Innovations

One of the scrolls carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

You Could Win $1 Million by Deciphering These Ancient Roman Scrolls

The Herculaneum scrolls have remained unreadable since their discovery in 1750, but researchers hope to change that

Google Bard is currently limited to some users ages 18 and up.

Google Launches A.I. Chatbot—How Does it Compare to ChatGPT and Bing?

Bard might give incorrect answers, but it "doesn't go off the rails"

A halved slice of edible 3D-printed cake.

Scientists 3D Printed a Slice of Cake

The seven-ingredient recipe shows potential for the future of making food with this technology, researchers say

Magnets can levitate over superconductors, which expel a magnetic field.

This Breakthrough Could Make Longer-Lasting Batteries and Better Power Grids—if It Works

A new superconductor could revolutionize energy, but doubts surround the researchers, who published a similar paper in 2020 that was later retracted

Keanu Reeves at a screening of "John Wick: Chapter 4" on March 6. Scientists named a fungus-killing compound after him because of they way his on-screen characters, like John Wick, can defeat their enemies.

Scientists Name New Fungus-Killing Compounds After Keanu Reeves

The bacteria are highly effective against a common plant pest and a pathogen that infects humans

The top row shows the actual images participants looked at, while the bottom row shows an A.I. recreation of each image based on the participant's brain scans.

This A.I. Used Brain Scans to Recreate Images People Saw

The technology, which was tested with four people, is still in its infancy but could one day help people communicate or decode dreams, researchers say

Living Carbon's modified trees on the left next to unmodified trees on the right.

Genetically Modified Trees Are Taking Root to Capture Carbon

A start-up created the plants to help combat the climate crisis, but they have so far only been tested in a lab setting

Aerial view of Apple's California headquarters

How California Took Over the World

A sweeping book offers a provocative new history arguing that today's inequality can be traced back to the state's founding

Researchers use a hot water drill on Thwaites Glacier, which two new studies show is melting in an unexpected manner.

A Rare Look Below the 'Doomsday Glacier' Reveals Surprising Melting

Researchers sent a robot through 2,000 feet of ice to study the quickly receding ice shelf

Whales are tricky to see from a satellite. Belugas, with their light skin standing out against the water, are a bit easier to spot.

Can Satellites Really Detect Whales From Space?

Distant identification of whales is improving rapidly, but finding the behemoth creatures is still surprisingly tricky

The moon contains lots of dust, which scientists say could help block some sunlight from reaching Earth, cooling the planet.

Launching Dust From the Moon Could Help Cool Earth, Scientists Say

Proposals to fight climate change by blocking sunlight aren’t new, but some experts argue the answer lies closer to home

Artist's concept of a spacecraft that will test a nuclear thermal rocket engine.

Nuclear-Powered Rockets Might One Day Carry Astronauts to Mars

NASA and DARPA are building a nuclear thermal rocket engine that could slash the time it would take to reach the Red Planet

Part of the set-up for the experiment: ordinary ice and steel balls placed in a jar

Scientists Have Created a New Type of Ice

It looks like a white powder and has nearly the same density as liquid water

The dodo, now extinct, weighed about 50 pounds, had blue and grey feathers and couldn't fly.

This Company Wants to Bring the Dodo Back From Extinction

Colossal Biosciences plans to de-extinct the dodo, but some scientists question whether it’s ethical—or even plausible

Researchers have been studying the 37-inch-long de Brécy Tondo for decades.

Art Meets Science

Artificial Intelligence Identifies Long-Overlooked Raphael Masterpiece

A facial recognition analysis found that the faces in a mysterious painting are virtually identical to those in the artist's "Sistine Madonna"

A person-shaped robot liquifies to escape a cage, then cools back into its original shape in a mold placed in the ground outside the bars.

This Shape-Shifting Robot Can Liquefy Itself and Reform

The technology could one day assemble and repair hard-to-reach circuits, act as a universal screw or retrieve foreign objects from a body, researchers say

Concept art for the final form of NASA's experimental X-57 Maxwell electric plane. The plane is not expected to ever reach this phase, as the program's time and funds are running out.

NASA’s Electric Plane Will Take Flight This Year—but Its Future Is Uncertain

The X-57 Maxwell has removed some barriers to electric flight, but its funding expires soon

Onlookers attending the touring exhibition Save Ukr(AI)ne, which featured A.I.-generated images based on stories of children displaced by the war in Ukraine, in September 2022

Art Meets Science

Are A.I. Image Generators Violating Copyright Laws?

Two new lawsuits argue that tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are infringing on artists' rights

Lightning rods can protect from lightning strikes, but they can only shield nearby areas.

Scientists Guide Lightning Bolts With Lasers for the First Time

The technology could one day protect wider areas than metal lightning rods do, perhaps shielding airports and launchpads during storms

Teachers have cited concerns about students trying to pass off AI-written essays as their own work.

Student Creates App to Detect Essays Written by AI

In response to the text-generating bot ChatGPT, the new tool measures sentence complexity and variation to predict whether an author was human

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