Astronomy

Today's encryption works well, until tomorrow's quantum computers arrive.

A picturesque Scottish peninsula immortalized in a hit Paul McCartney song from the 1970s will host a new U.K. rocket development hub.

Mitochondrial mutations don't seem to build up in women's eggs as they age, which suggests they may have evolved a mechanism to avoid this

Mitochondrial mutations don't seem to build up in women's eggs as they age, which suggests they may have evolved a mechanism to avoid this

A proclivity for dancing seems to be found in at least 10 species of cockatoo, and the birds will even jive to white noise or a financial podcast

A proclivity for dancing seems to be found in at least 10 species of cockatoo, and the birds will even jive to white noise or a financial podcast

People with chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, appear to have eight genetic signals that differ from those without the condition

People with chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, appear to have eight genetic signals that differ from those without the condition

United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket will launch its first-ever national security mission on Aug. 12, if all goes according to plan.

The United States and China aren’t the only powerful, wealthy nations in the world, and they’re certainly not the only nations active in space.

If you want to get to the moon, you need to spend an enormous amount of resources developing, creating, testing, and deploying a variety of spacecraft and technologies.

Simulating extraterrestrial environments on Earth has always been a challenge. Our planet has a pleasant atmosphere, reasonable temperatures, and a moderate amount of gravity, unlike the rest of the solar system. Or maybe that’s just because we think that way because we adapted to how it is here as we evolved here. In either case, the physical environment here makes it difficult for us to set up test environments that can accurately test probes going to other parts of the solar system. Many times, it involves vacuum chambers, air conditioners and heaters pumping hot and cold air into them, and soil simulant - lots and lots of soil simulant. But, according to a new paper from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we’ve been neglecting one important aspect of these tests, and it might be the reason Spirit eventually got permanently stuck on Mars - sand is affected by gravity too.

It’s a tantalizing prospect. Since 2017, three interstellar objects have been spotted passing through our solar system: 1I/ʻOumuamua, 2I/Borisov… and just this month, 3I/ATLAS. Discovered on July 1st by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert Survey, 3I/ATLAS is zipping through the inner solar system in the last half of 2025. Certainly, all assets on the ground and in space will be turned towards 3I/ATLAS over the next few frenzied months, to glean what we can… but what would 3I/ATLAS look like up close? Can we even consider chasing down such a speedy visitor?

Speed and flexibility have made mRNA a blockbuster technology

Interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy says his plan to put a nuclear reactor on the moon is part of his plain to "get there first and claim that for America."

Social media influencers are convinced that the number of lobes on the base of a bell pepper give us information about its sex and taste. James Wong debunks this myth with some science

Social media influencers are convinced that the number of lobes on the base of a bell pepper give us information about its sex and taste. James Wong debunks this myth with some science

In The Shrouds, Karsh, Myrna and Maury talk – a lot – about mysterious shrouds, improbable tech and ever-more-complex conspiracy theories. Nothing happens, just grief and, er, death, finds Simon Ings

In The Shrouds, Karsh, Myrna and Maury talk – a lot – about mysterious shrouds, improbable tech and ever-more-complex conspiracy theories. Nothing happens, just grief and, er, death, finds Simon Ings

From squat toadstools to web-like mushrooms, images from Funga Obscura celebrate some of the most striking fungi on our planet