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Technology

The scroll is part of a vast library found in the ancient town of Herculaneum.

Three Students Just Deciphered the First Passages of a 2,000-Year-Old Scroll Burned in Vesuvius’ Eruption

The trio used artificial intelligence to decode sections of the text, which appear to be a philosophical exploration of pleasure

This prototype of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter achieved the first successful free flight under simulated Martian conditions (on Earth) in 2016.

Prototype for Mars Helicopter Will Soon Be on Display at National Air and Space Museum

The surprisingly long-serving Ingenuity ended its historic service after breaking a rotor

Archaeologist and folklorist Billy Mag Fhloinn rediscovered the Altóir na Gréine, or the "Altar of the Sun," in Ireland.

Cool Finds

Everyone Thought This 4,000-Year-Old Tomb Had Been Destroyed. Then, an Archaeologist Found It

Billy Mag Fhloinn located the Altóir na Gréine, thought to have vanished in the 19th century, in southwest Ireland

Illustration of two Caudipteryx dinosaurs drinking from a river

Scientists Build a Robot Dinosaur to Probe the Mystery of Tiny Wings

Robopteryx—a makeshift dinosaur with training wheels—offers clues to the purpose of prehistoric proto-wings, which are too small to have powered flight

An artist's rendition of a LISA spacecraft.

This ‘Game-Changer’ Detector Will Hunt for Giant Ripples in Spacetime

Set to launch in 2035, the European Space Agency’s LISA mission will listen for gravitational waves created by colliding black holes and neutron stars—and some might date nearly to the Big Bang

A photo of Ingenuity taken by the Perseverance rover in April 2023. The helicopter arrived on Mars attached to Perseverance in February 2021.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Has Taken Its Final Flight

Originally designed for up to five flights on Mars, Ingenuity performed 72 over three years, until one of its rotor blades was damaged during landing on January 18

The latest winner of a Japanese literary prize said she used ChatGPT to write parts of her novel.

Art Meets Science

ChatGPT Helped Write This Award-Winning Japanese Novel

After receiving the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, Rie Kudan spoke about why she used A.I. to write a portion of her work

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There's More to That

Oppenheimer Has a Long History On Screen, Including the Time the Nuclear Physicist Played Himself

Now with 13 Academy Award nominations to its credit, the blockbuster film comes after nearly eight decades of mythologizing the father of the atomic bomb

The original Macintosh computer may seem quaint today, but the way users interacted with it was game-changing.

Forty Years Ago, the Mac Triggered a Revolution in User Experience

When it was introduced in 1984, Apple’s Macintosh didn’t have any striking technological breakthroughs, but it did make it easier for people to operate a computer

A photo from a camera on one of Peregrine's payload decks shows some of the spacecraft's payloads, as well as a sliver of Earth in the upper right.

Doomed Lunar Lander Will Burn Up in Earth’s Atmosphere on Thursday

Astrobotic, the company in charge of the mission, says its Peregrine spacecraft will not reach the moon, and burning it will ensure the lander doesn’t end up as space debris

A map of fishing vessels operating between Tunisia and Sicily reveals lots of untracked activity.

These Satellite Maps Reveal Rampant Fishing by Untracked ‘Dark Vessels’ in the World’s Oceans

Using satellite imagery and A.I., a new study finds about 75 percent of industrial fishing is not publicly tracked, and clandestine ships enter marine protected areas

The silk dress, which dates to the mid-1880s, in which the pieces of paper containing the code were found. They were tucked in a hidden pocket, the opening of which was hidden by an overskirt.

‘Unsolvable’ Code Hidden in Antique Dress Pocket Is Finally Cracked

Short, handwritten lines of unrelated words contained coded weather reports to send via telegraph in the late 19th century

The capsule has a gelatinous coating that dissolves in stomach acid.

Engineers Design a Vibrating Pill for Weight Loss That Could Create a Feeling of Fullness

The capsule is the size of a multivitamin, and in an experiment with pigs, it appeared to reduce the animals’ appetites

Damaged houses, one collapsed completely, along a street in Wajima, Japan, on January 2, 2024—one day after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the region.

Could A.I. Help Seismologists Predict Major Earthquakes?

The 7.5 magnitude quake in Japan highlights the need for earthquake prediction, a science shedding its “unserious” reputation and inching toward reality

Monarch butterflies' signature white spots could help them fly—and inspire better drones.

Seven Scientific Discoveries From 2023 That Could Lead to New Inventions

Biologists learned lots about animals and plants this year, and their findings could inspire better robots, medicine and environmental technologies

NASA engineers react to the first-ever high-definition video sent by laser from deep space, which feaures an orange tabby cat named Taters.

NASA Streams Video of a Cat Chasing a Laser From Deep Space

In a first, the agency beamed the playful clip to Earth from a distance 80 times farther than the moon

A pneumatic mail tube at the main Post Office Department branch in New York City, circa 1914 or 1915

When a Labyrinth of Pneumatic Tubes Shuttled Mail Beneath the Streets of New York City

Powered by compressed air, the system transported millions of letters between 1897 and 1953

This year, lookups on Dictionary.com increased for A.I.-related words, including "generative A.I.,” “GPT” and “chatbot.”

‘Hallucinate’ Is Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year for 2023

In the context of artificial intelligence, the word means “to produce false information” and “present it as if true”

An artist's rendering of one of the Voyager spacecrafts.

NASA’s Voyager 1 Is Glitching, Sending Nonsense From Interstellar Space

The aging spacecraft, launched in 1977, is transmitting a gibberish pattern of ones and zeros back to Earth

Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Paul Stanley of Kiss perform at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 2, 2023.

Art Meets Science

Kiss Debuts Digital Avatars That Will Keep the Band ‘Forever Young and Forever Iconic’

The rock band is the first in the U.S. to immortalize its performances with a digital recreation

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