Scince

Researchers studying data from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission have uncovered surprising behavior in what had been thought of as minor players of the solar wind: pickup ions. These charged particles are now believed to be capable of stirring up waves and influencing how the solar wind heats up and… Read more: NASA Spacecraft Reveals Unexpected Force Shaping the Solar Wind

The word robot is now inseparable from conversations about artificial intelligence, automation and the future of work. But its origins lie not in a laboratory or workshop, but in a Czech theatre more than a century ago. In 1920, writer Karel Čapek published his play Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.). Premiering… Read more: The Word “Robot”: From Czech Theatre to Global Technology

An international collaboration of astrophysicists has recorded one of the most detailed observations ever of two black holes colliding—yielding the strongest confirmation yet of Stephen Hawking’s 1971 prediction about black hole thermodynamics. Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) and partners report that this cosmic event supports the idea that… Read more: Groundbreaking Black Hole Merger Offers Compelling Proof for Hawking’s Half-Century-Old Prediction

On Wednesday, NASA announced that its Perseverance rover had stumbled onto something extraordinary: a Martian rock that could hold the strongest hints yet of ancient life. The discovery centers on a mudstone sample pulled from Jezero Crater, a place scientists have long suspected once held a river delta. This particular… Read more: NASA Just Announced It May Have Found Signs of Ancient Life on Mars

Robert Sapolsky was 14 when he decided there was no such thing as free will. It was late at night, and the realization came all at once: no God, no cosmic plan, no hidden hand steering the world—just biology and chance. “It was this big, empty, indifferent universe,” he remembers.… Read more: Robert Sapolsky:What If Free Will Is Just a Story We Tell Ourselves?