Feb 1st, 2026 - The idea behind quantum computing has existed for a long while now, with the primary goal being to basically create . While we have yet to see a fully realized quantum computer that comes close to that overall vision, we have seen a lot of progress forward. One big problem that quantum computing has is getting all of the components together in a stable environment and then scaling it up without ruining that stability. The biggest problem here comes in how we approach the scaling of qubits — which are vital to how information and data are processed in quantum computers. However, a new ... [Read More]

Jan 30th, 2026 - CERN supercollider gets sustainable side hustle heating local homes Okay, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) might have uncovered the Higgs boson and helped redefine our concept of physical reality, but what has it done for us lately? How about a side hustle heating several thousand homes in the neighborhood? With a circumference of 26.7 km (16.6 miles), the LHC it is the largest particle accelerator ever built. In order to smash together subatomic particles at fantastic relativistic velocities so they blast apart like a pocket watch chucked into a jet engine, it needs a lot of power. We're ... [Read More]

Jan 30th, 2026 - New simulations suggest the first small black holes could binge on gas and balloon quickly. Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted supermassive black holes—objects up to millions of times the sun's mass—at times when the cosmos was still in its infancy. How did they grow so large, so fast? A new study in Nature Astronomy argues that the early universe may have made it easier than many researchers assumed, by turning young galaxies into chaotic feeding grounds for small, newly born black holes. "We found that the chaotic conditions that existed in the early ... [Read More]

Jan 30th, 2026 - Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... On a recent afternoon, Carl Jackson and his family were hunting for pythons on a dirt road about 30 miles east of Naples in Big Cypress National Preserve. Jackson said he turned his truck around to retrace his tracks. A few miles down the road he noticed something — python tracks crossing the road, and they were over the tracks of his tires. The snakes must have just crossed! He jumped out of the truck and followed the tracks, which seemed to be from a smaller snake, into the underbrush between the road and a canal. Within seconds he saw a big ... [Read More]

Jan 30th, 2026 - Weak magnetic hiccups can cascade into a flare and a lingering rain of plasma. Imagine standing on a snowy mountain ridge. A single fracture forms in the ice crust, or a small patch of heavy snow shifts just an inch. That tiny movement destabilizes the snowpack below, which pushes against the next layer. Within moments, the entire mountainside is a cascading white sheet of destruction. We call this phenomenon an avalanche. Now, thanks to the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft, we know that our Sun—a churning ball of million-degree plasma—operates by the same ... [Read More]

Jan 30th, 2026 - ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- One of the longest-running searches for extraterrestrial life is coming to end this year as U.S. scientists wrap up a popular program that enlisted millions of home computer users to analyze radio signals received from space. After years poring through immense amounts of generated data, the program's co-founders at the University of California at Berkeley told UPI this week they are probing 100 detected signals deemed to be the best candidates for messages from "ET" before the effort is wrapped up for good, 27 years after it was launched. But even though the ... [Read More]

Jan 30th, 2026 - Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, January 30 The Moon passes 4° north of Jupiter this evening at 9 P.M. EST. The pair is visible most of the night in the central region of Gemini. Early in the evening, the nearly Full Moon hangs to the upper left of bright Jupiter. The gas giant outshines either of the Twins' brightest stars, Castor and Pollux.  Over in the north, the constellation Camelopardalis arcs above the North Star late tonight. A few degrees from the Giraffe's magnitude 4.3 alpha star lies Collinder 464 (Cr 464), a bright open cluster that ... [Read More]

Jan 30th, 2026 - The method uses common battery industry chemicals to create a stable protective coating that slows degradation, with early testing showing promise though long-term data remains pending. Lithium-ion batteries are used in smartphones, laptops, electric cars, and stationary energy storage systems. Although their design has hardly changed in years, one key problem remains: the gradual aging of cells. That's why lithium-ion batteries lose capacity over time. A team of researchers at the University of Maryland (via NewScientist ) have discovered a new solution that could extend the service life of ... [Read More]