James Webb Telescope discovers ‘monster star’ leaking nitrogen in the early universe – could help solve big mysteries
Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered the first evidence of a “monster star” in the early universe. This provides new clues about how supermassive black holes got so big just a billion years into the universe’s history. The research team discovered these giant stars, with masses between 1,000 and 10,000 times […]
Time moves faster on Mars, proving Einstein right and posing new challenges for human missions
Scientists have discovered that time moves slightly faster on the Red Planet than on Earth. Clocks on Mars, when measured from Earth, run an average of 0.477 milliseconds (477 microseconds) faster in a 24-hour period compared to time recorded on Earth, a new study has found. Knowing this difference may help establish an “internet” throughout […]
Insomnia and anxiety go hand in hand with weakened immunity – new research begins to explain why
Stress, anxiety, and sleepless nights not only affect your peace of mind, they can also weaken your body’s defenses and make you more susceptible to infections, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Now, scientists have discovered a potential mechanism that may link these psychological factors and immune problems. In a new study published Dec. 10 in the […]
Breakthrough 3D interconnect architecture enables 10,000-qubit quantum processor
Scientists have announced that they have developed a breakthrough 3D interconnect solution that can increase the number of quantum bits (qubits) that a quantum computing chip can support by 100 times. A typical quantum computing processor (QPU) is built with two-dimensional horizontal wiring, similar to the central processing unit (CPU) in a classical device. However, […]
Winter Solstice 2025: The Ultimate Guide to the Shortest Day of the Year
When is winter? Forecasters in the Northern Hemisphere report what is known as meteorological winter from December 1st to the end of February. However, based on the Earth’s tilt and orbit around the sun, it will be from December 21, 2025 to March 20, 2026. This is an astronomical winter, beginning at the winter solstice, […]
A 1,700-year-old mosaic unearthed in Britain depicts the long-lost story of the Trojan War
A recently discovered Roman mosaic in Britain depicts a different and long-lost version of the most famous story of the Trojan War. This artifact, known as the Keton Mosaic, depicts a major conflict during the Trojan War. But this story is not based on Homer’s Iliad, the longest-told story, researchers report in a new study. […]
New research hints at a decades-old X-ray mystery in which two black holes took turns killing this star
About 3 billion years ago, an unlucky star got caught in a twisted tug of war between two massive black holes. And now we are witnessing the faint screams of X-rays emanating from this violent event. If confirmed, this could be the most distant episode of two black holes attacking a star ever observed. An […]
The Amazon rainforest is transitioning to a ‘subtropical’ climate – and the trees won’t tolerate it for long
The Amazon rainforest is inching toward a “subtropical” climate regime that has not existed on Earth for at least 10 million years, a new study suggests. Scientists predict that this regime could lead to more frequent and extreme droughts, leading to mass tree mortality. By 2100, the Amazon could experience hot droughts lasting 150 days […]
‘This is the most exciting discovery of my 40-year career’: Archaeologists find evidence that Neanderthals were making fires in Britain 400,000 years ago
Neanderthals were the world’s first innovators in fire technology, a small body of evidence from Britain suggests. Fragments of pyrite found at a more than 400,000-year-old site in Suffolk, eastern England, push back on archaeologists’ evidence of controlled fire-starting and suggest that significant human brain development began much earlier than previously thought. “We are a […]
Scientists develop new solid-state sodium-ion battery – they say it could make EVs cheaper and safer
A breakthrough battery technology could significantly improve the safety of batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) and improve the stability of the energy grid, scientists say. Researchers have made a breakthrough during the development of solid-state sodium ion (Na ion) batteries. This battery could one day complement and replace the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries used in […]