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Researchers have developed innovative methods to control the ionization of atoms and molecules using specially structured light beams, challenging traditional limits. This breakthrough could lead to advancements in imaging, particle acceleration, and quantum computing by precisely controlling electron ejection from atoms.

A research team has developed a new system to estimate a person's biological age -- a measure of how well their body has aged, rather than just counting the years since birth. Using just five drops of blood, this new method analyzes 22 key steroids and their interactions to provide a more precise health assessment. The team's breakthrough study offers a potential step forward in personalized health management, allowing for earlier detection of age-related health risks and tailored interventions.

Exploration of the outer Solar System may be getting a boost from the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO). When this gigantic telescope opens its eye later in 2025, it begins a decade-long survey of the ever-changing sky. As part of this time-lapse vision of the cosmos, distant objects in the Kuiper Belt will be among its most challenging targets.

X-ray astronomy is a somewhat neglected corner of the more general field of astronomy. The biggest names in telescopes, like Hubble and James Webb, don't even touch that bandwidth. And Chandra, the most capable space-based X-ray observatory to date, is far less well-known. However, some of the most interesting phenomena in the universe can only be truly understood through X-rays, and it's a shame that the discipline doesn't garner more attention. Kimberly Weaver of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center hopes to change that perception as she works on a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant to develop an in-space X-ray interferometer that could allow us to see for the first time what causes the power behind supermassive black holes.

We may be starting to get a grasp on what kick-started life on Earth – and it could help us search for it on other planets

Posting will be light today as I am embroiled in many issues and am troubled.

One question for which I’ve always received feedback is this: did a “Jesus person”—a human on which the Biblical legends of the New Testament are based—really exist? I’m not accepting that any of the deeds attributed to a “Jesus” are true, merely asking whether such a person existed around whom the legends could be woven.

Since the accounts of Jesus’s life occur in a single book that is not only hard to believe, but wrong in many details that we can test (e.g. the Exodus); and that book was surely not written by people who were Jesus’s contemporaries; and, because the four “independent” account of his life differ in crucial details, then as a scientist all I can say is that the Biblical account is flawed and gives no strong evidence for a “Jesus person.”

Yes, I know Bart Ehrman wrote a book concluding that Jesus was a real person, but not the son of God. Ehrman maintained that the “Jesus person” was an apocalyptic preacher. It’s been some years since I read that book, and so I’ve forgotten the evidence Ehrman adduced, but I can remember that I wasn’t strongly convinced.

Below are two old videos in which Christopher Hitchens addresses the issue.  In the first 7-minute one, he compares with Jesus with Socrates, and concludes that there’s not that much more evidence for Socrates as a real person than for Jesus. But because Socrates’s supposed method has persisted, and has proven immensely valuable, Hitchens doesn’t really care. In contrast, Jesus asserted that people had to believe in what he said—and what he said (“take no care for the morrow. . and just follow me”) was delusional. In other words, Hitchens takes the “lunatic” view of C. S. Lewis’s “liar, lunatic, or lord” trilemma.

On the other hand, certain falsities in the Bible (getting Jesus from Nazareth to Bethlehem under a nonexistent census), suggest to Hitchens that these tortuous fabrications wouldn’t have been necessary had there not been a Jesus person. (“Otherwise, why not have him born in Bethlehem?”)  This kind of “cobbling” may constitute for Hitchens weak evidence that there was a Jesus person.

Of course the reason why people are so invested in having hard proof that a Jesus person existed, even if we can’t document his miracles, is that if we can’t even show that a Jesus person existed, then all of Christianity falls apart—at least to those who want evidence to buttress their faith.

Here’s a 1½-minute video, Hitchens says that there’s no firm evidence he existed, even in light of Ehrman’s book. (“There’s no reason to believe that he did [exist].”)  In contrast, Hitchens says that Muhammad is a figure of history, but of course he rejects any claim that an angel dictated the Qur’an to Muhammad.

I’m sure people will have divergent opinions.  I am not bothered by being pretty agnostic on Jesus, but some of my friends, even nonbelievers, are. And that puzzles me.

Thursday brought with it a total lunar eclipse for parts of the world that could see the Moon. If you missed it (like I did) then no problem since Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost mission has got your back. The lunar lander took a break from its science duties on our nearest astronomical neighbour to capture this stunning image of the eclipse. Observers on Earth saw the shadow of the Earth fall across the Moon but for Blue Ghost, it experienced a solar eclipse where the Sun hid behind the Earth!

A newly discovered mechanism could explain the shock finding last year that oxygen is produced by metallic nodules on the seafloor – and it might be happening on other planets, too

Can one single mathematical framework describe the motion of a fluid and the individual particles within it? This question, first asked in 1900, now has a solution that could help us understand the complex behaviour of the atmosphere and oceans.

With artificial photosynthesis, humankind could utilize solar energy to bind carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen. Chemists have taken this one step further: They have synthesized a stack of dyes that comes very close to the photosynthetic apparatus of plants. It absorbs light energy, uses it to separate charge carriers and transfers them quickly and efficiently in the stack.

Researchers have experimentally recreated another fundamental theoretical model from quantum physics, which goes back to the Nobel Prize laureate Werner Heisenberg. The basis for the successful experiment is made of tiny carbon molecules known as nanographenes. This synthetic bottom-up approach enables versatile experimental research into quantum technologies, which could one day help drive breakthroughs in the field.

Researchers have experimentally recreated another fundamental theoretical model from quantum physics, which goes back to the Nobel Prize laureate Werner Heisenberg. The basis for the successful experiment is made of tiny carbon molecules known as nanographenes. This synthetic bottom-up approach enables versatile experimental research into quantum technologies, which could one day help drive breakthroughs in the field.

Iridium-doped iron-cobalt (Fe-Co-Ir) alloys, previously identified through machine learning, have been shown to have enhanced magnetic properties, surpassing even the widely used pure Fe-Co alloy. However, the origin of this enhanced magnetization is poorly understood. Now, scientists employed an innovative method using high-throughput X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements, demonstrating the critical role of Ir-doping. The findings will serve as a foundation for designing new high-performance magnetic materials.

Astronomers have discovered two exoplanets around TOI-1453, a star about 250 light years away. These two exoplanets, a super-Earth and a sub-Neptune, are common in the galaxy, yet are absent from our system. This discovery paves the way for future atmospheric studies to better understand these types of planets.

Digital voice recordings contain valuable information that can indicate an individual's cognitive health, offering a non-invasive and efficient method for assessment. Research has demonstrated that digital voice measures can detect early signs of cognitive decline by analyzing features such as speech rate, articulation, pitch variation and pauses, which may signal cognitive impairment when deviating from normative patterns. However, voice data introduces privacy challenges due to the personally identifiable information embedded in recordings, such as gender, accent and emotional state, as well as more subtle speech characteristics that can uniquely identify individuals. These risks are amplified when voice data is processed by automated systems, raising concerns about re-identification and potential misuse of data.

Digital voice recordings contain valuable information that can indicate an individual's cognitive health, offering a non-invasive and efficient method for assessment. Research has demonstrated that digital voice measures can detect early signs of cognitive decline by analyzing features such as speech rate, articulation, pitch variation and pauses, which may signal cognitive impairment when deviating from normative patterns. However, voice data introduces privacy challenges due to the personally identifiable information embedded in recordings, such as gender, accent and emotional state, as well as more subtle speech characteristics that can uniquely identify individuals. These risks are amplified when voice data is processed by automated systems, raising concerns about re-identification and potential misuse of data.

A failed launch left a batch of Starlink satellites in the wrong orbit last year, and it appears that a fragment of one fell to Earth and hit a farm in Canada. Thankfully, no one was injured

Solar Power Satellite (SPS) advocates have been dreaming of using space resources to build massive constructions for decades. In-space Resource Utilization (ISRU) advocates would love to oblige them, but so far, there hasn't yet been enough development on either front to create a testable system. A research team from a company called MetaSat and the University of Glasgow hope to change that with a new plan called META-LUNA, which utilizes lunar resources to build (and recycle) a fleet of their specially designed SPS.

New Scientist's revelation that a UK minister is asking ChatGPT for advice raises the question of what role these new AI tools should play in government – and whether we should really think of them as intelligent

It can be difficult to recall exactly when a specific event happened, and now it seems our memory can be tricked into pushing occurrences back in time, making us think they happened earlier than in reality