Neowin News Feed for: Science

Scientists baffled by plant said to do something nearly impossible

Sayan Sen — Wed, 14 May 2025 16:16:01 +0000

Research on an uncommon plant reveals something that was previously thought impossible in challenging environments. Read more...

Polaris Dawn successfully launched on a historic mission featuring the first civilian EVA

Martin Hodás — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 05:28:02 +0000

SpaceX launched a record-breaking civilian mission that takes the crew higher than anyone else since the Apollo era. Read more...

SpaceX sets a new timeline for the Mars colony. First Starships to launch in 2026

Martin Hodás — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 12:16:01 +0000

Elon Musk announced a new, more realistic timeline for Starship launches toward the Red Planet. While it still sounds ambitious, the company is making progress with the world's biggest space rocket. Read more...

NASA runs a giveaway for its nearly completed, but canceled, $450 million Moon rover

Martin Hodás — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 15:22:01 +0000

The scientific community was shocked by the cancelation of the $450 million VIPER mission. However, NASA is ready to contribute the rover to a chosen partner that takes it to its intended destination. Read more...

After breaking up with Russia, NASA comes to save Europe's never-ending mission to Mars

Martin Hodás — Sat, 18 May 2024 19:58:01 +0000

European space mission ExoMars began in 2001. However, it came close to being canceled due to repeated delays and war in Ukraine. A new partnership with NASA aims to finally send the rover into space. Read more...

Just a day after Voyager's resurrection NASA got into trouble with another iconic spacecraft

Martin Hodás — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 09:36:02 +0000

The Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode following an issue with a gyroscope. The spacecraft remains in good health, and NASA engineers are optimistic about its return to scientific observations. Read more...

After five months of debugging, NASA finally knows why Voyager 1 sends gibberish data

Martin Hodás — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 04:36:01 +0000

For several months, the most distant human-made object, the Voyager 1, sends unusable engineering and science data. NASA engineers now pinpointed the cause and are working on a solution. Read more...

Incredible story of the historic U.S. moon lander is officially over after long, cold night

Martin Hodás — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 06:04:01 +0000

Odysseus, the moon lander that made history for the U.S., hoped to surprise engineers and survive a long lunar night. However, the lander was not lucky enough to wake up from sleep. Read more...

Odysseus was data-blind prior moon landing, survived 11 crises and got lost for a few hours

Martin Hodás — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:08:01 +0000

The historic moon landing of the first commercial spacecraft was nothing short of a miracle. The public image of a smooth mission was far from what was actually happening behind the scenes. Read more...

What happens on Mars, stays on Mars? NASA helicopter's mysterious damage uncovered in hi-res

Martin Hodás — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 05:30:01 +0000

The unique mission of the Mars helicopter was halted by terminal damage, and now that we have finally seen the full extent of what had happened, it looks more dramatic than expected. Read more...

Tech & science of Mars colonization are jokingly trivial to solve, ex-NASA scientist argues

Martin Hodás — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:14:01 +0000

Technical and environmental challenges of deep space exploration are difficult, but not unsolvable. The real barrier between mankind and Mars is the level of commitment from relevant stakeholders. Read more...

Farewell Ingenuity: NASA's pioneering Mars helicopter officially ends its mission damaged

Martin Hodás — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 08:54:01 +0000

The unique mission of the Mars helicopter was a huge success, exceeding all expectations. However, NASA's Ingenuity sustained damage during its final flight, grounding the rotorcraft forever. Read more...

Google Search and Lens add more features to solve math and science problems

Anushe Fawaz — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 18:28:02 +0000

Users, especially in the field of academics, can now get help from new capabilities in Search and Lens by Google. The latest updates solve equations, integrals, and word problems more easily. Read more...

NASA calls on the public to send their names on its Europa Clipper mission

Paul Hill — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 03:44:02 +0000

NASA is giving the public a chance to have their names stencilled onto a microchip that will be sent to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. If you choose to add it, your name should arrive by 2030. Read more...

Dodo Park: A biosciences company is bringing back the dodo bird on the island of Mauritius

Dean Howell — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 14:56:07 +0000

Remember the horror you felt the first time you saw Jurassic Park? Well, set those horrors aside because humanity has decided to bring back the dodo bird first and put it on display. Read more...

Scientists at Salesforce develop proteins with AI that can eat trash

Dean Howell — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 16:16:01 +0000

Salesforce has developed their own AI that can create millions of proteins in a flash that can be used in all sorts of different types of applications from medicine to... eating trash? Read more...

New research shows that near-term quantum computers can learn to reason

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 07:18:01 +0000

Cambridge Quantum Computing has demonstrated Variational Inference on quantum computers for the first time. Results are encouraging, indicating a promising new approach in quantum machine learning. Read more...

TWIRL 6: Blue Origin prepares for a human space flight

Paul Hill — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 15:42:01 +0000

The next week will feature an interesting launch from Blue Origin, the firm owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Astronauts will practice getting aboard the craft ready for a crewed mission in the future. Read more...

Lack of thrust and an ad hoc solution to SN8's explosion led to Starship SN10's fiery ending

Ather Fawaz — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 08:48:01 +0000

Elon Musk indicates that the SN10 engines lacked thrust. The rocket landed at 10 m/s, damaging some parts. It also used "Helium in header" to atone for SN8's explosion, but that was also problematic. Read more...

Apple shares Hearing Study insights for World Hearing Day

Paul Hill — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 19:18:01 +0000

Apple has published findings from a study it's doing into people's hearing. Many with hearing loss do not use technologies like hearing aids and many more haven't had a hearing test in 10 years. Read more...

Elon Musk claims that his wired-up Neuralink monkey is happy and enjoys playing video games

Ather Fawaz — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 13:16:01 +0000

Speaking on Clubhouse, Neuralink founder Elon Musk told that his company has wired up a happy simian to play video games. Videos on it could be dropping in about a month's time as well. Read more...

Gooseberry: A dive into Microsoft's new quantum control chip to handle thousands of qubits

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 06:30:01 +0000

An in-depth look at Microsoft's quantum control chip - Gooseberry - and cryo-compute core that can be used to control thousands of qubits, paving way for practical large-scale quantum computers. Read more...

NASA and Boeing are targeting March 25 for Starliner's second unmanned orbital flight test

Ather Fawaz — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 17:28:01 +0000

NASA and Boeing are aiming for no earlier than March 25 for CST-100 Starliner's second unmanned orbital flight test (OFT-2). The test is slated to be a milestone in the NASA Commercial Crew program. Read more...

"Mars, here we come!!" exclaims Elon Musk despite explosive ending to Starship's test flight

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 06:56:01 +0000

Starship SN8 executed an almost perfect high-altitude flight test before plummeting towards the earth at a velocity greater than the intended threshold. SpaceX and Musk extolled the test as a success. Read more...

Intel shows promising progress and key advances in integrated photonics for data centers

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 20:00:09 +0000

In the path towards improving data flow and networking in data centers, Intel showed off key advances like the tight coupling of CMOS technologies with photonics and miniature micro-ring modulators. Read more...

Intel Labs Day 2020: Robotics demonstrations and a next-gen neuromorphic chip on the horizon

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 20:00:05 +0000

At Intel Labs Day 2020, Intel showed two robots running on its neuromorphic Loihi chip. Mercedes-Benz, Lenovo, and others have joined the INRC. A next-gen neuromorphic chip is also in the pipeline. Read more...

China launches Chang'e-5 mission to extract and bring lunar rock samples to Earth

Ather Fawaz — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 07:32:02 +0000

If the mission is successful, China will become only the third country to collect and bring back rock samples from the Moon to the Earth—a feat that has not been attempted for the past four decades. Read more...

QCE20: Here's what you can expect from Intel's new quantum computing research this week

Ather Fawaz — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 15:00:01 +0000

At QCE20, Intel will be presenting four papers highlighting its efforts in developing commercial-grade quantum computers. Here's an all-encompassing guide describing what you can expect. Read more...

Researchers probe into RNA using deep learning to develop sensors for a COVID-19 diagnostic

Ather Fawaz — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 09:00:01 +0000

Two teams at the Wyss Institute have demonstrated the use of NLP and CV techniques to optimize RNA sequences to develop improved sensors for the SARS-CoV-2 genome that is responsible for COVID-19. Read more...

James Webb Telescope completes environmental testing ahead of 2021 launch

Ather Fawaz — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 08:02:02 +0000

The largest and most powerful space science telescope was subjected to low and high-frequency vibrations to test it against the harsh conditions that it will face during launch next year. Read more...

Sycamore ran the largest chemical simulation performed on a quantum computer to date

Ather Fawaz — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 06:20:01 +0000

Using the same 54-qubit quantum computer used to show quantum supremacy, researchers ran the Hartree-Fock approximation—twice as large as previous experiments with ten times as many quantum gate ops. Read more...

Investment portfolio built with graph neural networks demonstrates promising results

Ather Fawaz — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 05:44:01 +0000

In a white paper, researchers at Bloomberg modeled supply chain data as a graph and used GNNs to create a long-short portfolio. The results demonstrate an edge over traditional approaches. Read more...

SpaceX reveals further details for its spaceport in Texas

Ather Fawaz — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 07:18:01 +0000

In a job listing for a Resort Development Manager by SpaceX, the company states that its launch site in Boca Chica Village will be a 21st-century spaceport and the company's first resort. Read more...

Boeing will continue to support the ISS through 2024 under a new contract extension

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 05:36:01 +0000

Boeing and NASA signed a new contract extension that is valued at $916 million. Under it, the former will continue to support development and research aboard the ISS through 2024 at least. Read more...

Researchers build a pencil-paper based biometric wearable that can monitor body signals

Ather Fawaz — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 05:16:01 +0000

By using conducting graphite patterns drawn with pencils and regular office-papers as flexible supporting substrates, the team built a biometric wearable that can gauge temperature, sweat, pH, etc. Read more...

Perseverance Rover's launch window pushed back to July 22

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 06:20:01 +0000

NASA's Perseverance Rover will now launch towards Mars on July 22. The delay is due to contamination concern in the ground support lines; the rover and the rocket themselves are in good condition. Read more...

Starship SN7 prototype 'pops' during a cryogenic pressure test to failure

Ather Fawaz — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 05:14:01 +0000

For its second cryogenic pressure test to failure, the SN7 prototype for Starship was taken beyond its limit. The fuel tank 'popped' and was soon engulfed in white, thick plumes of nitrogen. Read more...

CERN develops 3D-printed plastic scintillators for neutrino detectors

Ather Fawaz — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 04:58:01 +0000

In an international collaboration, CERN has 3D-printed plastic scintillators for neutrino oscillation experiments. The technique is precise and cost-effective. Results demonstrate proof of concept. Read more...

Contributors to protein folding and COVID-19 research can now earn free cryptocurrency

Ather Fawaz — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 06:58:01 +0000

UC Berkeley's BOINC is collaborating with CPUcoin to reward users who contribute spare computing resources to projects like Rosetta@home or IBM World Community Grid with cryptocurrency. Read more...

MIT's home-health device uses wireless signals to monitor vital signs

Usman Khan Lodhi — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 15:50:01 +0000

This MIT device can actively monitor up to 40 people's vital signs at once, and point out any abnormalities. This could be used to anticipate COVID-19 outbreaks in retirement homes. Read more...