https://www.sott.net/category/14-Science-Technology Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2026 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:20:56 +0000 https://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net https://www.sott.net https://www.sott.net/article/509288-A-new-mini-moon-for-Earth-Meet-2026-QQ8 Meet mini-moon 2026 QQ8 Earth's gravity has temporarily captured a mini-moon, named 2026 QQ8. On October 29, 2026, the Minor Planet Center reported that Krisztián Sárneczky had originally discovered the little space rock near Earth back on August 20, 2026. It seems this object entered orbit around our planet back in April. There's no need to worry about a collision: The closest that 2026 QQ8 will get to Earth is 0.0038 astronomical units (AU). That's about 1 and a half times farther than our actual moon is from us. The mini-moon is only about 3 feet (1 meter) in size, which wouldn't do much more than put on a fiery show if it impacted with Earth's atmosphere anyway. At first, there was debate over whether the object was of natural origin or a piece of junk, possibly from a rocket or old satellite. So astronomers took follow-up observations with the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope. With these additional observations, the Minor Planet... https://www.sott.net/article/509288-A-new-mini-moon-for-Earth-Meet-2026-QQ8 Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:19:07 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509286-Queens-University-Belfast-Students-Find-Neptunes-Elusive-Trojan-Asteroids An international team led by researchers at Queen's University Belfast has made a discovery that has eluded astronomers for decades. Beginning in 1906, telescope observations revealed a population of asteroids leading and trailing Jupiter, which came to be known as the "Trojan" and "Greek" populations. Since then, astronomers have discovered similar "families" orbiting Saturn and Uranus, but not Neptune. Thanks to the Queen's-led team, the mystery of the missing Trojans has now been resolved! As detailed in a paper that appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team found these distant icy bodies by analyzing data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the next-generation telescope perched high atop the Andes in Chile. Thanks to Rubin's sharp optics and ability to rapidly survey the night sky (the fastest of any ground-based telescope), the team identified two asteroids and a candidate as permanent members of Neptune's trailing Trojans. The team was led by Dr. Meg Schwamb, an... https://www.sott.net/article/509286-Queens-University-Belfast-Students-Find-Neptunes-Elusive-Trojan-Asteroids Wed, 04 Nov 2026 11:50:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509281-Jean-Baptiste-Lamarck-The-self-making-world Long mocked and misunderstood, Lamarck's radical idea that organisms shape themselves and their world is making a comeback The French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was 65 when his great treatise on the transformation of life was published. With Philosophie zoologique (1809), translated a century later as Zoological Philosophy, Lamarck intended to establish an entirely new science, one built on the idea that all living beings are constantly transforming themselves, from the tiniest microbes to the most complex mammals, gaining new forms and new abilities. It wasn't the bodily structures of organisms that determined their ways of life, Lamarck said, but just the opposite: their ways of life in response to their circumstances gave rise to their changing bodily forms. 'Can there be any consideration in natural history more important,' he demanded, 'or deserving of greater attention, than the one I have just set forth?' (My translation.) But if you've heard anything at all about... https://www.sott.net/article/509281-Jean-Baptiste-Lamarck-The-self-making-world Tue, 03 Nov 2026 22:41:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509252-New-research-resolves-the-mystery-behind-Van-Goghs-The-Starry-Night Starry Night, the iconic painting by legendary Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh, has inspired debate among art historians and astronomers for decades. Was the painting something that Van Gogh was spontaneously inspired to create in the early morning hours in July 1889, or did it present a realistic depiction of the night sky over Saint-Rémy (where he painted it)? According to a recent study conducted jointly by South Korean telescope manufacturer SLLAB and the School of Space Research at Kyung Hee University, it's the latter. For over a century and a half, scholars focused primarily on religious and symbolic interpretations of the painting. It was not until the mid-1980s that studies were presented that analyzed its astronomical aspects. These were conducted by UCLA art historian Albert Boime (1984) and Harvard astronomer Charles Whitney (1986), who examined celestial correspondences and proposed constellation identifications based on a mid-June date. However, the two reached... https://www.sott.net/article/509252-New-research-resolves-the-mystery-behind-Van-Goghs-The-Starry-Night Mon, 02 Nov 2026 15:45:47 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509242-New-Horizons-telescopes-map-of-empty-space-challenges-a-tranquil-picture-of-the-galaxy For decades, astronomers treated the interstellar medium as a static backdrop to the goings-on of the universe. Now, a wave of 3D mapping is bringing the interstellar medium's dynamic nature into focus. Introduction You might imagine space to be empty. But the seeming void contains a barely perceptible fog of hydrogen and other neutral atoms. In 2020, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, having passed the orbit of Pluto, measured a proxy for the amount of hydrogen around it. In the area between stars in our galaxy — the "interstellar medium," or ISM — New Horizons found around 130 hydrogen atoms per liter of space. This hydrogen, along with some helium and other molecules, is mostly left over from the Big Bang, and it's constantly supplemented by infusions from cosmic phenomena such as stars ejecting jets of gas and dust as they are born and shedding their outer layers as they die. Because the ISM is so diffuse and changes so slowly, astronomers have largely ignored its details for the... https://www.sott.net/article/509242-New-Horizons-telescopes-map-of-empty-space-challenges-a-tranquil-picture-of-the-galaxy Sun, 01 Nov 2026 21:21:09 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509236-Crows-can-make-decisions-based-on-visual-information-at-lightning-speedRoughly-twice-as-fast-as-humans-can-study-suggests Even though the brain structures of birds and mammals are different, a new study suggests that crows and primates have similar decision-making nerve cell circuitry Crows are famously intelligent animals; they use tools, host funerals and remember people's faces. Past research hints they can even count to four and understand basic geometry. Now, a new study suggests the jet-black birds can make decisions based on visual information incredibly fast — possibly at twice the speed of humans. The findings, described in the journal Science on October 22, can provide insights into crows' evolutionary history. Crow brains certainly move "in the fast lane," study co-author Andreas Nieder, an animal physiologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, tells the Transmitter's Sarah Thau. https://www.sott.net/article/509236-Crows-can-make-decisions-based-on-visual-information-at-lightning-speedRoughly-twice-as-fast-as-humans-can-study-suggests Sun, 01 Nov 2026 20:37:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509218-Possible-dwarf-planet-discovered-beyond-Pluto The icy object could join the solar system's recognized dwarf planets Astronomers have discovered a large icy object beyond Pluto that could qualify as a dwarf planet, potentially adding a new member to the solar system's officially recognized group. The discovery was announced on Thursday by the US-funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which houses the world's largest 3.2-gigapixel digital camera, built specifically for astronomy. Researchers estimate that the object, provisionally named 2026 ED138, is between 600 and 1,500 km in diameter and may be one of the largest dwarf planet candidates ever found. It currently sits roughly 46 times farther from the Sun than Earth. Pluto's average distance, for comparison, is about 40 times Earth's. The object likely escaped detection until now because it appeared against a crowded backdrop of millions of stars near the plane of the Milky Way. However, Rubin's repeated images and tracking software has now allowed scientists to pick out... https://www.sott.net/article/509218-Possible-dwarf-planet-discovered-beyond-Pluto Sat, 31 Oct 2026 20:45:30 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509214-Queens-astronomers-study-unveils-the-solar-systems-elusive-Neptune-Trojans Astronomers at Queen's University Belfast have led an international team studying new solar system bodies near Neptune, helping to unravel the mysteries of our solar system's evolution. Known as Neptune Trojans, these newly found icy small bodies are locked in the same orbit as the eighth planet. Neptune Trojans occupy stable regions known as Lagrange points, located 60 degrees ahead of and behind the planet, allowing them to travel safely along the same orbital path without being scattered away by the ice giant. As detailed in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team analysed data captured by one of the world's most powerful telescopes, confirming two bodies and identifying one candidate object as permanent members of Neptune's trailing Trojan swarm. Located high in the Chilean Andes, the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a brand-new facility that can scan the night sky faster than any other observatory of its kind. It is equipped with the world's largest digital camera,... https://www.sott.net/article/509214-Queens-astronomers-study-unveils-the-solar-systems-elusive-Neptune-Trojans Sat, 31 Oct 2026 17:50:29 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509207-Meteors-dont-just-burn-up-What-really-happens-is-far-more-violent Scientists have gained a clearer understanding of what happens when rocks from space plunge into Earth's atmosphere and survive the journey to the ground. After examining video recordings and photographs of 75 meteorite falls, researchers identified seven stages that describe how these objects transform into meteorites. Their analysis reveals that melting and breaking apart play a much greater role than previously believed in determining how much material a rock loses, how quickly it slows down, and where its fragments eventually land. The findings were published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science. "We used to think that solid rocks would evaporate from the enormous heat and brilliant light generated in the air collision," said meteor astronomer and lead author Dr. Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center. "We found instead that first melting and then fragmentation controls how a rock loses mass." The researchers determined that incoming... https://www.sott.net/article/509207-Meteors-dont-just-burn-up-What-really-happens-is-far-more-violent Fri, 30 Oct 2026 21:22:44 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509194-Spiders-spin-silk-dope-into-natures-toughest-material By probing its molecular structure, biologists are uncovering how a tangle of unstructured proteins turns into a strong, flexible fiber. Introduction A spider, when knocked off a wall, doesn't fall for long. Within milliseconds, it spins a soup of proteins into sturdy climbing gear. Using a thin, shimmering strand of silk, the spider hauls itself back up. The strand is tougher than Kevlar, the synthetic fiber in bike tires and bulletproof vests, and stronger than steel. It's flexible and biocompatible with human bodies. Scientists dream of making spider silk into high-performing materials for seat belts, helmets, naval materials, and even scaffolds to help repair brain cells. But attempts to make spider silk in the lab have fallen short because researchers don't know enough about how a spider spins "silk dope," a liquid blend of proteins, water, and salt, from its silk glands into a remarkable solid. Mapping out the molecular mechanisms behind the process is "really the holy grail"... https://www.sott.net/article/509194-Spiders-spin-silk-dope-into-natures-toughest-material Fri, 30 Oct 2026 15:59:02 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509186-Traction-A-world-with-friction-is-a-world-without-progress Tribologists study friction: what happens when things rub together. It's indispensable, from the wheel to the paths of stars In conversations, few words catch my attention faster than 'friction' - and especially talk of making things frictionless. From the workplace to grocery shopping, our societies seem to be striving to remove friction from everything. The motivation appears to be that decreasing resistance makes life easier and smoother. Having spent a career as a tribologist, studying friction, wear and lubrication scientifically, I have some opinions on this. I'll confess that, in most of my career, I too have sought to reduce friction, developing new materials, designs or even instrumentation in order to lower friction in a jet engine or reduce emissions from your car. However, I've also found myself trying to figure out how to increase friction to remove plaque on teeth. https://www.sott.net/article/509186-Traction-A-world-with-friction-is-a-world-without-progress Thu, 29 Oct 2026 21:42:02 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509184-2024-solar-storm-triggered-ultra-relativistic-electrons-inside-Earths-impenetrable-barrier The Earth is surrounded by an invisible barrier that was thought to prevent highly energetic electrons from reaching closer to our planet. But in 2024, Japan's Arase space probe detected these electrons well inside the barrier. Now, research led by Nagoya University has found evidence that the electrons were accelerated locally rather than infiltrating from outer radiation belts. The Earth's magnetic field traps energetic charged particles, namely protons and electrons, in two donut-shaped belts called the Van Allen radiation belts. These particles can potentially damage hardware and electronics in spacecraft flying through the belts. At the inner edge of the second Van Allen belt, at roughly 3 Earth-radii away from Earth's center, electrons with extremely high energies seem to hit an invisible, impenetrable wall. First discovered in 2014,the source of this barrier is not completely understood. One possibility is a phenomenon known as "plasmaspheric hiss": low frequency radio waves... https://www.sott.net/article/509184-2024-solar-storm-triggered-ultra-relativistic-electrons-inside-Earths-impenetrable-barrier Thu, 29 Oct 2026 21:14:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509179-Sound-levitated-particles-reveal-how-static-charge-builds-up When two objects touch and then separate, they can swap tiny amounts of electric charge, even if they are made from exactly the same material. This 'triboelectric effect' is the source of everyday static electricity, but it is still poorly understood in large samples of powder, where vast numbers of particles are constantly colliding with each other. Through new research published in Physical Review E, Tom O'Hara and colleagues at the University of Bristol have investigated the effect using acoustic levitation: using sound waves to trigger repeated collisions between pairs of particles. Their experiment shows for the first time how charge builds up on repeatedly colliding particles, before leveling off at a set limit. https://www.sott.net/article/509179-Sound-levitated-particles-reveal-how-static-charge-builds-up Thu, 29 Oct 2026 20:42:10 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509158-Astronomers-found-a-mysterious-object-beyond-Neptune The powerful Vera Rubin Observatory has spotted what seems to be a dwarf planet circling the sun in the frigid depths beyond Neptune. The icy object, known as 2026 ED138, is likely between 600 and 1500 kilometers (373 to 972 miles) wide, scientists say. It's therefore probably big enough to be sculpted into a sphere by its own gravity — a key characteristic that separates dwarf planets from asteroids and other small space rocks. And if 2026 ED138 is indeed a dwarf planet, that's a pretty big deal, as astronomers have confirmed just five of them to date: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. https://www.sott.net/article/509158-Astronomers-found-a-mysterious-object-beyond-Neptune Wed, 28 Oct 2026 19:01:09 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509147-Scientists-demonstrate-first-evidence-of-helicon-current-drive-bringing-continuous-fusion-power-closer-to-reality In a significant breakthrough, researchers in the United States have demonstrated a novel method of sustaining electrical currents in nuclear fusion experiments with the successful use of a "helicon current drive." The advancement could help overcome a major obstacle in the quest to develop reactors that can operate continuously, according to new findings that appeared in the journal Physical Review Letters. Achieved by a team of scientists at General Atomics in San Diego, the achievement relies on the use of powerful radio waves to drive electrical currents through extremely hot plasma, the electrically charged gas in which fusion reactions take place. https://www.sott.net/article/509147-Scientists-demonstrate-first-evidence-of-helicon-current-drive-bringing-continuous-fusion-power-closer-to-reality Wed, 28 Oct 2026 15:16:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509141-Russias-sci-fi-fortress-in-Antarctica-goes-viral The high-tech research base in the coldest place on Earth has drawn comparisons to Star Wars A video of Russia's revamped, futuristic-looking Vostok Station in Antarctica has gone viral, with its elevated complex drawing comparisons to a sci-fi spaceship and a video game fortress. Russia's only operational inland Antarctic research station, Vostok, is around 3,500 meters above sea level and 1,400-1,500 km from the coast, in the planet's notorious 'Pole of Cold'. It holds the world record for the lowest directly measured air temperature - a bone-chilling -89.2 C (-128.6 F), recorded on July 21, 1983. Footage posted on X on Saturday - which shows the station's exterior painted in blue and the colors of the Russian flag, almost entirely cloaked in snow and frost - received over a million views in just two days before spreading to Instagram and Facebook. https://www.sott.net/article/509141-Russias-sci-fi-fortress-in-Antarctica-goes-viral Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:23:59 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509132-Plasma-dynamics-show-how-instabilities-could-heat-the-suns-corona From its visible surface, the sun radiates heat at a relatively cool temperature of 5,800 Kelvin. Yet within the thin outer layer of the sun's atmosphere known as the corona, electrons can reach temperatures of millions of degrees, for reasons astronomers have yet to fully explain. Through new research published in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Wei Sun at the China Institute of Atomic Energy has recreated corona-like conditions in the lab. Their experiment shows how this dramatic heating could be driven by instabilities in the corona's plasma, which trigger tiny bursts of energy called 'nanoflares.' https://www.sott.net/article/509132-Plasma-dynamics-show-how-instabilities-could-heat-the-suns-corona Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:39:39 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509129-New-radio-images-reveal-disturbances-from-mysterious-Betelgeuse-companion The well-known star Betelgeuse has a mysterious houseguest — and it's shaking the rafters, rattling the pipes, and slamming the cupboards. (Metaphorically speaking.) It's causing enough subtle atmospheric disturbance that it might as well be making ghost noises. Who's to blame? New data suggests that its recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, is the one doing the haunting. Betelgeuse, the bright red supergiant marking the shoulder of Orion, has long captivated astronomers and skywatchers alike — never more so than in late 2019 and early 2020, when it dramatically dimmed to its faintest in more than a century of record-keeping. Now, a new study using the U.S. National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (NSF VLA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows that the star's extended atmosphere has largely recovered from that episode — and the same data reveal compelling new evidence that Betelgeuse's atmosphere is being actively perturbed... https://www.sott.net/article/509129-New-radio-images-reveal-disturbances-from-mysterious-Betelgeuse-companion Tue, 27 Oct 2026 17:24:25 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509121-Record-breaker-Astronomers-spot-powerful-cosmic-explosion-that-lasted-27-days "We don't know what the central engine driving this outburst is, and that's what makes this such a compelling event." Astronomers have spotted a remarkable gamma-ray burst (GRB) that's a real Incredible Hulk compared to other cosmic explosions of the same type. What makes this GRB so special is the fact that the central engine powering it remained active for around 27 days, flaring in X-rays following the initial blast. That's 20 days longer than the longest previous GRB on record. This record-breaking burst — which is designated GRB 220706A and was spotted on July 6, 2022 — is even more exciting because scientists don't know what the central engine powering it actually is. "In a nutshell, GRB 220706A is an extremely late X-ray flare. X-ray flaring is common following GRBs, but previously it has always come within the first few days after we detect the burst," study team member Benjamin Gompertz, of the University of Birmingham in England, told Space.com. "The fact that we see... https://www.sott.net/article/509121-Record-breaker-Astronomers-spot-powerful-cosmic-explosion-that-lasted-27-days Tue, 27 Oct 2026 05:20:15 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509095-Scientists-trap-and-tame-a-single-particle-of-antimatter-for-months Trapped positron sets stage for Standard Model's toughest test yet For the first time, Northwestern University physicists have coaxed a single positron — the antimatter counterpart of an electron — into an exquisitely controlled quantum state. After capturing the fast-moving particle from radioactive decay, the scientists cooled it to nearly absolute zero. Then, they suspended the particle in a near-perfect vacuum, preventing it from touching ordinary matter — an encounter that would cause it to vanish. By trapping and cooling a positron this way, the scientists created what they call a "one-positron quantum cyclotron." In this state, the positron essentially behaves much like an artificial atom with quantum energy levels scientists can precisely control and observe. https://www.sott.net/article/509095-Scientists-trap-and-tame-a-single-particle-of-antimatter-for-months Sun, 25 Oct 2026 18:33:32 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509074-Star-and-moon-pattern-in-famous-Van-Gogh-work-helps-solve-a-century-old-debate In 1889, Vincent van Gogh watched the sky before sunrise from his room at an asylum in Saint-Rémy, southern France. In a letter to his brother Theo, he recalled seeing only the morning star above the countryside before dawn, noting how large it appeared. In The Starry Night, painted that year, blue swirls sweep above a small village. A tall cypress rises on the left, while rings of yellow light surround the stars and crescent Moon. According to New York's Museum of Modern Art, the painting drew inspiration from his window view. The village came from other views, however, and the cypress was brought closer. The museum identifies the bright light left of center as Venus, the morning star. Researchers in South Korea wanted to investigate how closely the arrangement of celestial objects reflected something Van Gogh had actually seen. https://www.sott.net/article/509074-Star-and-moon-pattern-in-famous-Van-Gogh-work-helps-solve-a-century-old-debate Sat, 24 Oct 2026 16:26:33 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509065-NIH-Funded-Mad-Scientists-Have-Created-a-Humanoid-Robot-Controlled-by-Living-Human-Brain-Tissue In a disturbing new study, mad scientists supported by NIH funding grew human brain organoids from embryonic stem cells and connected them to a humanoid robot, allowing living human neurons to process sensory information and help guide its physical movements. They call the monstrosity "Brainobot." https://www.sott.net/article/509065-NIH-Funded-Mad-Scientists-Have-Created-a-Humanoid-Robot-Controlled-by-Living-Human-Brain-Tissue Fri, 23 Oct 2026 21:08:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509055-Plasma-dynamics-curtain-like-plasma-structures-explain-solar-jets-apparent-spinning-in-simulations An international team of scientists from the University of Sheffield and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, led by a postdoctoral research fellow from the University of Newcastle, Australia, has discovered that solar jets called spicules, which are 6-8 Mm long, take the form of warped, denser plasma sheets like pleated drapery. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal. These spicules have usually been interpreted as spike-like or cylindrical structures from two-dimensional plane-of-the-sky observations. In contrast, this work reveals that plasma jets exhibit a pleated, three-dimensional, curtain-like morphology composed of dense plasma structures, and that the observed rotational motion is the result of the two-dimensional projection of more complicated dynamics in the plane of the sky. At any given moment, hundreds of thousands or even millions of spicules populate the region between the visible solar surface, called the photosphere, and the million-degree solar... https://www.sott.net/article/509055-Plasma-dynamics-curtain-like-plasma-structures-explain-solar-jets-apparent-spinning-in-simulations Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:57:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509053-Scientists-discover-dangerous-water-oscillations-between-Lake-Varna-and-Black-Sea For years, pilots have observed strong and unusual currents in the 2.4-kilometer-long (1.5-mile-long), 300-meter-wide (984-foot-wide) canal connecting Lake Varna with the Black Sea. Maarja Kruusmaa, an academician and professor at Tallinn University of Technology, and researcher Laura Piho, working with the Port of Varna, undertook detailed measurements to determine the causes of the phenomenon. https://www.sott.net/article/509053-Scientists-discover-dangerous-water-oscillations-between-Lake-Varna-and-Black-Sea Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:38:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509052-Earths-hemispheres-may-have-worked-together-to-drive-past-ice-ages New research from the University of St Andrews has uncovered a previously unknown process that may have helped drive Earth into past ice ages. Published today (Oct. 22) in the Journal of Climate, the paper links ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere to changes in ocean circulation and sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere understood to drive down atmospheric CO₂. Linking these two key features of the ice ages has long been a challenge, given how far apart the two regions are. Earth was mainly driven into ice ages by more CO₂ being stored in the ocean, a process largely driven by changes in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. Yet how the initial growth of large ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere (brought about by natural cycles in Earth's orbit) then led to changes in the far-flung Southern Ocean that led to CO₂ drawdown was unknown. This new paper proposes that once northern ice sheets start growing, they cool nearby North Atlantic waters, which eventually circulate all the way... https://www.sott.net/article/509052-Earths-hemispheres-may-have-worked-together-to-drive-past-ice-ages Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:30:54 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509046-National-University-of-Singapores-researchers-thread-the-worlds-first-touchscreen-into-a-garment Researchers at the National University of Singapore's College of Design and Engineering (CDE) have developed a fibre that functions as pixels and senses touch at the same time, integrating 54 of them into a sleeve to create the world's first touchscreen built into a garment. The sleeve displays images and video, responds to finger presses and connects wirelessly to other devices, yet stays as washable, breathable and flexible as ordinary clothing. The team's invention enables the creation of garments that act as a direct interface to a wearer's health data and their digital devices, with no rigid screen involved. The screens that we are familiar with, such as those on phones and laptops, typically present graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on flat, rigid panels that display information and enable interaction. Textiles, woven from one-dimensional fibres, have never matched this capability. A full-colour, touch-sensitive display that can be threaded like yarn was, until now, out of... https://www.sott.net/article/509046-National-University-of-Singapores-researchers-thread-the-worlds-first-touchscreen-into-a-garment Fri, 23 Oct 2026 17:26:40 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/509017-The-Russian-Woodpecker-The-Soviet-Signal-That-Could-Be-Heard-on-the-Radio During the 1970's and 1980's, anyone who owned a shortwave or ham radio would have been very familiar with a sharp, repetitive "rat tat tat tat" noise. This interference permeated the airwaves and disrupted over air communications and television signals all over the world. This characteristic tapping sound gave the device(s) its now-famous nickname "The Russian Woodpecker" aka the Duga Radar system. https://www.sott.net/article/509017-The-Russian-Woodpecker-The-Soviet-Signal-That-Could-Be-Heard-on-the-Radio Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:39:14 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508990-Euclid-space-telescope-discovers-new-comet The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet, in images taken between 16 and 24 September 2026. The discovery [1] is impressive for a mission that is designed to take deep, steady images of distant galaxies - not for following fast-moving Solar System objects like comets [2]. Furthermore, the quick turnaround between identifying and validation proves the case that Euclid can detect new comets while they are still relatively far from the Sun, potentially leading to a suitable target for ESA's future Comet Interceptor mission. Mikko Pöntinen of the University of Helsinki [3], together with the Solar System Objects Science Working Group of the Euclid Consortium, made the initial discovery using moving object detection software that Mikko developed to monitor small Solar System objects in Euclid's images: "I was excited to see my software flag a 'streak' smeared across several images - the result of a fast-moving object. By... https://www.sott.net/article/508990-Euclid-space-telescope-discovers-new-comet Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:56:10 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508989-Earths-core-may-have-been-leaking-hydrogen-for-billions-of-years When Earth formed billions of years ago, its metallic core was wrapped in a global ocean of molten rock, which eventually cooled and crystallized to form the mantle. Today, when deep-rooted mantle plumes rise toward the surface and produce volcanic eruptions, the resulting lava can contain hydrogen from deep inside the planet. Hydrogen comes in two stable forms, standard light hydrogen and a heavier version called deuterium. While most volcanic rocks have relatively normal hydrogen isotope ratios, some lavas associated with deep mantle plumes contain an unusually low proportion of deuterium. That rare mix has provoked a major debate: Did this low-deuterium signature form long ago as the early magma ocean froze, or does it come from hydrogen leaking out of Earth's metallic core? https://www.sott.net/article/508989-Earths-core-may-have-been-leaking-hydrogen-for-billions-of-years Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:46:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508981-Space-warfare-in-your-own-eyepiece The Pentagon isn't commenting, and Russia has said nothing. But something is definitely happening in low Earth orbit. Over the weekend, a Russian military satellite, Cosmos 2612, paid a visit to ICEYE-X36, a radar satellite that supplies imagery to Ukraine. The two came within a few hundred meters of each other, according to orbital data published by the US Space Force. https://www.sott.net/article/508981-Space-warfare-in-your-own-eyepiece Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:55:52 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508974-New-fusion-strategy-flips-the-script-to-reach-ignition-Heat-first-compress-later A new fusion model finds just one part tungsten in 10,000 can roughly double the pressure required for ignition. A tiny amount of tungsten inside fusion plasma could roughly double the pressure needed to achieve ignition, according to a new theoretical model from the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The researchers found that tungsten at a concentration of just one part in 10,000 can significantly raise the conditions required for a plasma to sustain fusion reactions without continued external heating. The study updates the Lawson criterion, a roughly 70-year-old benchmark used to determine whether a fusion plasma is hot and dense enough, for long enough, to reach ignition. The researchers incorporated several real-world effects that the original idealized criterion does not capture. Their calculations also point to a potentially more energy-efficient route toward ignition. Instead of first increasing plasma density and then heating it, the... https://www.sott.net/article/508974-New-fusion-strategy-flips-the-script-to-reach-ignition-Heat-first-compress-later Sun, 18 Oct 2026 21:13:31 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508970-Wishful-thinking-Simulations-explore-nuclear-mitigation-of-asteroid-threats Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. The work, published recently in The Planetary Science Journal, uses LLNL's Spheral simulation code to more accurately model how an asteroid might respond when X-rays from a nuclear device detonated near its surface rapidly heat and vaporize material. After validating the approach against established asteroid-deflection models, researchers used Spheral to study three complex disruption scenarios. Unlike many natural disasters, a hazardous asteroid impact could potentially be prevented if the object is detected early enough. One approach is deflection — imparting a small change in velocity that causes the asteroid to miss Earth while largely remaining intact. Another approach is disruption, in which an asteroid is intentionally fragmented and dispersed so that no remaining... https://www.sott.net/article/508970-Wishful-thinking-Simulations-explore-nuclear-mitigation-of-asteroid-threats Sun, 18 Oct 2026 18:38:06 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508944-Worst-idea-Space-mirror-dress-rehearsal This week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported an unusual event in the Eastern Sierra foothills near Lone Pine, California. After sunset on Saturday, Oct. 10th, two incredibly bright beams of light lanced down from the mountains near Mt. Whitney, flooding the desert floor with light. https://www.sott.net/article/508944-Worst-idea-Space-mirror-dress-rehearsal Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:55:19 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508943-A-little-bit-too-late-Fraudulent-paper-mills-manipulating-scientific-citations-and-amplifying-unreliable-findings The likely manipulation of citation numbers by research paper mills in high-impact cancer journals has been uncovered by an international team of academic researchers. Their findings point to an organized campaign to inflate citations on paper mill-produced journal articles published in established molecular oncology journals. The study, "Suspected distortion of citations in high-impact cancer journals," is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Corresponding author and statistician Adrian Barnett, a professor at QUT's Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation and School of Public Health and Social Work, said the researchers had documented a pattern that suggested widespread, coordinated manipulation of citation counts by paper mills. "Artificially high citation rates can inflate journal impact factors, amplify unreliable findings and slow scientific progress," Barnett said. https://www.sott.net/article/508943-A-little-bit-too-late-Fraudulent-paper-mills-manipulating-scientific-citations-and-amplifying-unreliable-findings Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:49:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508940-Supercooled-clouds-over-the-highest-mountains-respond-differently-to-climate-change Most studies of how clouds are responding to climate change focus on clouds over the oceans, rather than over mountains. Those that do focus on mountain clouds tend to explore cloud microphysics rather than long-term trends in cloud phase. But understanding cloud behavior over regions such as the Tibetan Plateau, which supplies water to hundreds of millions of people, is critical — especially as diminishing snowpack and altered precipitation patterns threaten this critical water source. Zhang and team fill this knowledge gap by studying long-term changes in cloud phases in the world's mountainous regions. Using satellite observations and climate data from 2003 to 2022, they analyzed cloud fraction, cloud top temperature and cloud height over the Tibetan Plateau, the European Alps, the Andes, the Appalachians and the Rockies and their adjacent lowlands. The findings are published in the journal AGU Advances. https://www.sott.net/article/508940-Supercooled-clouds-over-the-highest-mountains-respond-differently-to-climate-change Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:22:46 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508939-White-Sands-footprints-suggest-humans-experienced-abrupt-environmental-shifts-during-the-last-ice-age-within-their-lifetimes Expanded excavations at White Sands National Park in New Mexico have provided researchers an opportunity to refine the age of the oldest human footprints in North America and establish a deeper understanding of the landscape and environmental conditions at the time humans were present there. The new study, published in Science Advances by a team of researchers including the University of Arizona, the United States Geological Survey and other partners, reveals a dynamic environment indicating the humans who left their tracks along an ancient lakeshore experienced abrupt changes in temperature and water availability within their lifetimes. The research team previously discovered and confirmed the White Sands human footprints to be the oldest evidence of human presence in North America, placing people on the continent thousands of years earlier than once thought. https://www.sott.net/article/508939-White-Sands-footprints-suggest-humans-experienced-abrupt-environmental-shifts-during-the-last-ice-age-within-their-lifetimes Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:15:57 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508938-Predicting-when-uncontrolled-satellites-and-rocket-stages-fall-to-Earth On May 10, 2025, a spacecraft built in the Soviet Union to land on Venus came home. Launched in 1972, Cosmos-482 was stranded by a failed upper stage of its rocket and circled Earth for 53 years. In its last days, several space agencies and research groups forecasted when it would fall, and therefore where. Roscosmos later reported that it came down in the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta. Cosmos-482 is not alone. By the end of 2025, low Earth orbit held 25,060 cataloged objects, nearly twice as many as a decade earlier, according to the European Space Agency. Many old satellites and spent rocket stages will one day fall back without control and may come down anywhere on Earth. Comment: And why are satellites out of control and falling? The question no one is allowed to ask... Notice how they fail to mention the U.S. spy satellite explosion. Nor the Chinese one for that matter. UNEXPECTED SATELLITE EXPLOSION: A Cold War spy satellite just broke apart in Earth orbit, and no one knows... https://www.sott.net/article/508938-Predicting-when-uncontrolled-satellites-and-rocket-stages-fall-to-Earth Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:06:35 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508907-One-of-Americas-biggest-meteor-craters-is-100-million-years-younger-than-we-thought-and-coincided-with-a-global-extinction-event Analysis of tiny zircon crystals buried within the 10-mile-wide Ames crater in northwest Oklahoma suggests that the submerged structure dates back to 370 million years ago, during the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction event. One of America's largest meteor craters is around 100 million years younger than scientists thought, which means the ancient impact coincided with — and potentially contributed to — one of the biggest global extinction events in Earth's history, according to a new study. The underground impact structure, known as Ames crater, is located in northern Oklahoma and is named after a small town that sits above the submerged crater. At around 10 miles (16 kilometers) wide, it is the fourth-largest impact structure in the U.S. Ames crater was created when an Eiffel Tower-size space rock slammed into our planet at more than 70,000 mph (110,000 km/h). At the time, the region was covered in a shallow ocean, and the crater was subsequently buried beneath layers of... https://www.sott.net/article/508907-One-of-Americas-biggest-meteor-craters-is-100-million-years-younger-than-we-thought-and-coincided-with-a-global-extinction-event Wed, 14 Oct 2026 23:07:22 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508890-Structure-in-the-unstructured-New-phenomenon-discovered-in-the-solar-wind Turbulence is ubiquitous and occurs every day, such as when milk is stirred into coffee or in the stormy motions of the ocean and the atmosphere. Media in space and astrophysical systems can also develop turbulence, but the physics is different because the medium is in an ionized state (known as the plasma state) and the flow motion is strongly coupled to electromagnetic fields. Furthermore, space plasma is collisionless because the medium is so dilute that the particles do not collide with each other. How does plasma develop into turbulence? How is the fluctuation energy distributed in collisionless turbulence? Turbulence in space plasma remains a mystery in physics. An international research team from the Technische Universität Braunschweig and the University of Tokyo, in cooperation with Tohoku University, Kyushu University, Osaka University and multinational research institutes, has demonstrated, for the first time, a reversal phenomenon of magnetic field rotation in space... https://www.sott.net/article/508890-Structure-in-the-unstructured-New-phenomenon-discovered-in-the-solar-wind Wed, 14 Oct 2026 10:52:16 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508889-Vera-Rubin-Observatory-spots-the-largest-ultra-fast-spinning-asteroid-yet The speed of an asteroid's spin can tell astronomers a surprising amount about what it is made of. However, existing approaches to measuring spin based on telescope observations can often produce misleading estimates. Now, a team led by Dmitrii Vavilov at the University of Washington has developed new software that automatically weeds out unreliable measurements. Their updated approach revealed an asteroid more than 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) across that completes a full rotation in just over four minutes — making it the largest known ultra-fast-spinning asteroid. Their research has been posted to the arXiv preprint server. https://www.sott.net/article/508889-Vera-Rubin-Observatory-spots-the-largest-ultra-fast-spinning-asteroid-yet Wed, 14 Oct 2026 10:06:24 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508855-Water-on-the-Moon-behaves-differently-than-expected-and-that-could-reshape-how-astronauts-grow-food New research shows that lunar gravity changes how water flows, raising fresh challenges for anyone hoping to grow plants on the Moon. Water may be far harder to control on the Moon than future settlers can afford to ignore. Based on an experiment involving Florida Institute of Technology, 4SPACE LLC, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and NASA Ames Research Center, shows that reduced lunar gravity changes the way liquids move, with surface tension playing a much stronger role than it does on Earth. The findings could directly influence how engineers design irrigation systems for future lunar habitats, where growing plants may eventually become part of the life-support infrastructure. Why Lunar Gravity Changes The Rules For Water On Earth, gravity does much of the work of pulling water downward through pipes, soil and irrigation systems. On the Moon, where surface gravity is only about one-sixth of Earth's, that balance changes dramatically. The study, titled Assessing Water... https://www.sott.net/article/508855-Water-on-the-Moon-behaves-differently-than-expected-and-that-could-reshape-how-astronauts-grow-food Mon, 12 Oct 2026 19:21:52 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508832-Cosmic-amnesia-Black-holes-ring-like-bells-What-happens-next-is-stranger A black hole rings like a struck bell, then settles into silence, forgetting almost everything about its history. Why? It is 9 am on a warm July Sunday in Cambridge, as I head towards a café in the city centre. The bells of Great St Mary's church play the familiar melody of the Cambridge Quarters. The sound, now often associated with the chimes of Big Ben in London, was first composed here in 1793. The quarters, named for the melody at each quarter-hour, are an immediately recognisable reminder of the passage of time. Each bell produces a note: a wave with a characteristic frequency that travels through the air and reaches our ears. A hammer strikes the bell, and it oscillates, pushing air molecules back and forth. Those jostling molecules reach our ears and we hear a musical note. Then the bell settles, gives up its energy, and returns to silence. My research here at the University of Cambridge often brings me back to the ringing of a bell. I don't study the physics of sound, but... https://www.sott.net/article/508832-Cosmic-amnesia-Black-holes-ring-like-bells-What-happens-next-is-stranger Sat, 10 Oct 2026 22:51:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508831-The-year-every-oak-drops-its-acorns-at-once Some years, an oak drops a handful of acorns. Other years it drops thousands, and so does every other oak for hundreds of miles. Acorns bounce off car roofs at night. Sidewalks turn into ball bearings. Squirrels look overwhelmed. Then the next fall, almost nothing. If your street is suddenly paved in acorns this week, you might be standing in a mast year! A word that meant pig food Mast is an old word for the nuts and acorns that pile up on the forest floor, the stuff farmers used to turn their pigs loose to eat in the fall. A mast year is a year when there is a ridiculous amount of it. The odd part is how rarely it happens. Walt Koenig has been counting acorns on the same California oaks for decades. Of the 42 years he tracked, only three were true mast years, and more than half were poor. Most of the time, the oaks are holding out. https://www.sott.net/article/508831-The-year-every-oak-drops-its-acorns-at-once Sat, 10 Oct 2026 21:40:16 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508826-Can-artificial-intelligence-solve-Hayeks-knowledge-problem Artificial intelligence has revived an old question in economics: if computers can process enormous quantities of information, could they eventually overcome the informational difficulties that make central economic planning impossible? Modern AI systems can analyze data at a scale no individual human being could approach. They can process prices, production statistics, consumer behavior, inventories, transportation data, and countless other variables. It is therefore tempting to argue that the traditional Austrian criticism of central planning may eventually become obsolete. Perhaps the problem was never centralization itself, but simply insufficient computing power. This argument, however, misunderstands the nature of the knowledge problem. In his famous essay "The Use of Knowledge in Society," Friedrich Hayek argued that the knowledge required to coordinate an economy is dispersed among millions of individuals. Much of this knowledge is local, contextual, temporary, and... https://www.sott.net/article/508826-Can-artificial-intelligence-solve-Hayeks-knowledge-problem Sat, 10 Oct 2026 20:13:07 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508815-Science-begins-for-Smile On 23 September, the European-Chinese Smile mission was declared ready to start revealing how Earth responds to the wind of charged particles from the Sun. This follows a busy in-space commissioning period since the spacecraft launched on 19 May and reached its target orbit for science operations on 20 June. A spacecraft never quite behaves the same in space as it does on the ground. Between 20 June and now, European and Chinese teams have been getting Smile ready - including deploying mechanisms, switching on units, checking all communications between the spacecraft and the ground, and fixing any issues that came up. https://www.sott.net/article/508815-Science-begins-for-Smile Fri, 09 Oct 2026 20:40:11 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508805-Cool-chemistry-trick-allows-new-tattoos-to-turn-on-and-off Researchers created multicolored tattoo inks that are activated by different wavelengths of light, allowing people to hide their tattoos in different scenarios. Researchers have developed a new type of tattoo ink that can be switched on and off with light, allowing colors and images embedded in the skin to be changed and even "erased" without having to go through the painful tattoo-removal process. The system, which is being commercialized under the name PhotoTat, could eventually give people a way to conceal or change permanent body art. It could also have more practical applications, including medical tattoos that are visible only when a doctor needs to see them, researchers reported in a study published Friday (Oct. 9) in the journal Matter & Light. "This is a tattoo that you can have, and whenever you decide you don't want it to be showing anymore, or you just don't want it there, you just turn it off," said study co-author Carson Bruns, an associate professor of biomedical... https://www.sott.net/article/508805-Cool-chemistry-trick-allows-new-tattoos-to-turn-on-and-off Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:28:09 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508783-DNA-puts-humans-in-the-Americas-at-the-height-of-the-Last-Ice-Age-but-the-debate-isnt-over The analysis points to a timestamp of no earlier than 21,000 years ago, but the data leaves a lot more to be desired. Compared to the rest of the world, the American continent welcomed its first humans relatively later. You'd think that this (relative) proximity to modern times should make it easier to study — but reality isn't so straightforward, it seems. At least, that's one takeaway from a recent review of genomic research on the arrival of humans in the Americas based on a collection of relevant papers and datasets. From the analysis, the University of Kansas (KU) researchers outlined three migration models for when humans started to occupy the American continent: before, during, or after the last glacial maximum, or LGM (which the authors date to between 25,000 and 14,000 years ago, though it is commonly dated to about 26,000 and 19,000 years ago). The evidence pointed to human arrival no earlier than 21,000 years ago — at the height of the last ice age — although... https://www.sott.net/article/508783-DNA-puts-humans-in-the-Americas-at-the-height-of-the-Last-Ice-Age-but-the-debate-isnt-over Thu, 08 Oct 2026 17:29:21 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508782-150-years-apart-New-Swedish-evidence-challenges-a-volcanic-explanation-for-the-Younger-Dryas A newly published core from southern Sweden separates the Laacher See eruption from a distinct platinum- and microspherule-rich Younger Dryas Boundary fallout layer. Sometimes the most useful contribution to a scientific argument is a piece of mud that keeps its events in order. Christopher R. Moore and colleagues have produced just such a record from Körslättamossen, a fen in southernmost Sweden. Their new paper, published September 30 in ScienceOpen Research, places the ash from the Laacher See eruption below a separate layer rich in platinum-group elements, microspherules, and high-temperature melt products. The sedimentary change associated with cooler, wetter Younger Dryas conditions follows above. For anyone tempted to sweep the Younger Dryas Boundary evidence into the volcanic dustbin, this is an awkward arrangement. The volcano is below. The fallout layer is above. The Younger Dryas climate shift comes next. Flip through the full paper The complete 20-page published paper... https://www.sott.net/article/508782-150-years-apart-New-Swedish-evidence-challenges-a-volcanic-explanation-for-the-Younger-Dryas Thu, 08 Oct 2026 17:16:17 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508765-Rosalind-Franklin-knew-about-DNAs-helical-structure-ahead-of-Watson-and-Crick-a-new-study-of-her-photos-and-notes-reveals Rosalind Franklin, whose photographs of the molecular structure of DNA led to a 1962 Nobel Prize for three other scientists, knew that her famous images held the secret of the double helix, new research suggests. An examination of archival material reveals that Franklin's Photograph 51, which was taken in May 1952 and later published to show the double-helix structure, was specifically taken for the purpose of publication — not, as some narratives have held, an experimental shot that Franklin believed was insignificant. The new research revealed that Photograph 51 was a new exposure of a sample Franklin had already photographed. She started Photograph 51 the same day she saw that photograph, Photograph 49. "She took it because she wanted to get a really refined version," said study co-author Alistair Sponsel, a historian of science at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. Making the effort to take a better photograph of the same sample is "a sign she knew she had something... https://www.sott.net/article/508765-Rosalind-Franklin-knew-about-DNAs-helical-structure-ahead-of-Watson-and-Crick-a-new-study-of-her-photos-and-notes-reveals Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:55:26 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508763-A-gamma-ray-burst-with-a-month-long-engine-and-a-luminous-supernova Astronomers have observed the longest-lasting central engine activity ever recorded from a gamma-ray burst. The burst occurred at a redshift of 0.8577, and the activity lasted about 27 days in the burst's own rest frame — around 20 days longer than the previous record. The paper, posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 18, explores different mechanisms that could be powering this puzzling burst. Rare, long bursts Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most energetic explosions in the universe, typically linked to the collapse of massive stars into black holes (producing long-duration GRBs, often with an accompanying supernova) or the merger of neutron stars (producing short-duration GRBs). Ultra-long GRBs are a rare subclass of gamma-ray bursts in which the object driving or powering the explosion stays active longer than in typical bursts. Only a handful of confirmed examples exist, and their cause remains debated. Understanding what powers these rare ultra-long bursts helps... https://www.sott.net/article/508763-A-gamma-ray-burst-with-a-month-long-engine-and-a-luminous-supernova Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:18:15 +0000