When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.
The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts
as with creating images.

— Niels Bohr

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Updated: 2 hours 59 min ago

The Uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, Targeted by Tariffs, Are a Biological Wonderland

4 hours 29 min ago

Trump’s tariffs put a spotlight on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, which comprise a remote volcanic refuge for penguins and seals and a UNESCO World Heritage site

Categories: Astronomy

Bonobo Calls Are More like Human Language Than We Thought

4 hours 59 min ago

Bonobos’ grunts, peeps and whistles may share an advanced linguistic property with human language

Categories: Astronomy

JWST Delivers Best-Yet Look at That Worrisome Asteroid

4 hours 59 min ago

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show that the potentially hazardous asteroid 2024 YR4 is a building-sized space rock

Categories: Astronomy

Secretive Russian Military Satellites Release Mystery Object into Orbit

5 hours 24 min ago

A trio of classified Russian satellites, called Kosmos, has sparked intrigue in space-tracking circles after an unidentified object was launched into orbit

Categories: Astronomy

Xenolinguistics—the Study of Alien Languages—Helps to Reveal Why All Beings Communicate

6 hours 44 min ago

Studying how extraterrestrials might communicate could help prepare for first contact and also hint at the point of language itself

Categories: Astronomy

Trump Staff Cuts Hollow Out Extreme Heat Programs

6 hours 59 min ago

Layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services have dealt a critical blow to the agency's efforts to manage rising temperatures made worse by climate change

Categories: Astronomy

Go Inside a Mexican Wolf Recovery Project Whose Future Is Now Uncertain

7 hours 59 min ago

The critically endangered Mexican wolf was mounting a comeback, thanks to a conservation program that dropped fostered wolf pups into wild dens. Then politics happened.

Categories: Astronomy

JWST’s Fourth Year of Amazing Science Faces Funding Woes

8 hours 59 min ago

The next year of science on the James Webb Space Telescope has been announced amid mounting budgetary uncertainty that could affect the unparalleled observatory

Categories: Astronomy

Pioneering Female Doctor Evangelina Rodríguez Faced a Dictator’s Reign of Terror

9 hours 59 min ago

Beginning in the 1930s, the work—and eventually the life—of Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo, the Dominican Republic’s first female doctor, became threatened by the country’s then new dictator

Categories: Astronomy

Why Some People Follow Authoritarian Leaders—And The Key to Stopping It

10 hours 59 min ago

To protect democracy and counteract the allure of authoritarianism, reduce people's sense of fear and insecurity, psychology research says

Categories: Astronomy

New Plan for Particle Physics Megaproject Leaves out Funding Details

11 hours 59 min ago

A long-awaiting report from CERN explores the feasibility of building a supersized successor to the Large Hadron Collider

Categories: Astronomy

Why Aurora Physicists Are Excited about Fram2’s Private Astronauts

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 4:45pm

The commercial astronauts onboard SpaceX’s Fram2 mission are flying closer to Earth’s poles than anyone has before, offering an intriguing opportunity for auroral science

Categories: Astronomy

Tiny, Injectable Pacemaker Runs on Light and then Dissolves

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 1:15pm

This temporary pacemaker, smaller than a grain of rice, could regulate the heart less invasively

Categories: Astronomy

The Science behind Baseball’s ‘Torpedo Bats’

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 12:00pm

After a stellar Yankees win on Saturday, torpedo bats are in the spotlight. Is there science behind these baseball bats?

Categories: Astronomy

Trump’s Tariffs Are Expected to Undermine the Clean Energy Transition

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:15am

New Trump administration tariffs on imported goods could exacerbate a shortage of parts used by the energy industry

Categories: Astronomy

Shingles Vaccination May Help Protect People from Alzheimer’s Disease

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:00am

A natural experiment in Wales showed that a shingles vaccine might lower the risk of developing dementia

Categories: Astronomy

Trump Administration Attacks on Science Trigger Backlash from Researchers

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 10:45am

“The risks of remaining silent at this defining time are far greater than the risks of speaking out,” says one scientist regarding the Trump administration’s attacks on science

Categories: Astronomy

Do We Live inside a Black Hole?

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 10:00am

The spins of some early galaxies could be a clue that the entire observable universe exists within a black hole—except, that is, for all the evidence to the contrary

Categories: Astronomy

The Hubble Tension Is Becoming a Hubble Crisis

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 9:00am

A long-simmering disagreement over the universe’s present-day expansion rate shows no signs of resolution, leaving experts increasingly vexed

Categories: Astronomy

Groupthink Explains Defense Department’s Signal Chat Fiasco

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 7:30am

At the heart of the Trump administration’s Signal scandal lies the familiar psychological pitfall of groupthink

Categories: Astronomy