Headlines

Galaxy mergers aren't always obvious

The galaxy Centaurus A is about 11 million light-years away and is the fifth-brightest galaxy in the sky. Because it's so bright, it's been studied extensively by amateur and professional astronomers alike. Also called NGC 5128, it's a starburst galaxy, meaning it's forming

Weak connection: Why influencers sometimes fail to influence

Conventional wisdom holds that targeting the best-connected individuals in a social network is an effective way to nudge a wider group of people to change their behavior. For example, public health officials launching a campaign to improve nutrition might target a community's

Incredible new material makes heat programmable

A newly developed material can control and "program" heat, allowing it to direct thermal radiation, switch modes, and remember its settings without continuous power. The innovation could lead to smarter infrared sensors, better energy technologies, and memory devices that use

The Loving Embrace of the Milky Way

Researchers have discovered that our galaxy’s outermost spiral arms are wide open and farther away than we thought The post The Loving Embrace of the Milky Way appeared first on Nautilus .

Mating strategies shape tropical plants' invasive ability

A recent study from the Center for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has found strong evidence that a plant's ability to reproduce on its own—through self-fertilization—is one of the key traits that helps it become invasive. The findings are

Does time come from the entire universe running computations?

Explaining the passage of time has been a gnarly problem in physics basically forever, but physicist and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram has a radical proposal for where it comes from. He discussed his ideas on time – and what they mean for free will – with reporter Leah Crane