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The True Shape of Io's Steeple Mountain
Popular images of the Jovian moon Io’s famed Steeple Mountain turn out to be misinformed. How the Inquisitive team figured that out, and what Steeple Mountain really looks like!
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,455 posts.
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Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics
Nitrile and latex gloves that scientists wear while they are measuring microplastics may lead to a potential overestimation of the tiny pollutants, according to a University of Michigan study.
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A laser-based process that enables adhesive-free paper packaging
Paper packaging offers a number of advantages over its plastic counterparts: It has a high recycling rate, lower CO₂ emissions, and lower disposal costs. However, it cannot yet be sealed without adhesives or layers of plastic—a disadvantage for manufacturing and recycling processes. In the PAPURE project, four…
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Researchers find 3,500-year-old loom that reveals textile revolution
UA researchers find 3,500-year-old loom that reveals key aspects of textile revolution in the Bronze Age
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A Primer on Long-Duration Life Support
Life support is the hardest technical obstacle to the human exploration of Mars.
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CERN to host a new phase of Open Research Europe
In an important step for open science, CERN has been selected to host a new phase of Open Research Europe (ORE) , an initiative supported by the European Commission and a new funding consortium of European national funding agencies and research organisations. Aligned with the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access (2022)…
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China is mass-producing hypersonic missiles for $99,000
The Radical Asymmetry of Modern Warfare (P2)
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The bee that everyone wants to save
My neighbour has 50 hives, the road has 30 more. That's 4 million honeybees, and not one of them is the bee that actually needs saving.
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Earthquake scientists reveal how overplowing weakens soil at experimental farm
In a new study, University of Washington researchers examine the impact of tilling on soil moisture and water retention using methods designed for monitoring ea
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Autoresearch on an old research idea
Yogesh Kumar's personal website
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The IBM scientist who rewrote the rules of information just won a Turing Award
What started as a conversation on the beach between two scientists led to the “Nobel Prize in computing“ decades later. More on Charles Bennet, co-recipient of the 2025 Turing Award.
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Schizophrenia study finds new biomarker, drug candidate in mice
A new Northwestern University study in humans and mice has discovered a novel biomarker of schizophrenia that could also serve as a new drug candidate to treat the cognitive symptoms of the disorder. Schizophrenia affects .5% of the world’s population, including about two million people in the U.S.
283
Bayesian statistics for confused data scientists
A gentle introduction to Bayesian statistics for data scientists who, like me, are confused by it.
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2025 Turing award given for quantum information science
Bennett, an American physicist at IBM Research, and Brassard, a Canadian computer scientist at the Université de Montréal, are widely recognized as founders of quantum information science, a field at the intersection of physics and computer science that treats quantum mechanical phenomena not merely as properties of…
285
The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] On the northern edge of Los Angeles, fresh water spills down two stark concrete chutes perched on the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, a place simply called The Cascades. It’s a deceptively simple-looking finish line: the
286
Cannabinoids remove plaque-forming Alzheimer's proteins from brain cells (2016)
Founded by polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk, the Salk Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization. We drive foundational, risk-taking research that addresses society’s most pressing challenges, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and agricultural resilience.
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Airbus is preparing two uncrewed combat aircraft
Airbus is working at full throttle to offer the German Air Force an operational Uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (UCCA) system by 2029.
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Mathematics Distillation Challenge – Equational Theories
Mathematical research traditionally involves a small number of professional mathematicians working closely on difficult problems. However, I have long believed that there is a complementary way to …
289
Enhancing gut-brain communication reversed cognitive decline in aging mice
Aging causes changes in gut bacteria in mice, which hampers communication between the intestines and the brain. Restoring this connection helped old mice form memories as well as young animals.
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Electric motor scaling laws and inertia in robot actuators
Engineering contraptions
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New 'negative light' technology hides data transfers in plain sight
Researchers have developed a ‘negative luminescence’ system to create an innovative way of sending hidden information.
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Universal vaccine against respiratory infections and allergens
Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues invented a new vaccine that protects mice from respiratory viruses, bacteria and allergens — the closest yet to a universal vaccine.
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Rendezvous with Rama
Some musings on the novel "Rendezvous with Rama".
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An opinionated take on how to do important research that matters
An opinionated perspective on how to do important research that makes a difference (and sometimes win awards).
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Exploring the ocean with Raspberry Pi–powered marine robots
Pushing affordable marine conservation forward with autonomous marine robots powered by Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4.
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CT Scans of Health Wearables
Experience the engineering behind today’s leading health wearables including Oura Ring, Dexcom G7, and Jabra Hearing Aids. Industrial CT scans reveal how these devices merge medical precision with consumer design.
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Maybe there's a pattern here?
Inventors and impacts
299
Why can't you tune your guitar? (2019)
Short answer: because math. Longer answer: because prime numbers don’t divide into each other evenly. To understand what follows, you need to know some facts about the physics of vibrating st…
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Does that use a lot of energy?
This tool was designed to get a sense of the differences in energy consumption between different products. It's often difficult to understand whether activities matter a lot or very little for our overall energy consumption.