia Space Telescope, a now-defunct European Space Agency observatory, to record the movements of millions of stars in […]
‘Garlic rectal insertion for immune support’: Medical chatbot confidently offers disastrously misguided advice, experts say
Popular AI chatbots are often unable to recognize false health claims offered in confident, medical-sounding language, leading to dubious advice that could be dangerous to the general public, such as recommending putting garlic in your butt, according to a January study published in The Lancet Digital Health. Another study published in Nature Medicine in February […]
Treasure trove of Russian revolutionary gold coins worth more than $500,000 discovered during home construction
Archaeologists have discovered a trove of 100-year-old gold rubles under a house in northwestern Russia. The 409 coins were minted during the decline of the Russian Empire and could be worth more than $500,000 today. In 2025, researchers from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the All-Russian Museum of History […]
The world is being held hostage by its reliance on oil. How can we break free from the fossil fuel?
Between the 17th and 20th centuries, humans killed millions of whales for oil. They stripped their blubber, spinning the iconic creatures in the water and pulling off the fat in a huge spiral like the peel of an apple. The blubber was boiled into oil, then strained into barrels to be used in everything from […]