Aug 29th, 2025 - Speakers during GovExec's Quantum Summit said there are plenty of local initiatives underway, but they will need continued financial support to ensure those places stay ahead. Quantum technology holds a great deal of promise for state and local economies , but its research must receive strong financial support if regions are to stay competitive, speakers warned at an event this week. Chattanooga, Tennessee has looked to set its stall out as a leader on the technology by establishing the nation's first quantum tech center and building a quantum computer, while others — including Chicago ... [Read More]

Aug 29th, 2025 - Astronomers have, for the first time, caught a growing planet "parked" inside the dark lane of a multi-ringed disk of dust and gas – the exact kind of gap long suspected to be sculpted by newborn worlds. The object orbits a young Sun-like star called WISPIT-2, and its light betrays a world still gulping hydrogen as it builds itself up. WISPIT-2 and dust disk gaps For years, high-contrast images of planet-forming disks have shown bright rings split by shadowy gaps. The prevailing idea was simple: protoplanets plow lanes, like snowplows in fresh powder. But almost no planets had ever ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2025 - You think you know a dinosaur , and then it turns out it had 3-foot spikes protruding from its neck, a weapon on its tail and extravagant armor. The creature's presence some 165 million years ago in what is now Morocco has been known for years. But only now has the Spicomellus been revealed in all its bizarre beauty, forcing a rethink among scientists. "This dinosaur is totally unlike anything else that we have ever seen," paleontologist Susannah Maidment told NBC News in a phone interview. She co-led a team of researchers studying the Jurassic-era beast's fossilized remains in the Atlas ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2025 - New NASA research hints that Ceres — the closest dwarf planet to Earth — may have once had an ancient "power source" that could have sparked the evolution of extraterrestrial life-forms in the tiny world's hidden ocean. Ceres is the largest object within the solar system 's main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter . The wee world is around 600 miles (950 kilometers) wide, roughly one-quarter the moon 's diameter, meaning it is not large enough to be considered a planet. But it is large enough to be considered a "dwarf planet" like Pluto , which ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2025 - Solar flares are powerful blasts of energy from the Sun that are able to wreak havoc on Earth's magnetosphere when they're pointed in the right direction. Now, thanks to the clearest images ever taken of a flare, scientists are finally peeking into the Sun's smallest hidden features. On August 8, 2024, something remarkable happened: an X1.3-class flare erupted from the Sun's surface. And this time, Earth had the perfect view. Thanks to clear skies and ideal timing, astronomers captured the flare using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii. It's the largest solar telescope on Earth ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2025 - There are ultra-tiny particles in the universe that can flit through stars and galaxies, unchanged. However, once they enter the territory of Antarctica and rain down, coming in contact with water and ice, they spurt showers of high-energy cosmic rays. A few years back, NASA scientists attached radio antennae to some balloons and mounted them in the icescape to detect these showers. Recently, a team of researchers searching for high-energy neutrino particles detected an unusual signal emitting from these radio antennas. The mysterious signal has left them scratching their heads, as they ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2025 - Ancient teeth are rewriting the story of our evolution. Many people picture human evolution as a straight line—an ape slowly standing taller, becoming Neanderthal, and finally evolving into modern humans. That's just wrong, and newly discovered fossils in Ethiopia may help to illustrate this fact. An international team of researchers has discovered nearly 2.8-million-year-old teeth, which reveal that our earliest human relatives (members of the genus Homo ) lived side by side with a completely new species of Australopithecus. "We report the presence of Homo at 2.78 and 2.59 million ... [Read More]

Aug 28th, 2025 - From glowing mushrooms on forest floors to plankton that light up the sea, nature has long revealed beauty through bioluminescence. These natural spectacles capture human imagination, inspiring ideas of glowing gardens and self-lit cities. Scientists are now moving closer to that vision, crafting houseplants that radiate their own soft light . Scientists create glowing plants In a recent study published in the journal Matter , researchers described glowing succulents that recharge in sunlight and emit colorful afterglows. By injecting the leaves with special light-storing particles, the ... [Read More]