Children wearing bronze ‘warrior’ belts discovered in 2,500-year-old cemetery in Italy
Archaeologists in southern Italy have discovered the grave of two children buried with large bronze bands around 2,500 years ago. Metal accessories are unusual because they are usually found only in adult male burials of the pre-Roman Samnite culture. During recent work at the site of a former tobacco factory in Ponte Cagnano, a town […]
Congo Basin’s ‘blackwater’ lakes and rivers are now releasing ancient carbon into the atmosphere
Blackwater lakes and rivers in the Congo Basin are releasing ancient carbon into the atmosphere, a new study has found. Previously, scientists thought this carbon was safely stored in the surrounding peatlands, but this study shows that this is not the case. The finding contradicts the long-held assumption that old peat carbon remains locked underground […]
Scientists use ‘negative light’ to send secret messages hidden in heat
Researchers have developed a technique that invisibly transmits information disguised as background thermal radiation. They used a phenomenon called “negative light” to transmit 100 kilobits of data per second in a way that was completely imperceptible to outside observers. Most methods of hiding data in transit involve hiding the data within other data or encrypting […]
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 […]