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The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 356 posts.
For those of you who haven’t seen, there were actually two “bombshell” QC announcements this week. One, from Caltech, including friend-of-the-blog John Preskill, showed how to do quantum faul…
An international team including Oxford physicists has observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time. The study provides an experimental connection between quantum physics and Einstein's theory of gravity.
Uncovering a century-old misinformation
Penn State experts in meteorology and atmospheric science made their way down the nation’s eastern coast in June 2024 in search of corona discharges, a long-hypothesized atmospheric weather phenomenon where miniscule pulses of electricity dance at the tips of tree leaves, causing the canopy to glow in the ultraviolet…
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)…
More than 60 percent of the United States is experiencing drought conditions, with more than 20 percent in an extreme drought. Andrew Ellis, a climatologist at Virginia Tech said the current conditions are among the worst in decades because the combination of intensity and aerial coverage is rare. He explained why…
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…
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.
Science needs more than answers
As global battery demand continues to surge, the number of end-of-life batteries from electric vehicles alone is expected to grow from 1.2 million in 2030 to 14 million by 2040. Battery circularity technologies enable the reuse and recycling of these batteries and, as with battery technologies more generally, Asia…
Researchers at ETH Zurich have realised particularly stable quantum logical operations with qubits made of neutral atoms. Since these operations, called quantum gates, are based on geometric phases they are extremely robust against experimental noise and can be used in quantum computers in the future.
An interactive exploration of how GPS works: from the speed of light and trilateration to the cheap clock problem and Einstein's relativity corrections.
Engineering and computing researchers create simple metal tags with unique ultrasonic fingerprints to detect door openings and other movements.
Why controlling total luminance is a better bet
On the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem introduces an impressive result from OpenAI, who used an unreleased model to produce a resolution to the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of …
A battery technology that’s getting a lot of attention is solid-state batteries, lithium-ion batteries that replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid material.
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.
A University of Toronto professor’s research on the physiology of sleep and breathing has paved the way for a new sleep apnea treatment that recently reported positive results in a phase 3 clinical trial.
Observations made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Unlike moons in our Solar System, the newly found object does not orbit a planet, raising questions about what to name it. Instead, it circles a brown…
A blog about software craft and quality
Exploiting the quirks of human vision to make images smaller, without looking awful.
In this Weekly Chart, we look for sci-fi books and their changing titles.
Meta is continuing its long-term roadmap to help the construction industry leverage AI to produce high-quality and more sustainable concrete mixes, as well as those exclusively produced in the Unit…
The submarine is a surprisingly ancient technology—at least in its early, primitive forms. The idea is quite simple, that a well-enough-sealed boat ought to be able to submerge and resurface. It's the practicalities that make the whole thing difficult. It is generally considered that the US Civil War was the first use…
You should have gone before you left Earth
The best ice fishing in the Solar System is worth finding
On 2026 August 5, within a few minutes of 06:35 UTC, an upper stage (section) of a rocket used for a lunar mission will hit the moon. This may be of some (probably minor) scientific interest, and we may learn some things from it. It doesn't present any danger to anyone, though it does highlight a certain carelessness…
