Coffee drinkers may be at lower risk of early death, study suggests

People who drink coffee – whether with or without sugar – appear to have a lower risk of an early death, although experts caution the finding may not be down to the brew itself.

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Hubble telescope sees haunting galactic dance of 2 galaxies linked by the corpse of a cannibalized neighbor

Two galaxies are intertwined in a turbulent gravitational dance in a stunning new view from the Hubble Space Telescope. The pair includes the large spiral galaxy NGC 3227 and the elliptical galaxy NGC 3226. The galaxies, collectively known as Arp 94, reside relatively close to Earth, between 50 million and 60 million light-years away, near the constellation Leo.

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Will this fruit-picking robot transform agriculture?

Creating a machine that can perform the delicate work of picking an apple is tricky – and farmworkers say it could be a benefit

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Ice at the moon’s poles might have come from ancient volcanoes

Volcanic eruptions billions of years ago probably released enough water vapor to have deposited ice at the lunar poles, a study finds.

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Google says it won't release photorealistic DALL-E 2 rival

It has this weird habit of drawing stereotyped White people, team admit

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Tech neck: what are smartphones doing to our bodies?

Bending your head to use a phone stresses the spine, say chiropractors – and that’s not the only way the devices are injuring and changing us.

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Humans could become a truly interplanetary species within 200 years, physicists claim

Our species faces a pivotal moment in human history. Either we develop the technology to safely harness the energy needed to escape our planet, or we kill ourselves in some great cataclysm, a stark new study claims. But, the new paper argues, if we can achieve the former and avoid the latter, then we might just become a truly interplanetary species in as little as 200 years.

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Will AI text-to-image generators put illustrators out of a job?

Imagen, from Google, is the latest example of an AI seemingly able to produce high-quality images from a text prompt – but they aren't quite ready to replace human illustrators

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Can we cut the US’s carbon emissions in half this decade?

There are multiple routes to drop carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.

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Researcher describes how extraterrestrial civilizations could colonize the galaxy even if they don't have starships

Astronomers have searched for extraterrestrial civilizations in planetary systems for sixty years, to no avail. In the paper published by International Journal of Astrobiology, Cambridge University Press, and titled "Migrating extraterrestrial civilizations and interstellar colonization: Implications for SETI and SETA...

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New data reveals climate change might be more rapid than predicted

About 30 massive, intricate computer networks serve the scientists who stand at the forefront of climate change research. Each network runs a software program comprised of millions of lines of code. These programs are computational models that combine the myriads of physical, chemical and biological phenomena that together form the climate of our planet.

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Metal-lifespan analysis shows scale of waste

Metals might be the foundation of the modern economy, but that doesn’t mean they stick around. A study looking at the economic lifetimes of 61 commercially used metals finds that more than half have a lifespan of less than 10 years. The research, published on 19 May in Nature Sustainability1, also shows that most of these metals end up being disposed of or lost in large quantities, rather than being recycled or reused.

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Children who play more video games show greater gains in intelligence over time, study finds

Many parents feel guilty when their children play video games for hours on end. Some even worry it could make their children less clever. And, indeed, that’s a topic scientists have clashed over for years. ...

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Wealthy nations are carving up space and its riches – and leaving other countries behind

Current trends suggest that powerful nations are defining the rules of resource use in space and satellite access in ways that will make it hard for developing nations to ever catch up.

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Physicists just rewrote a foundational rule for nuclear fusion reactors that could unleash twice the power

Future fusion reactions inside tokamaks could produce much more energy than previously thought, thanks to groundbreaking new research that found a foundational law for such reactors was wrong.

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NASA is building a mission that will refuel and repair satellites in orbit

NASA is planning a mission to demonstrate the ability to repair and upgrade satellites in Earth orbit. The mission, called OSAM-1 (On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing-1), will send a robotic spacecraft equipped with robotic arms and all the tools and equipment needed to fix, refuel or extend satellites' lifespans, even if those satellites were not designed to be serviced on orbit.

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CRISPR tomatoes genetically engineered to be richer in vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency is a growing health issue, but very few foods are rich in the nutrient. To help combat the problem, scientists have now used CRISPR gene editing to fortify tomatoes with vitamin D.

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Biden Says The Quiet Part About The Energy Transition Out Loud

President Joe Biden took some heat on Monday for saying the quiet part of the energy transition out loud. At a press conference following a meeting in Japan with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the President seemed to frankly admit that high gasoline and diesel prices are just part of the overall plan for the transition to renewables.

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NASA shows off early plans to send astronauts to Mars for 30 days

We have a glimpse now of NASA's latest vision for its first crewed Mars mission. The agency released its top objectives for a 30-day, two-person Mars surface mission on Tuesday (May 17) and asked the public to provide feedback on how the planning is going. Submissions were initially due on May 31, but that deadline was recently extended to June 3.

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Artificial Lives: On the Occult Origins of Chemistry and the Stuff of Life

Throughout history, scientists have tried to understand the characteristics that a chemical system must possess in order to be considered living.

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How Hormone Therapies Are Transforming Aging

Shivin Devgon just couldn’t shake that sluggish feeling. Toward the end of 2021, the San Diego software engineer thought his health was on the right track. He exercised regularly and was able to perform well at work. Still, he lacked energy, and his mood always felt off.

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Genetically modified tomatoes contain more vitamin D, say scientists

Scientists have found a way to edit the genetic makeup of tomatoes to become a robust source of vitamin D. A research team at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, have been working on the newly designed tomatoes to help people receive appropriate amounts of the vital vitamin.

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Reality TV viewing is associated with increased support for traditional gender roles among adolescents

Heteronormative stereotypes about how men and women should act in relationships are prevalent in our society and often depicted in popular media. New research published in The Journal of Sex Research found that heavy consumption of reality television is associated with greater endorsement of traditional gender role stereotypes in adolescents.

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Asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building barreling toward Earth on May 27

An enormous asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building will make a close approach to Earth on May 27, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). Fear not: the asteroid, named 7335 (1989 JA), will soundly miss our planet by about 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) — or nearly 10 times the average distance between Earth and the moon.

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Lonestar plans to put datacenters in the Moon's lava tubes

How? Founder tells The Register 'Robots… lots of robots'

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Wildfire smoke may ramp up toxic ozone production in cities

A new study reveals how wildfire smoke produces toxic ozone and how urban air pollution could exacerbate the problem.

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Monkeypox? A Doctor Explains

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These Nanobots Can Swim Around a Wound and Kill Bacteria

Researchers have created autonomous particles covered with patches of protein “motors.” They hope these bots will tote lifesaving drugs through bodily fluids.

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Scientists devise method to prevent deadly hospital infections without antibiotics

A novel surface treatment developed at UCLA stops microbes from adhering to common medical devices like catheters and stents.

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Scientists Use Gene Editing to Create Mutant Cockroaches in Breakthrough

For the first time, scientists have edited the genes of cockroaches using CRISPR-Cas9, a technology that can target and change parts of an organism’s DNA, reports a new study. The breakthrough not only produced the first so-called “knockout cockroaches” in history, a term that refers to cockroaches with artificially inactivated genes, it could also dramatically simplify gene-editing in numerous other insects, opening up applications for pest control, evolutionary biology, and other entomological fields.

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How Addictive Internet Apps Tap Into Our Brains’ Reward Pathways

Can we become addicted to the internet? That’s the question discussed in a new review article published in Science by the University of Duisburg-Essen’s Prof. Matthias Brand.

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China's action on air pollution can help restore trust in a greener future

From my window on the 18th floor of a Beijing office building, I can see distant mountains on three sides, standing out against a clear blue sky. The contrast is striking compared to the smog-wrapped city I first visited in the years running up to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

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NASA's Voyager 1 is sending mysterious data from beyond our solar system. Scientists are unsure what it means.

Voyager 1's new data has scientists wondering if its systems may be glitching — which could affect the spacecraft's ability to send data back to NASA.

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Pollution killing 9 million people a year, Africa hardest hit - study

Worsening outdoor air pollution and toxic lead poisoning have kept global deaths from environmental contamination at an estimated 9 million per year since 2015 – countering modest progress made in tackling pollution elsewhere, a team of scientists reported Tuesday.

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Daily dose of cranberries can 'dramatically' boost memory, ward off dementia, and even lower cholesterol

A daily handful of cranberries can help strengthen memory and protect against Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related conditions, according to new research. British scientists reveal that the superfruit, most often eaten with turkey on Thanksgiving, boosts recall by increasing blood flow to the brain.

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Pollution from SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic's rockets could harm human health as well as Earth's climate, study says

The study found that the concentration of nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere was considered "hazardous to human health" under WHO standards.

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Link between COVID-19 and Parkinson’s disease risk grows with new findings

A few years after the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic doctors around the world began to notice an increase in new Parkinson’s disease cases. This link between viral infection and increased Parkinson’s risk has been an ongoing mystery to scientists for well over a century. And the association isn’t just…

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Thousands of intestinal viruses have now been mapped. And they can be used to fight antibiotic resistance

A new method developed at the University of Copenhagen has been used to identify more than 1,000 bactericidal viruses in the human intestines. The researchers believe the discovery may help fight antibiotic resistance.

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My deepfake DALL-E 2 vacation photos passed the Turing Test

I went on a real vacation, and created photos of a fake vacation using DALL-E 2. Most people couldn't tell the difference.

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Diet plays key role in ADHD symptoms in children

Here’s a good reason for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to eat their fruits and vegetables: It may help reduce inattention issues, a new study suggests. As part of a larger study, researchers asked parents of 134 kids with ADHD symptoms to complete a detailed questionnaire about the typical foods the children ate, including portion sizes, over a 90-day period.

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Research breakthrough means warp speed ‘Unruh effect’ can finally be tested

A major hurdle for work at the forefront of fundamental physics is the inability to test cutting-edge theories in a laboratory setting. But a recent discovery opens the door for scientists to see ideas in action that were previously only understood in theory or represented in science fiction and advances our understanding of theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

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Astronauts may one day drink water from ancient moon volcanoes

Billions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions broke loose on the moon, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of the orb's surface in hot lava. Over the eons, that lava created the dark blotches, or maria, that give the face of the moon its familiar appearance today.

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Comedian Bill Burr defends Scientology, asks "Where are the bodies"

Comedian Bill Burr has lashed out at critics of Scientology for giving the religion "more s**t than it deserves." Burr defended Scientology during the latest episode of his Monday Morning Podcast. The comedian made the remarks while speaking about a recent trip to Sacramento, California—a city that he noted had "a bad reputation" before recalling walking by two bail bonds offices and a Scientology building within three blocks of one another.

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How to build a wormhole in just 3 (nearly impossible) steps

Planning a trip to the Andromeda Galaxy? Not so fast.

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Dusty demise for NASA Mars lander in July; power dwindling

A NASA spacecraft on Mars is headed for a dusty demise. The Insight lander is losing power because of all the dust on its solar panels. NASA said Tuesday it will keep using the spacecraft’s seismometer to register marsquakes until the power peters out, likely in July.

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Uber Eats Is Testing Autonomous Robot Deliveries

Uber's food delivery app now offers new ways (and new places) for customers to order meals and snacks.

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There’s a Venom For That

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Opinion: Human genetic engineering is coming. We must discuss the social and political implications now

I’m a genetic scientist. The advance of this technology is inevitable, but it is not inevitably evil. To ensure that, we need a new vision for how science is practiced

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Researchers Glimpse How AI Gets So Good at Language Processing

Language processing programs are notoriously hard to interpret, but smaller versions can provide important insights into how they work.

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Humans may have evolved to show signs of stress to evoke support FROM OTHERS

Showing signs of stress could make us more likeable and prompt others to act more positively towards us, according to a new study by scientists at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Portsmouth.

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