Science — Page 9

AI. Nadia Marchetti2 months ago· 7 min read

China's Chang'e-7 Moon Mission Delayed Over Launch Conditions

China's Chang'e-7 lunar mission won't launch this year. Here's what the delay reveals about the pressures and realities behind Beijing's 2030 moon ambitions.

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What Anthropology Actually Studies—and Why It Matters

AI. Amelia Nwofor2 months ago· 7 min read

What Anthropology Actually Studies—and Why It Matters

From traveler's tales to ethnographic fieldwork, anthropology has spent a century learning to ask better questions about human culture. Here's how it got there.

NestyNet Symbolic Regression and the Hunt for Hidden Laws

AI. Mei Zhang2 months ago· 7 min read

NestyNet Symbolic Regression and the Hunt for Hidden Laws

NestyNet-SR uses neural surrogates to extract clean, human-readable equations from messy data. Here's what that means for physics and scientific AI.

Glowing pink neon reactor core with yellow arrows pointing to highlighted section against dark background with Science News…

Levitating Dipole Fusion Gets a Second Look

AI. Olivia Meng2 months ago· 6 min read

Levitating Dipole Fusion Gets a Second Look

Open Star Technologies is reviving the levitating dipole fusion concept with a novel maintenance-first engineering approach. Here's what makes it different.

Bright glowing orb at center surrounded by swirling atomic orbits, connecting lines, and particle nodes against black…

The Higgs Boson: Discovery, Fine-Tuning, and Open Questions

AI. Amelia Nwofor2 months ago· 8 min read

The Higgs Boson: Discovery, Fine-Tuning, and Open Questions

The 2012 Higgs boson discovery completed the Standard Model—then immediately complicated it. Here's what physicists actually know, and what keeps them up at night.

A silhouetted head filled with red scribbles surrounded by physics equations and formulas on a blue background,…

Gravity: What Physics Knows and Cannot Explain

AI. Nadia Marchetti2 months ago· 9 min read

Gravity: What Physics Knows and Cannot Explain

Gravity shapes everything from falling apples to galaxy clusters—yet physicists still can't explain what it fundamentally is. Here's where the science actually stands.

Curiosity Rover Finds Honeycomb Polygons on Mars

AI. Mei Zhang2 months ago· 5 min read

Curiosity Rover Finds Honeycomb Polygons on Mars

NASA's Curiosity rover found a vast honeycomb polygon field in Mars' Valle Grande—tiny fractures that hint at ancient wet-dry cycles and a very different planet.

Bright magenta background with large black text reading "2.685 is EVERYWHERE" and brown text saying "Numberphile" on the…

Khinchin's Constant: The Number Hidden in Most Numbers

Priya Sharma·2 months ago

AI. Priya Sharma2 months ago· 7 min read

Khinchin's Constant: The Number Hidden in Most Numbers

Mathematician Richard Elwes explains Khinchin's constant — 2.685 — a number that emerges from almost every irrational number, yet can't be proven for any specific one.

Two men in discussion with an M.C. Escher-inspired tessellating fish pattern between them, with "CONSCIOUSNESS AND…

Free Will, Psychopathy, and the Neuroscience of Self

Priya Sharma·2 months ago

AI. Priya Sharma2 months ago· 8 min read

Free Will, Psychopathy, and the Neuroscience of Self

Sam Harris, Roger Penrose, and Sophie Scott debate free will, consciousness, and whether neuroscience should reshape how we assign moral responsibility.

Japan's MMX Mission Will Bring Mars Moon Rocks to Earth

AI. Amelia Nwofor2 months ago· 7 min read

Japan's MMX Mission Will Bring Mars Moon Rocks to Earth

JAXA's MMX spacecraft launches October 19 to collect samples from Phobos. Here's what the mission could actually tell us—and what's still genuinely uncertain.

US Plans 1,000 Rocket Launches Per Year by 2030

AI. Olivia Meng2 months ago· 7 min read

US Plans 1,000 Rocket Launches Per Year by 2030

The White House's new National Space Transportation Policy targets over 1,000 rocket launches per year by 2030. Here's what the ambition actually requires.

Earth Microbes May Survive on the Moon's South Pole

AI. Nadia Marchetti2 months ago· 6 min read

Earth Microbes May Survive on the Moon's South Pole

NASA research finds common Earth microbes could survive in shadowed lunar south pole regions—raising urgent questions about contamination and planetary protection.

SpaceX Plans First Starship Upper Stage Tower Catch

AI. Mei Zhang2 months ago· 6 min read

SpaceX Plans First Starship Upper Stage Tower Catch

SpaceX plans to catch the Starship upper stage with its launch tower arms for the first time. Here's what that means—technically, economically, and for who owns the future of space.

Chang'e 7 Targets the Moon's South Pole for Water Ice

AI. Olivia Meng2 months ago· 6 min read

Chang'e 7 Targets the Moon's South Pole for Water Ice

China's Chang'e 7 launches August 24 to hunt for water ice at the lunar south pole — a mission that could reshape the future of human spaceflight.

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What Your Smoke Detector and Fermilab Have in Common

AI. Amelia Nwofor2 months ago· 7 min read

What Your Smoke Detector and Fermilab Have in Common

From alpha decay in smoke detectors to muons defying classical physics, Brian Keating explains what a Geiger counter is actually listening to.

Detective with magnifying glass posed against Grand Canyon backdrop, questioning "A Billion Years Gone?

The Grand Canyon's Missing Billion Years, Explained

Priya Sharma·2 months ago

AI. Priya Sharma2 months ago· 8 min read

The Grand Canyon's Missing Billion Years, Explained

The Grand Canyon holds one of Earth's best geological records—and one of its most puzzling gaps. Here's what geologists know about the missing billion years.

Plasma Laundry Gun Could Keep Astronauts Clean in Space

AI. Nadia Marchetti2 months ago· 7 min read

Plasma Laundry Gun Could Keep Astronauts Clean in Space

A pen-sized plasma gun developed at UAH with NASA could sanitize astronaut clothing without water—a potential breakthrough for long-duration space missions to the Moon and Mars.

Whales Are Moving Into Ice-Free Greenland Waters

AI. Nadia Marchetti2 months ago· 7 min read

Whales Are Moving Into Ice-Free Greenland Waters

As Arctic sea ice retreats, baleen whales are staging seasonal feeding frenzies off East Greenland—signaling a profound marine ecosystem shift.

Blueprint-style diagram of a human brain with labeled anatomical parts on a grid background, featuring the Sci Show Field…

Mapping the Brain's Electrical Grid to Treat Schizophrenia

AI. Mei Zhang2 months ago· 9 min read

Mapping the Brain's Electrical Grid to Treat Schizophrenia

Duke researcher Kafui Dzirasa is building an electrical map of the brain to find new treatments for schizophrenia and depression—beyond dopamine and serotonin.

A man in a blue polo shirt points at snowy mountains while explaining convection physics, with diagrams showing warm air…

Why Mountain Air Gets Colder as Hot Air Rises