Is Life Expectancy Finally Topping Out?

A slowing rate of improvement hints at a looming asymptote, at least on a population-wide basis

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SpaceX Gets FCC Approval to Sell Wireless High-Speed Home Internet from Space

SpaceX just received approval from the FCC to launch 4,425 satellites into space to build a low earth orbit network of satellites to sell home Internet. Unlike current satellite Internet, these devices will be in a far lower orbit and offer far faster speeds without the data caps current satellite systems use.

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What If the Asteroid Never Killed the Dinosaurs?

An asteroid slammed down and did away with all the dinosaurs, paving the way for such developments as the human race, capitalism, and posting on the internet: it’s the story we all know and love. Yet if things had shaken out differently—if the asteroid had stayed in its place, and the dinosaurs allowed to proceed with their business—what would things have looked like?

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How the Parker Solar Probe Survives Close Encounters With the Sun

Over the past six decades, 12 people have walked on the moon, spacecraft have visited every planet from Mercury to Neptune, and four rovers have racked up more than 60 kilometers traveling on the surface of Mars. And yet, despite the billions of dollars spent on the world’s civilian space programs, never has a probe journeyed very close to the sun. The nearest approach, by the Helios B probe in 1976, came no closer than 43 million km.

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Teen Suicide Spiked After Debut Of Netflix's '13 Reasons Why,' Study Says

Boys ages 10-17 killed themselves at a much higher rate in the month after Netflix's show about suicide was released in 2017. Researchers attribute an extra 195 deaths that year to the series.

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SpaceX cuts broadband-satellite altitude in half to prevent space debris

SpaceX has received Federal Communications Commission approval to halve the orbital altitude of more than 1,500 planned broadband satellites in order to lower the risk of space debris and improve latency. SpaceX's satellite project, named Starlink, aims to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband around the world. In a statement on the new FCC approval, SpaceX said that "Starlink production is well underway, and the first group of satellites have already arrived at the launch site for processing."

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Light-based computer hardware that can compete with silicon

A team of researchers at NTT Corporation has developed a way to use light-based computer hardware that allows it to compete with silicon. In their paper published in the journal Nature Photonics, the group describes their research, the devices they created and how well they worked.

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