George Dvorsky

A spectacular shot of one of the densest star clusters ever discovered

Need a new desktop background? Look no further than this dazzling photo of Messier 15, an ancient globular cluster located about 35,000 light-years away. The image was compiled from observations made by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys in the ultraviolet, infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. Here’s a glimpse…

Stonehenge archaeologists have been digging in the wrong place!

For the past 90 years, archaeologists have been scouring Pembrokeshire’s Preseli Hills in search of clues that could shed light on where the bluestones used to build the famous monument came from. But it turns out that the rocks may have originated from another hill — one that’s just a mile away. Just where the…

Watch how a paralyzed man can use a quadrotor drone to fly

It’s all drones all week at TED, with experts asking if these things will save us or destroy us. But as shown in this remarkable talk delivered teleremotely by quadriplegic Henry Evens, they have the potential to expand the worlds of bedridden people by giving them the sense of flight. Henry Evans became a mute…

​What will NASA be doing with its new quantum computer?

Earlier this year, NASA, in partnership with Google, acquired the world’s largest quantum computer. But just what does the space agency plan to do with a device with such revolutionary potential? We talked to one of their lead researchers to find out. https://gizmodo.com/a-sneak-peak-inside-google-and-nasas-new-quantum-ai-la-1444007785 Above: Artistic impression of an exoplanet. Once scaled-up sufficiently, NASA will use…

Ohio’s Supreme Court backs the firing of a creationist science teacher

In a case that’s lasted five years, the Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the termination of John Freshwater, an eighth-grade science teacher who refused to remove religious content from his class. But the decision was reached for a different reason than you may think. This story started in 2008, when a local family sued Freshwater…

New “comedy” video shows Einstein sexually assaulting Marie Curie

Apparently It’s Okay To Be Smart thinks it’s okay to be sexist. The science-themed YouTube show is taking a ton of flak after releasing a video portraying Albert Einstein as a lecherous old man who can’t keep his hands off Marie Curie during Thanksgiving dinner. The video, which was produced by Joe Hanson of IOTBS…

Modern humans are still carrying Neanderthal viruses

Neanderthals and Denisovans may be long gone, but their viruses continue to live on inside our bodies. The geneticists who discovered these ancient viruses aren’t sure if they’re bad for us, but they could make us more susceptible to certain cancers. Retroviruses are a special class of viruses that are comprised of RNA rather than…

Drone Video Shows Shocking Extent of Typhoon Damage in Philippines

It’s been a little over a week since the Philippines was rocked by Typhoon Hiyan, but the world is still coming to grips with the extent of the devastation. This sobering video of Tacloban taken by an aerial drone shows it’s worse than we could have possibly imagined. CNN’s Karl Penhaul reports from Tacloban, the…

This is the tiniest storage device ever built

Theoretically speaking, a single atom could be made to represent one computer bit — a technological prospect that could lead to unimaginably small storage devices. But getting atoms to behave in the desired way is easier said than done. Until now. Above: A scanning tunneling microscope showing single holmium atoms on a platinum surface. It’s…

James Woods explains why robots should eventually get to vote

Starting tonight, the Science Channel will air a six-part series called Futurescape, a slick documentary-style show hosted by James Woods about the world of tomorrow. We recently caught up with the oscar-nominated actor to learn more. One of the more interesting aspects of Futurescape is that, in addition to heralding the technologies of the future,…

No, drinking milk won’t prevent poor bone health when you’re older

For years we’ve been told that teenagers should drink three glasses of milk a day or the equivalent in dairy foods to build up bone reserves that help prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures later in life. But a comprehensive new study throwing this conventional wisdom into serious question. The research, which appears in Monday’s issue…

50,000 generations of bacteria prove that evolution never stops

In a remarkable experiment that’s been going on for nearly a quarter century, biologists have shown that lab-grown bacteria — even in a stable, unchanging world — will continue to evolve in a way that makes it increasingly good at reproducing. Above: On left is a petri dish with equal numbers of colonies of two…

A recent paper published in Nature Geoscience claims that we’re overprotecting Mars from biological contamination. Authors Alberto Fairén and Dirk Schulze-Makuch argue that planetary protection policies should be reevaluated because they’re actually preventing more ambitious plans to help us find signs of life on Mars and other planets. Image: NASA/JPL.

The most inspiring nature photography of the year

‘Tis the season to be sorting through the most stunning images of the year. And as always, National Geographic’s yearly contest offers some of the best that nature photography has to offer. Take a look at our favorites. Top: Fight: Praying mantises in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. By Mehmet Karaca. Last year’s contest produced some incredible photos,…

There’s an active volcano deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet

It’s a song of fire and ice — an active volcano that’s spewing magma at a depth of more than a half-mile beneath a massive sheet of ice. It’s an unprecedented discovery that hints at the possibility for a huge eruption, but with completely unpredictable consequences. A team of seismologists led by Douglas Wiens of…

A touching short film about Mandelbrot and how he discovered fractals

Back in 2010 — a mere 19 days before his death — Benoît Mandelbrot gave a candid and moving interview describing his life’s work and how he came to devise fractal geometry, the notion that the much of the natural world is organized according to elegant and predictable mathematical principles. Mandelbrot is best known for…

This is what it’s like to get bullied by an elk

On a recent visit to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a nature photographer got more than he bargained for while snapping pics of an elk. Afraid of startling the young bull, the man sat with remarkable patience as it poked, prodded, and headbutted him for what must have felt like an eternity. As you’ll see…

Quantum Computing Takes a Gigantic Leap Forward

An international team of scientists have just held a qubit’s memory state for 39 minutes. That might not sound like much, but it’s 100 times longer than the previous record. It’s a groundbreaking achievement that could pave the way to freakishly fast computers. Above: A quantum computer chip. Credit: Erick Lucero. Unlike conventional computers and…

How many people born in the 1800s are still alive?

Supercentenarian Grace Jones has passed away at the age of 113. She will go down in history as the last Briton born in the 19th century to die. Which got us thinking: How many people born in the 1800s are still kicking around? The answer is shockingly few. There’s just five left, people. Five. As…

Astronomers Fooled by the Largest Optical Illusion in the Universe

For years, astronomers thought that a galaxy floating 100 million light-years away was a single celestial object, a perfectly on-edge spiral galaxy with a colossal jet streaming away from it. But it’s all just an optical illusion — and a rather massive one at that. In a statement released by NASA yesterday, the space agency…