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Technology

Researchers tested the battery in an RFID tag that can be rolled up in a capsule and swallowed. It can then transmit information about the digestive tract to a reader outside the body.

Scientists Invent a Digestible, Paper-Based Battery That Can Power Swallowed or Implanted Medical Devices

So far, the technology has been tested only in pigs. If it’s successful in humans, it could one day power tools that monitor your health or deliver drugs or electrical currents inside the body

In the lab, archaeologists showed how they could rapidly produce thick rope by threading cattail fibers through a replica of a Stone Age tool.

Archaeologists Are Reconstructing the ‘Invisible’ Technologies of the Stone Age, From Rope to Thread and Twine

Largely missing from the archaeological record, fiber innovations played a huge role in the lives of early humans. Researchers are weaving together new insights from the traces they left behind

The Navier-Stokes problem concerns equations of fluid motion, illustrated here as dye moving in liquid.

A.I. May Have Solved a Longstanding Math Problem With a Million-Dollar Prize. It Ignited a Controversy Over Who Gets Credit

OpenAI announced a solution to the Navier-Stokes problem. But could its A.I. models have used data from two mathematicians working on a similar breakthrough?

GLP-1 drugs, medications that are self-injected to support weight loss and lower blood sugar, helped peptides become mainstream.

Peptides Are All the Rage, Promising Miracle Cures and Makeovers Delivered by Injection. How Did We Get Here?

Experts say the peptide craze is part of a broader phenomenon, as patients look beyond the regulated health system to address problems that doctors have struggled to treat

Scientists used Evo, an AI tool that can suggest genome designs, to design new viruses. 

Scientists Used A.I. to Design New Viruses. The Technology Could Be a Boon for Medicine, but Experts Worry About Harmful Pathogens

The findings represent the first genomes, or complete genetic instruction books, designed entirely with generative A.I. The resulting viruses attack only bacteria, which could one day help overcome the problem of antibiotic-resistant microbes

Social media delivers a mix of harms and benefits to youth that researchers are only just beginning to understand.

Australia’s Social Media Ban for Teens May Not Be the Best Solution, But It’s Certainly Getting People Talking

The Aussie experiment comes amid a lack of clear evidence that the apps harm most adolescents. It may take a dramatic research pivot to finally reveal what’s going on and how to fix it.

A blue whale has been gathering food deep within the water column and reaches the surface with its throat pleats still distended, forming an enormous pouch. Within a few moments the whale will right itself up, expell the water, swallow the food, take several breaths and dive again.

The Global Web of Subsea Cables That Connects the World Can Now Detect Whales—Even When They’re Silent

A diving whale revealed how existing technology makes it possible to monitor cetaceans swimming quietly across the seabed

The new app was created with the Rainy Lake Ojibwe community.

This New App Created in Collaboration With the Rainy Lake Ojibwe Community Aims to Preserve Indigenous Language and Knowledge

Users can browse traditional stories, learn more about notable landmarks and discover family connections

Among medical fields, radiology has pioneered the adoption of A.I. tools. Yet combining the complementary strengths of human and machine intelligence is not straightforward.

How A.I. Will Reshape Radiology—Without Replacing Radiologists

Human experience and flexibility are still necessary even as digital diagnostic tools improve

An A.I. model from Anthropic helped disprove a longstanding conjecture in mathematics.

A.I. Disproves a Decades-Old Mathematical Idea, the ‘Biggest Conjecture’ That the Tech Has Played a Role in Yet

A mathematician announced that he used one of Anthropic’s A.I. models to find a counterexample to a problem called the Jacobian conjecture. While experts consider it a milestone, the work raises questions about the future of mathematical research

Getting the device to transition between air and water seamlessly was one of the most challenging aspects of the work.

This Robot Can Flap Its Wings to Both Fly and Swim. It Might One Day Help Scientists Study Diving Birds and Survey Ocean Habitats

The bioinspired device, which weighs roughly half a pound and measures around three feet wide, was also modeled after aquatic birds like puffins, gulls and loons

Hold music is an audible reminder that our time has value, just not always to the company keeping us waiting.

A Brief History of Hold Music, From Early Patents to the Soundtrack of Customer-Service Purgatory

Sixty years ago, Alfred A. Levy patented his “telephone hold program system.” Little did he know a teenager’s unearthed New Age practice tape would become its enduring anthem

Overall, the 16 participants of the study were “largely positive” about their interactions with griefbots, the scientists write in the paper.

Would You Chat With an A.I. ‘Ghost’ of a Deceased Loved One? New Research Suggests That the Tech Can Provide Comfort and Closure

Commercial “griefbots” are becoming more popular, and many experts have questions about their psychological and ethical impacts. A new study aims to ensure that the bots are designed responsibly

Keith Thomas is now able to grasp, lift and drink from a cup on his own. 

A Man With Paralysis Has Regained Feeling and Movement in His Hands After an Experimental Brain Implant

After months of training, the patient can now move his arms and hands and feel the sensation of touch

Two new studies suggest that smartphones are partially to blame for declining birth rates.

Smartphones Might Be Playing a Role in the United States’ Declining Birth Rate, New Research Suggests

Some economists suspect that the technology’s widespread adoption has reduced in-person interactions and increased access to pornography and information on birth control, leading to less unprotected sex

An advertising postcard for the Lindenberg Player Piano. 

A.I. Music Is Already Here. To Protect Human Artists, the Record Industry Proposes New Labels, Like Those for Explicit Lyrics

The proposal comes as A.I.-generated music makes up an increasing share of what’s available on streaming platforms

A cyborg cockroach wearing a diving suit, which provides oxygen.

Cyborg Cockroaches Could Help Find Survivors of Natural Disasters. New Diving Suits Allow the Insects to Expand Their Search Underwater

Previously, researchers created electrical implants to control cockroaches’ movements for search-and-rescue missions. Now, they’ve made 3D-printed suits that provide oxygen, allowing the critters to survive submerged for up to three hours

Researchers found carved stone monuments on the site.

Cool Finds

Deep in the Mexican Jungle, Archaeologists Discovered a Lost Maya City That May Yield Clues About the Civilization Just Before It Collapsed

Researchers hacked through more than three miles of vegetation to get to the site, which lies out of bounds of familiar logging tracks. There, they found unique carved stelae and altars

Researchers have virtually unwrapped a nearly five-foot-long segment of PHerc. 1667.

Scientists Have Deciphered the Surviving Fragments of a 2,000-Year-Old Philosophical Treatise Frozen in Time by Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption

The papyrus manuscript was part of a vast library preserved by volcanic ash. Now, the remaining passages—which examine ethics, knowledge and human nature—are accessible for the first time since 79 C.E.

Poster of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia

Everyone Wanted Alexander Graham Bell to Debut the Telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. He Almost Avoided It Entirely

The inventor had to be persuaded to make the trip from Boston, then balked at the thought of a delay in debuting his device. But history interceded, and his American innovation got its proper accolades

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