Artemis mission shares office space—and physics—with Apollo
As four astronauts whiz toward a flyby of the moon, looking out for them are mission control experts using cutting-edge technology and lessons learned from the Apollo program 50 years ago.
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Our modern vision evolved from an ancient one‑eyed worm creature
It's easy to take our eyes for granted. But our recent research shows they took an incredible evolutionary journey to reach their current familiar form.
58 tortillas, five hot sauces and one toilet: life aboard spacecraft Orion
They're sipping smoothies, snapping phone pics, dealing with crashed email and fixing broken toilets: astronauts, they're just like us.
Binge drinking just once a month may triple your risk of liver scarring
Many people think that occasional binge drinking is harmless if they otherwise drink in moderation, but new research suggests that assumption may be dangerously wrong. A large U.S. study found that people with metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), a
Most U.S. states are warming but not in the way you think
Warming across the U.S. is far more uneven than it looks at first glance. While only about half of states show rising average temperatures, most are heating up in specific ways—like hotter highs or warmer lows. These hidden shifts vary by region, with the West seeing more
NASA's water-hunting tool will help scout moon's South Pole
NASA is joining international partners to hunt for ice on the moon in support of future human exploration. The agency is providing a water-detecting instrument, the Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), to the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace
These overlooked brain cells may control fear and PTSD
Astrocytes, once thought to be mere brain “support cells,” are now revealed to be key players in fear memory. Researchers found they actively help form, recall, and weaken fear responses by interacting with neurons in real time. Changing astrocyte activity directly altered how
Artemis astronauts more than halfway to Moon, putting Earth in rearview
The Artemis 2 astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the moon on Saturday as they sped toward a planned lunar flyby, with NASA releasing initial images of Earth taken from inside the Orion spacecraft.
Canadian astronaut describes 'phenomenal' Artemis journey
Artemis 2 astronaut Jeremy Hansen felt like he was "falling out of the sky" as his spacecraft followed its complex flight path to the moon, the Canadian said in a Saturday video call.
Artemis II's moonbound astronauts capture Earth's brilliant blue beauty as they leave it behind
The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet's brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.
Orcas never seen before in Seattle delight whale watchers with a visit
When tourists travel to Seattle, it's common to take in the Space Needle and the downtown skyline from Puget Sound.
MXene breakthrough boosts conductivity 160x with perfect atomic order
A new breakthrough is transforming MXenes—ultra-thin, high-tech materials—into something far more powerful and precise. Researchers have developed a cleaner, more controlled way to build these materials using molten salts and iodine, eliminating the messy chemical processes
Dying stars are devouring giant planets, astronomers discover
Dying stars may be wiping out nearby giant planets as they expand into red giants. Astronomers found that these close-in planets become increasingly rare around more evolved stars, suggesting many have already been swallowed. The likely cause is a gravitational tug that drags
Students found a star from the dawn of the universe drifting into the Milky Way
A group of undergraduate students stumbled into a cosmic time capsule—one of the oldest stars ever discovered—while combing through massive astronomy datasets. What began as a class project quickly turned into a breakthrough when they spotted an extraordinarily “pristine” star
Scientists reveal new blood pressure treatment that works when others fail
A new pill called baxdrostat is showing strong results in lowering dangerously high blood pressure in people who don’t respond to standard treatments. In a large global trial, patients saw their blood pressure drop by nearly 10 mmHg, a meaningful reduction that can
Meteor impacts may have sparked life on Earth, scientists say
Asteroid impacts may have helped kick-start life on Earth by creating hot, chemical-rich environments ideal for early biology. These impact-generated hydrothermal systems could have lasted thousands of years—long enough for life’s building blocks to form. Scientists now think
Saturn’s magnetic field is twisted and scientists just figured out why
Saturn’s magnetic field isn’t the smooth, symmetrical shield scientists see around Earth. Instead, it’s noticeably skewed, and researchers now think they understand why. By analyzing years of data from the Cassini spacecraft, scientists found that a key region where solar
Cosmic Mysteries Swirl Around “Forbidden Planet”
What’s going on here? The post Cosmic Mysteries Swirl Around “Forbidden Planet” appeared first on Nautilus .
The Best Photos of the Artemis II Mission (So Far)
Humans haven’t taken photos of Earth from this distance in half a century The post The Best Photos of the Artemis II Mission (So Far) appeared first on Nautilus .
NASA Artemis II astronauts in ‘great spirits,’ space agency officials say as mission nears moon
Friday is the Artemis II mission’s third official day as it makes a ten-day journey around the moon and back
What are NASA’s Artemis II astronauts eating? 58 tortillas, 43 cups of coffee and a lot of hot sauce
The menu for NASA’s moon mission has 189 unique items on it and mirrors that of the International Space Station
I Asked Claude Why It Won’t Stop Flattering Me
An interview with Anthropic’s chatbot about sycophantic AI and how to guard against it The post I Asked Claude Why It Won’t Stop Flattering Me appeared first on Nautilus .
Tiny African fish caught climbing to the top of a 50-foot waterfall
For over half a century, people in Central Africa have told tales of the fish seen climbing waterfalls, but these claims have never been officially confirmed. Now, these fish have finally been caught on camera, studied more closely, and described in a study published in
Your Biological Clock Can be Measured With a Hair Sample
The new test opens opportunities for circadian medicine The post Your Biological Clock Can be Measured With a Hair Sample appeared first on Nautilus .
Exposing secret night operations between hawkmoths and Japan's black-nectar flowers
Researchers Soma Chiyoda, Ko Mochizuki, and Atsushi Kawakita from the University of Tokyo have discovered that nocturnal hawkmoths are the main pollinators of Jasminanthes mucronata, a plant species native to Japan that produces black nectar. This is the first time that a
Can unpaved roads and watersheds co-exist? Researchers wade into the question
Imagine a dump truck dropping 13 tons of dirt into the waters of Brush Creek, a waterway that feeds northwest Arkansas' primary drinking water source, Beaver Lake. That's how much soil and sediment researchers measured going into the stream as runoff due to a single large storm
A tiny detector for microwave photons could advance quantum tech
Detecting a single particle of light is hard; detecting a single microwave photon is even harder. Microwave photons, the tiny packets of electromagnetic radiation used in current technologies like Wi-Fi and radar, carry far less energy than visible light. They are about 100,000
A Poet of Science Who Shook Faith in God
Biographer Richard Holmes reveals how Tennyson predated Darwin and speaks to us today The post A Poet of Science Who Shook Faith in God appeared first on Nautilus .
High-throughput platform helps engineer fast-acting covalent protein drugs
A team led by principal investigators Bobo Dang and Ting Zhou at Westlake University/Westlake Laboratory have developed a high-throughput platform for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. Their study, titled "A high-throughput selection system for fast-acting
Assembling more than 1,000 human genomes affordably: New method could power genetic screening's future
A research team led by Zhen-Xing Endowed Professor Jian Yang at the School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, has developed a pangenome-informed genome assembly (PIGA) method. By combining a cost-effective hybrid sequencing strategy of long and short reads, the team
Study examines diversity of Black perspectives on race relations
A new Rice University study offers one of the first national measures of a viewpoint called "racial realism" and considers how it fits into the broader spectrum of perspectives Black Americans hold about race relations.
The depths of Neptune and Uranus may be 'superionic'
The interiors of ice giant planets like Uranus and Neptune could be home to a previously unknown state of matter, according to new computational simulations by Carnegie's Cong Liu and Ronald Cohen. Their work, published in Nature Communications, predicts that a
When our minds wander to the body, it may affect mental health
People’s minds sometimes wander to their bodily sensations, which may reduce symptoms of depression and ADHD, a new study suggests.
How NASA’s moon mission could help transform space medicine
Artemis II ’s AVATAR experiment will see organs-on-a-chip travel to the moon and back, revealing how such a journey affects the body’s cells
Engineering the bite of ancient marine predators
An international team of researchers, led by paleontologists of the University of Liège, has investigated the biting capabilities of extinct predatory marine reptiles, revealing how these formidable predators could coexist within the same ecosystem. This work sheds new light on
The Habitable Worlds Observatory will need astrometry to find life
We're getting closer and closer to finding a real Earth-like exoplanet. But finding one is only half the battle. To truly know if we're looking at an Earth analog somewhere else in the galaxy, we have to directly image it too. That's a job for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
3D root model captures mangroves' capacity to protect coastal communities from storm waves
Mangrove forests are natural wonders that protect coastal areas, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. They are able to dissipate wave energy and limit flooding, which can even mitigate tsunamis and coastal inundations during tropical cyclones. For this reason,
Small quantum system outperforms large classical networks in real-world forecasting
Can a handful of atoms outperform a much larger digital neural network on a real-world task? The answer may be yes. In a study published in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Prof. Peng Xinhua and Assoc. Prof. Li Zhaokai from the University of Science and Technology of
Inge Lehmann and Earth’s deepest Secret
Science writer Hanne Strager explores how the trailblazing Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann overcame self-doubt to discover that Earth has a solid inner core, overturning the long-held belief that it was liquid
NASA’s Artemis II astronauts may catch a comet—if it can survive the sun
Amid a journey of celestial spectacles, the Artemis II astronauts may spot a comet—if it survives a dash past the sun
The most pristine star yet found in the known universe
An unusual team of astronomers used Sloan Digital Sky Survey-V (SDSS-V) data and observations on the Magellan telescopes at Carnegie Science's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile to discover the most pristine star in the known universe, called SDSS J0715-7334. Their work is
Artemis II's moon-bound astronauts capture Earth's brilliant blue beauty as they leave it behind
The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet's brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.
Seed banks may complicate gene drives aimed at controlling weeds
Gene drives—a genetic engineering approach that quickly spreads specific genetic changes throughout a population, whether to kill it off or add a new trait—may have potential for controlling weeds. But so far, gene drives have primarily been studied in mosquitoes, and have yet
Earth from space: Eyes on our moon
In an unusual perspective for an Earth-observing satellite, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured this image of the moon, Earth's only natural satellite. The Sentinel-2 mission acquired this lunar image by rolling one of its satellites sideways to view the moon instead of
New Advances Bring the Era of Quantum Computers Closer Than Ever
Two research groups say they have significantly reduced the amount of qubits and time required to crack common online security technologies. The post New Advances Bring the Era of Quantum Computers Closer Than Ever first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Webb eyes a pair of planet-forming disks
This month's NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month offers us a two-for-one on brand new stars—with some potential planets thrown in as well. This visual highlights Webb's views of the protoplanetary disks Tau 042021 (left) and Oph 163131 (right),
Supreme Court ruling on ‘conversion therapy’ puts medical talk in the hot seat
In Chiles v. Salazar , the court ruled that a therapist has First Amendment protections. That could impact how talk therapy is regulated.
Scientists discover a 1,200-year-old Fijian island likely built from discarded shellfish remains
Located off the coast of Culasawani, in the Fiji archipelago, is an island that is made up of materials that might be part of someone's dinner. A recent study took a closer look at the 3,000-square-meter island and discovered that it is almost entirely made of edible shellfish
Nanotube injector transfers cytoplasmic contents and organelles between living cells safely
Cells are not isolated units; they continuously exchange proteins, genetic material, and even entire organelles with their neighbors. Intercellular transfer influences how tissues develop, respond to stress, and repair damage. In certain cancers, for example, tumor cells can
Domino polymerization provides a new route to versatile, degradable plastics
Plastic, once ingenious for its durability and versatility, has become a global environmental issue that is affecting every aspect of life. This, in turn, is fueling the development of degradable polymers as alternative solutions. Among contending the possibilities are
