Today’s biggest science news: Man dies from H5N5 bird flu | ‘Alien’ locks on Mars | ‘Other’ comet Atlas collapses
refresh 2025-11-24T18:34:42.495Z How Antarctica’s melting creates a carbon sink View of the Admiralty Mountains near Cape Roger, East Antarctica (Image credit: Andrew Peacock, Getty Images) East Antarctica’s ice sheet, once thought by scientists to be stable despite human-induced climate change, is melting during warm Southern Hemisphere summers. But here’s the good news. When ice sheets […]
Scientists say a major bottleneck in AI has been removed and it is now able to process calculations at “the speed of light.”
Scientists have developed the foundational architecture for the next generation of optical computing, which uses light rather than electricity to power chips. This has the potential to revolutionize the way artificial intelligence (AI) models are trained and run. At the heart of large-scale language models (LLMs) and deep learning-based models are weighted organizational structures called […]
History of Science: Iconic ‘Lucy’ Fossil Discovered Changes Our Understanding of Human Evolution — November 24, 1974
simple facts Milestone: Fossil “Lucy” discovered When: November 24, 1974 Location: Hadar, Ethiopia People: Anthropologists Donald Johansson and Tom Gray More than 50 years ago, two anthropologists were digging in Hadar, Ethiopia, when they discovered something glowing in a trench. What they discover will change the story of human evolution. Donald Johansson, then a curator […]
Strange-looking rocks on Mars are completely alien, discovered by the Perseverance rover
NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered an extremely rare rock on the surface of Mars. The craggy rock has a metal-rich composition and is most likely a meteorite that crash-landed on Mars, the first meteorite discovered by Perseverance during its four-year mission to search for signs of life in Martian rocks. Since landing inside Mars’ Jezero […]
Arctic “methane bomb” may not explode even after permafrost thaws, new study suggests
In the Arctic, the key variables of future climate change lie beneath the surface. Microbes in the soil layer just above the frozen permafrost metabolize carbon, turning it into carbon dioxide and methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas. As these soils warm, more carbon is released, potentially setting off a warming feedback loop also […]
Breakthrough in transmitting information through fiber-optic networks brings the dream of a quantum internet inching closer
Scientists have built a new type of molecular qubit that helps connect quantum computers through existing communication technologies, laying the foundation for a future quantum internet. The new qubits contain a rare earth element called erbium, which has optical and magnetic properties that allow quantum information to be transmitted using the same wavelengths as fiber […]
The world’s first global carbon tax was about to be introduced. President Trump dealt a “devastating blow” to the agreement.
With relatively little fanfare, the first-ever global carbon tax was scheduled to be formally adopted as an international agreement this year. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency that oversees global shipping, had drafted a net-zero framework to shift the industry to cleaner fuels. This is an important step in the energy transition, […]
Free radicals are highly reactive molecules. Are free radicals always harmful or do they have any benefits?
Free radicals have a bad reputation. These highly reactive and unstable molecules are associated with cancer, aging, and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. However, the body constantly produces free radicals as an important part of life-sustaining processes such as respiration, cell signaling, and defense against disease. So are free radicals really that bad, or […]
Scientists discover rare northern whale alive in the ocean for the first time and shoot it with a crossbow
After a grueling research effort off the coast of Mexico, a rare yellow-billed whale has been seen and photographed alive at sea for the first time, a new study has found. The newly sighted cetacean is a beaked whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens), a member of the Gingkoidae family, previously only known from beach carcasses and bycatch. […]
A looming ‘insect apocalypse’ could endanger global food supplies. Can we stop it before it’s too late?
Imagine driving down a highway in the summer. The windows are down, the music is loud, and the wind is whipping through your hair. Now picture your car’s windshield. You might expect to see a handful of splats from unfortunate bugs. But 30 years ago, there would have been significantly more buggy skid marks plastered […]