George Dvorsky

No, German Scientists Have Not Confirmed the “Impossible” EMDrive

Two German researchers claim they have produced measurable amounts of thrust using a copy of NASA’s controversial EMDrive. It’s a result that has many people talking, but don’t plan your trip to the to the Alpha Centauri system just yet—the experts we spoke with are all highly skeptical of the study and its findings. As…

Leading Experts Sign an Open Letter Calling For a Ban On AI Weapons

More than a thousand prominent thinkers and leading AI and robotics researchers have signed an open letter calling for a ban on “offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control.” The letter, which was put together by the Future of Life Institute, was recently presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires,…

Millions of landmines remain strewn across Angola, remnants of the country’s long civil war. Remarkably, some elephants have learned to sniff out and avoid these hazards, and even alert an entire herd to the danger. Intrigued, the U.S. Army is now testing the ability of elephants to detect chemicals found in landmines—and they’re passing with…

Fascinating Data Visualization Shows Which Words We Use Most

Most of us know that “the” is the most common word in the English language. But what are some other high-frequency words, both long and short? This amazing animated data bubble visualization by Abacaba provides the answers. As noted in the video, these results were compiled by computer scientist Peter Norvig,who used a Google Books…

China is Building an Absolutely Massive Radio Telescope

Construction is well underway on what will become the world’s largest radio telescope. Once complete, the half-kilometer-wide dish will explore the origins of the Universe and scour the skies for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Located in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope—aka “FAST”—is being constructed on a naturally formed bowl-like valley. It’s…

Remarkable Discovery Could Push Back Human Agriculture by 11,000 Years

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered evidence of early cereal cultivation at a 23,000-year-old site in Galilee, effectively doubling the timespan humans are believed to have practiced farming. Above: Wild-type (left) and domestic-type (right) scars in rachises of wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) from Ohalo II. Prior to the new study, the available evidence pointed to the…

Could Life Have Emerged on Earth’s Near Twin?

Yesterday, NASA’s Kepler team announced the discovery of the most Earth-like planet yet. It may be larger than Earth, but this exoplanet is situated firmly within its star’s habitable zone—and it’s been there for a while. So could it actually sustain life? Here’s What We Know So Far Kepler 452b is located 1,400 light-years from…

Ancient Microbes Found Alive Deep Beneath the Ocean Floor

Researchers working off the Shimokita Peninsula in Japan have discovered living microbes buried 8,000 feet below the seabed, a new record. And because they resemble those found in forest soils, these organisms likely survived for tens of millions of years after being buried under the seabed. “Microbial life inhabits deeply buried marine sediments, but the…

Updated Kepler Catalog Includes 521 New Possible Exoplanets

Earlier today, during the announcement of the most Earth-like planet ever discovered, researchers working on the Kepler mission released an updated catalog—which now includes 521 new candidate planets. Add that to the 4,175 already discovered by the space-based telescope. Above. An artist’s conception of habitable-zone planets with similarities to Earth: from left, Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, the…

DNA Suggests America’s First People Arrived in a Single Wave

A genetic analysis of ancient and modern humans suggests that the ancestors of Native Americans entered the North American continent from Siberia some 23,000 years ago—and that they did so in a single wave. According to the new study, which now appears at Science, the original Americans came to North America via Beringia at the…

The 8 Biggest Disasters in U.S. Military History

The United States has experienced its share of military successes over the years. But its armed forces have also suffered some terrible setbacks. Here are eight of the very worst. Compared to many other countries, the United States has never really suffered a cataclysmic military disaster. The continental U.S. has never faced a significant invasion…

This Ancient Koran Manuscript Was Discovered in a British Library

Well-preserved fragments of a Koran manuscript dating back some 1,370 years have been discovered in a library at Birmingham University. Written shortly after the death of Muhammed, it’s among the oldest texts of the Islamic holy book in existence. The manuscript, written in a beautiful and surprisingly legible Hijazi hand (an early form of Arabic…

Botched Robotic Surgeries Have Been Linked to 144 Patient Deaths

An independent analysis of reports gathered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 2000 shows that robotic surgery isn’t as safe as some people might assume. Surgery involving robots, where a surgeon guides the steady and precise movements of a robotic arm, have increased dramatically in recent years. As reported in MIT Technology Review,…

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered ancient text on a 1,500-year-old piece of charred parchment. By using advanced digital imagery, the scientists exposed the hidden writing, which isn’t visible to the naked eye. Discovered 45 years ago, the Hebrew Scroll is believed to contain the first eight versus of the Bible’s Old Testament book of Leviticus.…

Do These Battle-Scarred Remains Belong to Alexander the Great’s Father?

A new study suggests that Royal Tomb I—and not the more famous Royal Tomb II—is the final resting place of King Philip II, the powerful father of Alexander the Great, a claim backed by some very compelling evidence. Above: Lateral view of the left leg in flexion showing the knee injury. By performing scans and…

The Philae Comet Lander Has Gone Silent Yet Again

The Philae lander, the first probe to ever touch down on a comet, hasn’t made a peep in 11 days, prompting fears that it has shifted its position, and not for the better. Above: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on July 7, 2015 Since it emerged from hibernation on June 14, 2015, Philae has made intermittent and sporadic…

Glorious Photo Captures the Moon and a Two-Tailed Comet

Photographer Yuri Beletsky recently captured this stunning photo of comet C/2014 Q1 (Pan-Starrs) which is currently visible in the Southern Hemisphere. The photo — a High Dynamic Range (HDR) composite — was taken from a valley in northern Chile late last week. Beletsky had to climb a hill to get the exact shot because the…

Why is the Scale of the Universe so Freakishly Large?

“Space is big,” said Douglas Adams. “You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-boggingly big it is.” But why must this be so? And why does our Universe exhibit such tremendous scale, from the very tiny to the extremely large? Here are some possible answers. From Micro to Macro It’s hard to wrap our heads…

The Search for Alien Intelligence Got a $100 Million Boost

Russian billionaire Yuri Milner has announced a new initiative called Breakthrough Listen, a 10-year project that will search for radio and light signals emitted by extraterrestrials. At a cost of $100 million, it’s the largest sum of money ever allocated to the effort. As a discrete SETI endeavor, Breakthrough Listen will dwarf anything that has…

This Robot Just Passed a Rudimentary Self-awareness Test

It’s nothing to get too excited or alarmed about, but a robot has passed a modified version of the classic King’s Wise Men Test. It’s another classic case of simulation rather than emulation, but the experiment shows how artificial self-awareness can be programmed into our technology. For the experiment, roboticists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s…