News
- Space
Here are 10 of Arecibo’s coolest achievements
The now-defunct Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico made myriad discoveries over its 57-year run, including of pulsar planets and ice on Mercury.
- Space
Why losing Arecibo is a big deal for astronomy
The radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory has collapsed, robbing scientists of a special tool for studying everything from asteroids to galaxies.
- Archaeology
Two stones fuel debate over when America’s first settlers arrived
Stones possibly used to break mastodon bones 130,000 years ago in what is now California get fresh scrutiny.
- Quantum Physics
The new light-based quantum computer Jiuzhang has achieved quantum supremacy
A second type of quantum computer has now performed a calculation impossible for a traditional computer.
- Humans
Ancient humans may have deliberately voyaged to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands
Satellite-tracked buoys suggest that long ago, a remote Japanese archipelago was reached by explorers on purpose, not accidentally.
- Health & Medicine
The ‘last mile’ for COVID-19 vaccines could be the biggest challenge yet
The need for cold storage and booster shots could create problems for distributing coronavirus vaccines to nearly everyone in the world.
- Health & Medicine
The U.K. is the first country to authorize a fully tested COVID-19 vaccine
Pfizer will deliver the first of 40 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine promised to the United Kingdom in the coming days.
- Health & Medicine
Health care workers and long-term care residents should get COVID-19 vaccines first
With an initial 40 million doses of the vaccines, enough for 20 million people, anticipated by year-end, health officials are setting priorities.
- Planetary Science
China is about to collect the first moon rocks since the 1970s
The robotic Chang’e-5 mission, which landed on an unexplored region of the moon December 1, aims to gather samples and return them to Earth.
- Space
Astronomers spotted colliding neutron stars that may have formed a magnetar
Astronomers may have witnessed the formation of a kind of rapidly spinning, extremely magnetized stellar corpse for the first time.
- Health & Medicine
Long-lasting shots work better than daily pills to prevent HIV in at-risk women
A more discreet HIV prevention method — a shot once every eight weeks —could help to boost use in women at risk.
- Space
Runaway stars may create the mysterious ultraviolet glow around some galaxies
Hot blue stars kicked out of their birthplace can travel thousands of light-years to their galaxies’ hinterlands, new computer simulations show.
