Mar 5th, 2026 - Reading time 4 minutes When Richard Feynman first conceived of quantum computers in the 1980s, he believed they should primarily investigate quantum phenomena. So that's what a group of chemists did: they used quantum hardware to explore a near-impossible molecule in the quantum realm. In a paper published today in Science , researchers report building a new type of molecule featuring what they call a "half-Möbius" configuration, or topology. The team created the molecule through conventional means, but it took the computational power of a quantum computer to confirm that the seemingly ... [Read More]

Mar 5th, 2026 - Chimpanzees consume enough fermented fruit to test positive for alcohol, hinting at our evolutionary past. Since you can't exactly breathalyze a wild ape, Aleksey Maro, a UC Berkeley researcher, spent his days collecting chimpanzee urine from the forest floor. Guided by Ugandan student Sharifah Namaganda, Maro used forked branches and plastic bags to catch samples as the chimps relieved themselves. They conclusions are striking: chimps consume the equivalent of roughly one standard alcoholic drink every day . They get their daily dose simply by eating sugar-rich, fermenting fruits high up in ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2026 - Quantum computing is a double-edged revolution: an innovation to embrace for its unprecedented computational power in AI and R&D, but a threat to be on guard for as it weaponizes tactics against today's encryption. For CIOs, the way forward is to fuel the former while immunizing the latter. The recent Palo Alto Networks Quantum Safe Summit assembled industry titans and cybersecurity leaders to deliver a sobering message to CIOs: the harvest now, decrypt later (HNDL) threat is real and active, and the window for cryptographic transition is closing. For the modern CIO, quantum readiness is ... [Read More]

Mar 3rd, 2026 - You are not logged into your account. You have a registered email address and password on pressherald.com, but we are unable to locate a paid subscription attached to these credentials. Please Thank you for your support of local journalism! on the agency's website, scheduled to be formally issued on Wednesday, the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency under NOAA, is "considering possible deregulatory action to modify and modernize" efforts to avoid vessel strikes. The same document states that there are roughly 380 members of the endangered species as of the start of 2024, and that ... [Read More]

Mar 3rd, 2026 - By A creature whose relatives evolved roughly 500 million years ago — before dinosaurs, before trees — was sitting on the ocean floor off South Korea, misidentified as something it wasn't. Two biologists conducting routine genetic analysis stumbled onto its true identity almost by accident. The species is called , and it belongs to one of the oldest surviving groups of animals on Earth. is a chiton, a type of marine mollusk from the class . If you've walked along a rocky shoreline and noticed a small, flat, oval-shaped creature clinging to a stone, you may have already ... [Read More]

Mar 3rd, 2026 - Despite the long winter, I can feel how close spring is. Here in California, blossoms are blossoming, trees are budding and the orange poppies are starting to pop. The vernal equinox is coming soon, signaling the astronomical start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Though equinoxes might not get the same attention as solstices, they're a lovely way to observe the seasons shifting. Let's get to know the vernal equinox, what it is and why it happens. What is the spring equinox? You've no doubt noticed the lengthening of daylight as winter winds down (especially with daylight saving coming ... [Read More]

Mar 3rd, 2026 - Early this morning, I watched the total eclipse of the Moon from my observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Yesterday (Monday, March 2) was mostly clear with a cerulean blue sky throughout, a high temperature near 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), and just a bit of a breeze, so I had high hopes that I'd see the event. My wife, Holley, also saw some of the eclipse, but her job isn't as forgiving as mine, so once totality began, she went off to bed. I also invited a neighbor who was hosting several out of town guests. They arrived around 3:30 a.m. I ... [Read More]

Mar 3rd, 2026 - A record-shattering quadruple star system is hiding in the Cygnus constellation. Astronomers have just identified a rare cosmic "huddle" of stars. We're talking three stars, each more massive and hotter than our Sun, packed into a space smaller than the orbit of Mercury. To top it off, there's a fourth Sun-like star circling that entire trio closer than Jupiter sits to our own Sun. Meet TIC 120362137, the most compact 3+1 quadruple star system ever discovered. A Tight-Knit Family Most stellar systems aren't as neat and ordered as our own. Researchers estimate that up to 85% of all stellar ... [Read More]