Category: Science

The Tumaco-Tolita people, who lived in an area rich in natural gold, crafted intricate and delicate metal objects until the group disappeared 1,500 years ago.

Fossil fuels powered the industrial revolution. Would aliens need a similar power source to jump-start a technical revolution?

Elusive black hole radiation predicted by Stephen Hawking may have influenced the way the universe took shape after the Big Bang, new research suggests.

Scientists have been curious about how kangaroos evolved to hop with such efficiency. To investigate that, researchers turned to a sort of evolutionary second-cousin of the kangaroo, the musky rat-kangaroo.

A new study shows that the quality of a person’s microphone in a video meeting affects how the speaker is perceived by others. (Image credit: Smith Collection/Gado)

America is a deeply spiritual nation. Over 70% of us say that we feel spiritual in some way. But – at the same time – we’re getting less religious. So for people who are spiritual-but-not-religious – what’s replacing organized religion? What do they believe – and where does that show up in their day-to-day lives? In our new series called Losing My Religion, It’s Been a Minute is going to find out. This week, we’re getting into psychedelics. That’s an umbrella that includes the drugs LSD, magic mushrooms, peyote, and often ketamine and MDMA too, among others. And some of these drugs have a history of spiritual practice spanning millennia. But there’s a new group that’s really taking on the psychedelic mantle: tech bros and CEOS. Brittany is joined by Maxim Tvorun-Dunn, PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo, and Emma Goldberg, business reporter at the New York Times, to discuss what it means that these drugs are getting championed – and sometimes financially backed – by the tech elite, and how might that affect our culture’s relationship to psychedelics as spiritual tools. Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.

The Extremely Large Telescope will revolutionize our view of the cosmos when it sees first light in Chile in 2028. In fact, it could detect hints of alien life around our closest neighboring star system in its first night of operations, new simulations suggest.

At the site of Tombos, archaeologists have found that less-affluent laborers may be buried with upper-class people in pyramid tombs.

The hefty space rock 2014 TN17 is large enough to wipe out a city, but it will pose no risk to our planet when it sails by this Wednesday (March 26). Researchers will monitor it carefully during its close approach.

Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes, including asymmetrical lines that appear to run into one another. L483 is 650 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.

Every day, researchers search for optimal solutions. They might want to figure out where to build a major airline hub. Or to determine how to maximize return while minimizing risk in an investment portfolio. Or to develop self-driving cars that can distinguish between traffic lights and stop signs. Mathematically, these problems get translated into a search for the minimum values of functions. Source

Vehicles are covered with ash coming from the St. Vincent eruption of La Soufrière volcano, on the outskirts of Bridgetown, Barbados, on Sunday.; Credit: Chris Brandis/AP Dustin Jones | NPR Conditions on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent have worsened, as La Soufrière volcano continues to push ash and debris into the atmosphere. Dozens of individuals have been rescued from the northern part of the island after refusing to evacuate last week. Officials are warning anyone still in the red and orange zones to flee as the mountain presents a new danger to anyone still in the area. There is evidence of pyroclastic flows, an avalanche of super-heated gas and debris traveling as fast as more than 120 miles per hour along the mountainside, in the areas around the volcano, University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center’s lead scientist Richard Robertson said in a Sunday news conference. These flows are the most dangerous trait of the volcano, he said, as opposed to a slow-moving river of lava. As La Soufrière continues to explosively erupt, ash and debris are launched into the air. Sometimes there isn’t enough force behind the materials to continue upwards and the ash plume collapses on itself and it shoots back down, Robertson said. These clouds of gas can reach scalding-hot temperatures and carry car-sized boulders as the flows make their way through valleys along the mountain. Once the pyroclastic flows hit the coast, the sea water begins to boil and the clouds pick up speed, racing across the surface of the water and away from land until they run out of energy. “These flows are really moving masses of destruction,” Robertson said. “They just destroy everything in its path. Even if you have the strongest house in the world, they will just bulldoze it off the ground.” These flows can happen as the volcano goes through periods of explosive activity and venting. Every hour-and-a-half to 3 hours, Robertson explained, La

Advances in materials and architecture could lead to silicon-free chip manufacturing thanks to a new type of transistor.

On March 29, North America will witness its first solar eclipse since April 2024. Here are the 13 states where you’ll be able to see it.