A cyclist is pedaling on the road. Signs, trees and fire hydrants pass by. As they cycle, their brain receives information from what they have perceived but can no longer see. Their brains sort through that information—color, shape, and text in signs, for example—and pick out what’s most important. Based on this, the motorcyclist takes […]

The biggest conundrum in cosmology may be closer to being solved, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. Scientists disagree on the expansion rate of the universe, known as the Hubble constant. There are two main methods for measuring it – one based on exploding stars called supernovae and the other on the universe’s oldest […]

For the first time, a quantum computer has improved its results by continuously correcting its own miscalculations with a technique called quantum error correction. Scientists have long known that quantum computers need error correction to fulfill their potential to solve the problems that hinder standard, “classic” computers (SN: 22.6.20). Quantum computers compute with quantum bits, […]

Flicking the dimmer switch can help some indoor farmers curb one of their biggest challenges: rising electricity costs. Growing crops in stacked rows indoors under fixed-intensity artificial lights can produce more food per square foot using less land and water than traditional outdoor farms. But this vertical farming technique is also energy intensive and expensive […]

TV stars and terrorists may seem to have little in common. But after watching YouTube videos by members of a violent terrorist organization, Yotam Ophir realized that the two groups used similar tactics to connect with distant audiences. The terrorists dressed casually, looked into the camera when they spoke, and recounted their pasts in a […]

For the first time, astronomers have seen gas boiling and bubbling on the surface of a distant star. Scientists observed the red giant star R Doradus with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, in Chile over four weeks in July and August 2023. The series of images show large cells of gas rising to […]

Black holes about the size of a hydrogen atom may be careening into the solar system without being noticed. But their days of stealth may be numbered. Two teams of researchers propose methods to search for these hypothetical small objects, which would have the mass of an asteroid. Because they would have formed at the […]

The ocean circulation system may not be as bad as previously thought. A vital oceanic artery known as the Florida Current, a signal of the ocean’s ability to regulate Earth’s climate, has apparently been weakening for decades. But this latest decline may not be as severe as suspected. The current has actually remained stable over […]

It was like a Ph.D. student Dionna Williams realized fundamental flaws in the way medical science treats people who have HIV and also use illegal drugs or misuse prescription drugs. People in this group often have worse outcomes than people with HIV who do not use these drugs. Drug use and addiction have been linked […]