Longevity may be 50% heritable, research suggests
About 50% of a person’s lifespan is determined by genetics, a new study suggests, more than doubling previous estimates of the heritability of longevity. The new study, published in the journal Science on January 29, used a carefully designed mathematical model to reach this conclusion. Using this model, the research team was able to account […]
Nvidia CEO pushes back against reports that his company’s $100 billion OpenAI investment is stalling
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Saturday that recent reports about friction between the company and OpenAI are “nonsense.” Huang’s comments came after the Wall Street Journal published an article late Friday claiming that Nvidia was looking to scale back its investment in OpenAI. The companies announced in September that NVIDIA plans to invest up to […]
HomeBoost’s app shows you where you can save money on your utility bills
A few years ago, Selina Tobaccowala’s daughter started leaving sticky notes around the house telling people to “turn off the lights.” Tobaccowala had just sold his last startup, Gixo, to OpenFit and was looking for a new challenge. “I looked at my kids and thought, ‘Let’s see if there’s something there in terms of sustainability […]
Supernovae whose light ‘reappears’ after 60 years could solve cosmology’s biggest problems
Two incredibly rare supernovae that exploded billions of years ago offer a unique opportunity to explain one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology: how fast the universe is expanding. But there’s a twist. Astronomers have already observed these exploding stars, but we have to wait up to 60 years for their light to reach us […]
Life may have recovered ‘ridiculously quickly’ after the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs
Researchers have found that new species may have evolved surprisingly quickly after the asteroid impact that wiped out the Nonabia dinosaur. New species of plankton may have emerged less than 2,000 years after the Chicxulub impact, which occurred about 66 million years ago, further fueling debate about how quickly new species emerged after the impact. […]
‘The problem isn’t just Siri and Alexa’: AI assistants tend to be feminine, perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes
In 2024, there will be more than 8 billion artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistants worldwide, or more than one per person on the planet. These assistants are kind and courteous, and are almost always women by default. Their names also have gender connotations. For example, Apple’s Siri (a Scandinavian female name) means “a beautiful woman […]
Iran-linked RedKitten cyber campaign targets human rights NGOs and activists
Farsi-speaking attackers aligned with Iran’s national interests are suspected of being behind a new campaign targeting non-governmental organizations and individuals involved in a recent record of human rights abuses. This activity, observed by HarfangLab in January 2026, is codenamed RedKitten. This is said to coincide with unrest that began across Iran towards the end of […]
This week’s science news: ‘Cloud People’ grave discovered in Mexico, pancreatic cancer epidemic, AI swarms ready to take over social media
This week’s Science News chronicled the good, the bad, and the ugly of technological advances, with a study warning of the next generation of AI “swarms” that could soon invade social media. The signs of bots on social media are already evident, with more than half of the text written online by 2025 being churned […]
James Webb telescope solves the mystery of ancient ‘forever young’ vampire stars
Astronomers have solved the mystery of how some stars remain young, bright and blue despite being almost as old as the universe itself. In other words, stars cannibalize their sibling stars. These timeless objects, known as blue stragglers, have puzzled astronomers for more than 70 years. “Blue stragglers are hydrogen-burning stars with unusually heavy cores […]
How long does it take for the sun to rotate?
Many objects in space rotate. While Earth completes its rotation in about 24 hours, Venus takes a whopping 243 Earth days. The moon’s rotation period is approximately 27 days. It turns out that the sun also rotates. So, how long does it take for the sun to go around once? The answer depends on your […]