Dyson spheres, the hypothetical mega-structures that advanced alien civilizations might use to enclose a star and harness its energy, suffer from a fatal flaw: They are catastrophically unstable. But now an engineer claims to have figured out a way to stabilize these structures — and all it takes is two stars. In the 1960s, physicist … Read more
Left unchecked, the space around our planet could get so cluttered with debris that we might not be able to use some orbits anymore, according to the latest European Space Agency (ESA) report on the space environment. The report, published April 1, states that although new standards to curb space debris are becoming more widely … Read more
A California-based startup plans to launch hundreds of flattened “microsatellites” into low-Earth orbit at once, by firing rockets out of a giant centrifugal cannon. The first batch of pancake-like spacecraft could be shot into space as soon as next year — and could set a new record. SpinLaunch is a private company that aims to … Read more
Mercury’s mysterious makeup may be the result of a grazing “hit and run” collision between two similar-sized protoplanets in the early solar system, a new study suggests. Mercury, the smallest and innermost planet in our solar system, has a number of unusual characteristics that have long puzzled scientists. Despite being only slightly larger than Earth’s … Read more
Holograms that can be physically manipulated have made their way out of science fiction and into real life thanks to a breakthrough in mixed reality technology. In a new study uploaded March 6 to the HAL open archive, scientists explored how three-dimensional holograms could be grabbed and poked using elastic materials as a key component … Read more
Kangaroos are pretty peculiar on the outside: They’re the world’s largest marsupials, they hop to get around, and they use their tails as a fifth limb. But they’re also pretty unusual on the inside: Female kangaroos have two vaginas — or three, if they’ve given birth. Why could that be? The most likely explanation is … Read more
A brain implant that uses artificial intelligence (AI) can almost instantaneously decode a person’s thoughts and stream them through a speaker, new research shows. This is the first time researchers have achieved near-synchronous brain-to-voice streaming. The experimental mind-reading technology is designed to give a synthetic voice to people with severe paralysis who cannot speak. It … Read more
Physicists have discovered a new phase of matter, dubbed “half ice, half fire,” that could open the door to new advancements in fields such as quantum computing. The new phase combines a number of “up” spins of electrons within an atom, which are highly ordered and referred to as cold cycles, with a number of … Read more
Large artificial intelligence (AI) models may mislead you when pressured to lie to achieve their goals, a new study shows. As part of a new study uploaded March 5 to the preprint database arXiv, a team of researchers designed an honesty protocol called the “Model Alignment between Statements and Knowledge” (MASK) benchmark. While various studies … Read more
You may have heard the myth that humans use only 10% of their brains. That statement is patently untrue — most people use all of their brains, all of the time. But for people who have survived a stroke, traumatic brain injuries or brain resectioning surgeries, things do get less clear. In fact, many of … Read more
