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Resolving the Kardashev's Conundrum Using a Bitcoin-Inspired Metric

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 3:31pm

A new study reevaluates the Kardashev Scale using a new framework that includes the Bitcoin network as a means of measuring the trajectory of human development.

Categories: Science

Hellish Venus-Like Planets May Be More Prevalent Than True ExoEarths

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 3:08pm

Exoplanet hunters are keen to find the next extrasolar earthlike planet, one that may harbor life as we know it. But preliminary results from a new study indicate that our galaxy may be filled with a plethora of exo-Venuses. Yet as one exoplanetary researcher notes: the template for such exo-worlds --- our own Venus --- has been ‘criminally underexplored.’

Categories: Science

NASA's Psyche Mission Says Goodbye to Mars and Heads for its Metal-Rich Target

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 1:42pm

Spacecraft often use planets for gravity-assist or "slingshot" maneuvers. NASA's Psyche mission used Mars for that purpose during a May 15th flyby. The flyby accelerated the spacecraft and aimed it at its eventual destination, the asteroid 16 Psyche. The flyby was also an opportunity to take some pictures of Mars, and to test and calibrate the spacecraft's science instruments.

Categories: Science

Women’s body temperature rises from age 18 to 42 but we don’t know why

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 12:00pm
Women experience a steady rise in body temperature from their teens to midlife, which may be useful for monitoring ageing and overall health
Categories: Science

Joni!

Why Evolution is True Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:30am

Here’s an entire BBC concert by Joni Mitchell, filmed in September, 1970. I’ve always thought that BBC concerts were the best, as they will always live and without accompaniment.  This one is 48 minutes long, and she had long career after this with some great albums (“Blue,” “For the Roses” and “Court and Spark”).

I have nothing to add to this music save to say that I think she’s the greatest combination of singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist of our time, and like most boys my age (I was 21), I was hopelessly in love with her. James Taylor, who also had a BBC concert that same year, rivals her on the male side for the trio of talents, but Joni has the overall edge.

Oh, and some of my favorite songs here are “Chelsea Morning” (at the start), “My Old Man” (16:47), “Woodstock” (25:10), “All I Want” (31:00, on the dulcimer), “All I Want” (31:45), “California” (36:45), and of course “Both Sides Now” (44:25)

Can you imagine being in the audience and hearing these songs for the first time?

The first comment is ineffably poignant:

@chaulahopefisher4064

2 years ago

I am at the end of my life, 68 years old and in hospice…dying with leukemia. I remember owning my first JONI MITCHELL album with clouds and Michael from mountains, Nathan la frenier, etc…. it changed my life and initiated my music career. I have lived lifetimes since then and changed careers several times. Now, resting on my couch, I listen to this old concert and remember how I felt when I was 13 years old and just hearing these songs for the very first time. at the time she was the older wiser woman whom I wanted to emulate…. now, watching this, she is dewy youth and I the rusk, ready to blow away on the wind with a song in my heart
Categories: Science

A New Study on Coronal Holes Improves Space Weather Forecasting

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:27am

New Mexico State University (NMSU) astronomy graduate student Khagendra Katuwal studied 70 coronal holes on the sun to better understand the connection between solar activity and space weather. His paper was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Categories: Science

It Looks Like Europa Doesn't Have Plumes of Water Vapour After All

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:12am

In 2014, researchers presented the discovery of water vapour plumes being emitted from Jupiter's moon Europa. This caused quite a stir; it meant that the moon's buried ocean was accessible without contending with the thick ice shell that concealed it. But new research by the same researchers questions those detections.

Categories: Science

Photos reveal unexpected details from the world's first atomic test

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:00am
Previously classified photos and documents show the scientific work that went into the world's first atomic test in 1945 – a test that, just weeks later, would see nuclear bombs dropped in Japan
Categories: Science

How a visit to Stonehenge reminded me of deep time

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:00am
On a visit to the UK, Sydney-based reporter James Woodford visited an archaeological site that was on his bucket list – and experienced a very special moment as the sun set
Categories: Science

Can we harness quantum effects to create a new kind of healthcare?

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:00am
Experiments hint that quantum mechanisms are vital to the machinery of life. Now researchers are exploring if these effects help to explain the success of an array of puzzling health treatments
Categories: Science

PMOS shows us why many scientific terms need to be renamed

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:00am
Like covid-19 and mpox before it, the decision to relabel PCOS as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is a welcome one – and reveals why a name is never just a name
Categories: Science

This is the most underrated sci-fi film franchise of the 21st century

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:00am
There’s unexpected news of a fifth movie for one of the most underrated sci-fi reboots. Hurray, says New Scientist film columnist Bethan Ackerley
Categories: Science

Shiver me timbers: Do we have to worry about space pirates now?

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:00am
Feedback goes down a "moon warfare" rabbit hole and discovers that some forward-thinkers are making plans to counteract as-yet-hypothetical pirates in space
Categories: Science

New Scientist recommends a devastating account of farming honeybees

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 11:00am
Jennie Durant's Bitter Honey is a great exposé of the true cost of industrially farming US honeybees, finds Thomas Lewton. But the book's grim figures of bee death alone may not prompt deep change – how about seeing them as fellow creatures?
Categories: Science

Hearing the Heavens - Book Review of The Echoing Universe

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 10:34am

Typically when we think of astronomy, we think of pictures of M87 captured on a backyard telescope or the soaring colorful peaks of the Eagle Nebula seen by Hubble. But perhaps the most influential type of astronomy of the last 100+ years doesn’t directly result in the stunning pictures we’re so accustomed to today. It captures radio waves from some of the most interesting objects in the universe. And in her new book, The Echoing Universe: How Radio Astronomy Helps Us See the Invisible, Dr. Emma Chapman, a radio astronomer at the University of Nottingham, tracks how these longest wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum have influenced the practice of astronomy and our understanding of our place in the universe.

Categories: Science

Breaking the Martian Sound Barrier

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 10:23am

Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter, which performed the first controlled, powered flight on another planet, was an excellent demonstration of human ingenuity. But it was just that - a demonstrator. The intention with Ingenuity was simply to prove that we could, in fact, fly on another planet. But now we’ve proved that we can, it’s time to do something more useful with that new ability - like do actual science. A new mission designed to do just that recently passed a critical testing milestone, opening the way for future Mars helicopter missions that will make Ingenuity look like our very first steps.

Categories: Science

Extreme Lunar Conditions Need an Extreme Test Rig

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 10:09am

When people eventually head to the Moon for long-term exploration and habitation, they'll need equipment and habitats made of well-tested materials. That's where NASA's Lunar Environment Test Rig (LESTR) comes in handy. It simulates extreme cold lunar night conditions right here in a NASA Glenn lab, testing equipment in temperatures ranging from 40K to 125K (-233 C to -148 C) in a vacuum.

Categories: Science

Putting CO2 into rocks and getting hydrogen out is climate double win

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 10:00am
Storing carbon dioxide in rocks while producing hydrogen from them - and perhaps even geothermal power too - could be a double win on the climate front, and several groups are trying to make it happen
Categories: Science

We could generate hydrogen from rocks while storing CO2 in them

New Scientist Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 10:00am
Storing carbon dioxide in rocks while producing hydrogen from them - and perhaps even geothermal power too - could be a double win on the climate front, and several groups are trying to make it happen
Categories: Science

Mergers, Mayhem, and the Milky Way

Universe Today Feed - Wed, 05/20/2026 - 8:26am

Galaxies grow through mergers and collisions, and astronomers want to know more about the mergers in the Milky Way's past. But mergers can stir up the stars in the resulting galaxy, making it difficult to determine exactly when an ancient merger occurred. A new study led by researchers at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) may have overcome that challenge.

Categories: Science

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