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'There's no real competitor': Theoretical physicist Marika Taylor on how black holes could help us to find a theory of everything
An artist's abstract illustration of cosmic strings.
Watch Chinese satellite burn up over US in spectacular 'fireball'
The GaoJing 1-02 imaging satellite burned up over the U.S. in a mesmerizing 'fireball' that some skywatchers mistook for a meteor shower.
Oldest sinew bowstrings ever found in Europe have been hiding in Spain's 'Bat Cave' for 7,000 years
The bowstrings were found with wood-and-reed arrows and were used by the first European farmers.
10 supercharged solar storms that blew us away in 2024
The sun's most active phase, solar maximum, officially arrived in 2024, triggering some explosive solar storms and colorful auroras. Here are 10 of our favorite solar outbursts this year.
Lasers powered by sunlight could beam energy through space to support interplanetary missions
New research has found a way to power spacecraft with lasers generated using solar energy alone.
'Mathematically perfect' star system discovered 105 light-years from Earth may still be in its infancy. Could that change its prospects for life?
Once thought to be 8 billion years old, the star HD 110067 — famous for its six synchronized exoplanets — may be only 2.5 billion years old, new research suggests.
Queen Puabi's lyre: A bull-headed music maker played for Mesopotamian royalty 4,500 years ago
A lyre in a treasure-laden royal tomb discovered in Mesopotamia is the earliest stringed instrument ever found.
How does E. coli get into food?
Dangerous strains of E. coli bacteria can infiltrate the food supply through many different routes, experts explain.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe will reach its closest-ever point to the sun on Christmas Eve
NASA's record-breaking Parker Solar Probe will smash its own personal bests for proximity to the sun and fastest speed by a human-made object when it whizzes past our star on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24). It is unlikely to get significantly closer to the sun before the end of its mission.
MIT's massive database of 8,000 new AI-generated EV designs could shape how the future of cars look
An open-source database made by MIT engineers houses over 8,000 aerodynamic car designs and could train future AI models to design EVs in the future.
'Rising temperatures melted corpses out of the Antarctic permafrost': The rise of one of Earth's most iconic trees in an uncertain world
As the Atlantic grew wider, the ancestral population of all of today's oaks may have been straddling the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. If so, the ancestor of the oaks we know today was a widespread population that was cleaved in half as North America inched westward.
Space photo of the week: James Webb and Chandra spot a cosmic 'Christmas Wreath' sparkling in the galaxy next door
There's a cosmic 'Christmas Wreath' hanging in the Small Magellanic Cloud, the James Webb and Chandra telescopes revealed in a sparkly new image.
Do black holes really evaporate — and how do we know?
In 1974, Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes could evaporate. But do we understand how this might happen?
James Webb telescope solves 20-year-old Hubble conundrum — and it could finally explain why the universe's oldest planets exist
The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed 20-year-old Hubble observations that could finally explain how ancient stars can host massive planets.
Leaf sheep: The adorable solar-powered sea slug that looks like Shaun the Sheep
Known for its uncanny resemblance to the TV character Shaun the Sheep, this adorable sea slug munches on algae to steal its ability to photosynthesize and become solar-powered.
Future robots could one day tell how you're feeling by measuring your sweat, scientists say
Scientists say a phenomenon called "skin conductance," which changes when you sweat, is a surprisingly accurate method for detecting emotions — with future robots that detect this able to tell your emotions.
Why do iguanas fall from trees in Florida?
Florida's non-native green iguanas become paralyzed and drop from trees when temperatures dip. Climate change could bring this problem to new areas.
What if the Persians had defeated Alexander the Great?
The world we live in might be unrecognizable if Alexander the Great had been defeated by the Persians.
