Nearly four years after NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft collected a sample from an asteroid, scientists are finally revealing the intriguing composition of the space rock. Among them, the near-Earth asteroid, known as Bennu, contains a surprising reservoir of a mineral called magnesium phosphate. These bright-white particles sprinkled in a sea of Bennu’s dark rocks is a … Read more
Many maps of the solar system make it look as though everything in space moves in perfect, concentric circles. Planets orbit the sun, and moons orbit the planets. So that must be the case for everything in space, right? Not quite. Orbits form all sorts of shapes. “Planets and other bodies rarely go around in … Read more
Scientists have discovered a giant volcano on Mars that has been “hidden in plain sight” for more than 50 years. The volcano is around 280 miles (450 kilometers) wide and more than 29,600 feet (9,000 meters) high. It is located in the eastern part of Mars’ Tharsis volcanic province near the planet’s equator, scientists revealed … Read more
The ever-accelerating expansion of the universe may be driven by a mysterious form of matter called “unparticles,” which do not obey the Standard Model of particle physics, a new theoretical paper suggests. Scientists widely acknowledge that the universe is expanding, though the cause of that expansion remains elusive. One of the most popular proposed explanations … Read more
Mars’ gravitational pull on Earth may be influencing the climate on our planet, new research hints. Geological evidence tracing back more than 65 million years and taken from hundreds of sites across the world suggests that deep-sea currents have repeatedly gone through periods of being either stronger or weaker. This happens every 2.4 million years … Read more
A new, flexible device that clings to the neck can translate muscular movements into speech, enabling people to talk without using their vocal cords. The small patch not only detects the movements of the throat associated with speech, but also harnesses that movement to generate electricity, meaning the device can be operated without a battery … Read more
Scientists have developed a new type of optical disc that can increase information storage capacity to the “petabit” level — 125 terabytes of data, or the combined storage capacity of about 15,000 DVDs. Optical discs, such as DVDs and Blu-ray discs, are durable and inexpensive. A standard single-layer Blu-ray disc can store 25 gigabytes. By … Read more
Scientists have created a new biocomputing chip that makes calculations using a DNA substrate, including mathematical operations essential to artificial intelligence (AI) training and big data processing. Researchers described the new biocomputing platform Oct. 19, 2023, in the journal PLOS One. DNA is known as the blueprint for life and encodes genetic information, like data … Read more
Most of the cell types in your body appear in many places — for example, humans have photoreceptors throughout our nervous systems, not just our eyes. So it seems strange that taste receptors would only be found on the tongue. Turns out, you actually have taste receptors throughout your body; you just can’t taste what … Read more
A vehicle that’s a strange blend between a futuristic electric minivan and the rear half of an airplane could soon revolutionize island-hopping. The unusual vehicle, which is currently still only a concept, will be able to travel both on land and in the air and be powered by electricity or hydrogen, its designers claim. The … Read more
