Physical sciences

The Social Cost of Methane Is Much Higher in the U.S. Than Current Government Estimates

Climate experts and lawmakers often refer to the social cost of carbon, which is an approximate cost of the net harm caused per ton of carbon dioxide dumped in the atmosphere. A new study, published in Nature on Wednesday, looks at the social cost of a different greenhouse gas: methane. The findings show that the…

Climate Change Dharna Noor Apr 21

Some Climate Tipping Points May Be Reversible, If We Act Fast

In the already-glum world of climate research, tipping points are one of the least rosy areas of study. The collapse of crucial systems in response to passing certain levels of planetary heating isn’t exactly uplifting stuff. A new study out in Nature on Wednesday is about as good as it gets, showing that we may…

Climate Change Brian Kahn Apr 21

420 Blaze It (The Planet)

We finally did it—we’ve hit 420! Parts per million, that is. Not to harsh your mellow on today of all days, but there’s more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than in any other point in recorded history. Earlier this month, scientists at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii took a measurement of more than 421.21…

Climate Change Molly Taft Apr 20

Gif: Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration/Gizmodo

New Video Puts Iconic Image of Black Hole in a Cosmic Context

Two years ago, astronomers acquired the first direct image of a black hole. A coordinated observation campaign of this object is now adding to our understanding of this black hole and its tumultuous surroundings. Located at the core of elliptical galaxy M87, this supermassive black hole carries the mass of 6.5 billion Suns. In April…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Apr 16

Former CDC Director Under Trump Now Promoting Unproven Virus-Killing Tech for ‘Big Ass Fans’

The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Donald Trump, Dr. Robert Redfield, has landed a sweet gig at…Big Ass Fans. Per Kaiser Health News (KHN), Redfield is now a strategic health and safety adviser for the company, effectively lending his scientific reputation to Big Ass Fans and the $9,450 ion-generating…

Health Tom McKay Apr 12

Big Oil Fed State Educators Stats Used to Push Back on Biden’s Climate Goals

For years, Big Oil has cozied up to American public schools—and now they seem to be cashing in their chips. New emails appear to show that some elected officials in charge of public schools may have been helped in attacking the Biden administration’s recent decision to pause oil and gas leasing on federal land by…

Climate Change Molly Taft Apr 10

Methane Has Never Risen This Fast in the Atmosphere

There’s more methane in the atmosphere than any other time since record keeping began—and levels really spiked last year, despite the fact that we were all inside for most of the time. On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency said that global atmospheric methane rose to 1,892.3 parts per billion. Methane shattering records is one…

Climate Change Molly Taft Apr 8

Wannabe Assassin Gets 12 Years on Chemical Weapon Charges for Trying to Buy Dimethylmercury

A federal court has sentenced a Missouri man who tried to buy the deadly poison dimethylmercury, a notoriously toxic substance that can kill in just a few drops on the skin, on the dark web to 12 years in prison. According to the New York Times, 46-year-old Jason William Siesser of Columbia, Missouri, had already…

Tech News Tom McKay Apr 7

Physics Mystery Gets Even Deeper After Long-Awaited Muon Reveal

Inside a locked cabinet, an envelope held a number that was poised to rock the physics community, regardless of its contents. The value, a clock measurement deliberately hidden to keep physicists’ data analysis unbiased, would be used in a calculation that could either bring one of particle physics’ foremost mysteries to an end—or take it…

Physics & Chemistry Ryan F. Mandelbaum Apr 7

A Dangerous Toxin From Pond Scum Can Go Airborne, Study Finds

A potent toxin released by algae blooms has the potential to become airborne, recent research suggests. In what’s said to be a first, the study found traces of the toxin in the air near pond water in Massachusetts. Though it’s unclear whether this and similar toxins are harmful to people and animals when airborne, the…

Health Ed Cara Apr 5

Physicists Think They’ve Spotted a Very Rare Black Hole

On August 30, 1995, 10-billion-year-old light from the early universe finally hit the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, which was circling in Earth orbit. An Australian research team is now reporting that the gamma-ray burst contained evidence of an exceedingly rare intermediate-mass black hole, the sort that would help fill a hole in our understanding of these…

Space & Spaceflight Isaac Schultz Apr 2

Physicists Laser-Cool Antimatter to Near Absolute Zero

For a little more than a week in July 2018, a team of physicists at CERN tried a new technique to slow down antimatter particles zipping around at breakneck speeds. Those 10 days of observation were the culmination of 10 years of development in an international collaboration called ALPHA, which oversaw the design and construction…

Physics & Chemistry Isaac Schultz Mar 31

Narwhal Tusks Show How Climate Change and Pollution Are Reshaping the Arctic

There’s no question that we’re messing up the oceans big time. But shocking new research shows the world’s addiction to fossil fuels is changing the bodies of big ocean predators like narwhals. A study published this month in Current Biology uses narwhal tusks to examine how the animals store mercury over time, finding that levels…

Climate Change Molly Taft Mar 31

Indonesian Oil Refinery Ablaze After Massive Explosion

A massive blaze lit up at an Indonesia oil refinery in the wee hours of Monday morning, sparking continuous flames for hours. At least five people have been seriously burned and 950 nearby residents have been evacuated. One person, a 61-year-old local, had a heart attack while evacuating and died. The fire at the refinery…

Energy Dharna Noor Mar 29

How Microsoft’s Quantum Boast Went Bust

Microsoft is an outlier among the companies investing in quantum computing research. Unlike Google, IBM, or the handful of startups that have built noisy experimental prototypes out of superconducting circuits, ions, or photons, the company is trying to build a quantum computer by using objects known as Majorana particles—distinctive patterns of electrons in a tiny…

Physics & Chemistry Sophia Chen Mar 26

The U.S. Is One Step Closer to Establishing a Research Program to Block the Sun

There are some signs the world may be finally gearing up to tackle the root cause of the climate crisis by reducing carbon emissions. But on Wednesday, a group of scientists detailed how to develop an insurance plan if the world fails to do so. The National Academies of Sciences released a monster report on…

Earther Brian Kahn Mar 25

Amateur Astronomer Spots a Rare Visible Nova

A new nova, appearing in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, can be seen with binoculars and small telescopes, but this transient object won’t stick around for long. Here’s how you can spot Nova V1405 Cas before it’s too late. Amateur astronomer Yuji Nakamura from Kameyama City of Japan spotted the nova on March 18 at…

Space & Spaceflight George Dvorsky Mar 24

Soil May Not Be Able to Keep Storing Carbon Dioxide as Emissions Increase

There’s a trope in the climate denial world that rising carbon dioxide levels are good, actually, because it’s helping plants grow. Putting aside that saying that ignores all the deleterious effects on life on Earth, there’s also another issue with the tired talking point. A new study published in Nature on Wednesday suggests that while increased…

Earther Dharna Noor Mar 24

See a Black Hole’s Magnetic Fields in New Image From the Event Horizon Telescope

In April 2019, the world was spellbound, if only for a moment, by an ominous void encircled by a half-halo of light. It was the first direct image of a black hole; more specifically, a supermassive gravitational abyss at the core of Messier 87, a galaxy in the constellation Virgo some 54 million light-years from…

Space & Spaceflight Isaac Schultz Mar 24

Warren Buffet and Other Deadbeats’ Climate Commitments Are Missing the Mark

What’s really in a big corporation’s pledges to cut emissions, anyway? For a lot of those promises, not much, a new investor-led report finds. An exhaustive benchmark analysis of the climate pledges of nearly 160 global companies released Monday digs into the specifics of some of these carbon-cutting and/or net-zero promises, finding that no company…

Climate Change Molly Taft Mar 22

The Social Cost of Methane Is Much Higher in the U.S. Than Current Government Estimates

Some Climate Tipping Points May Be Reversible, If We Act Fast

420 Blaze It (The Planet)

New Video Puts Iconic Image of Black Hole in a Cosmic Context

Former CDC Director Under Trump Now Promoting Unproven Virus-Killing Tech for ‘Big Ass Fans’

Big Oil Fed State Educators Stats Used to Push Back on Biden’s Climate Goals

Methane Has Never Risen This Fast in the Atmosphere

Wannabe Assassin Gets 12 Years on Chemical Weapon Charges for Trying to Buy Dimethylmercury

Physics Mystery Gets Even Deeper After Long-Awaited Muon Reveal

A Dangerous Toxin From Pond Scum Can Go Airborne, Study Finds

Physicists Think They’ve Spotted a Very Rare Black Hole

Physicists Laser-Cool Antimatter to Near Absolute Zero

Narwhal Tusks Show How Climate Change and Pollution Are Reshaping the Arctic

Indonesian Oil Refinery Ablaze After Massive Explosion

How Microsoft’s Quantum Boast Went Bust

The U.S. Is One Step Closer to Establishing a Research Program to Block the Sun

Amateur Astronomer Spots a Rare Visible Nova

Soil May Not Be Able to Keep Storing Carbon Dioxide as Emissions Increase

See a Black Hole’s Magnetic Fields in New Image From the Event Horizon Telescope

Warren Buffet and Other Deadbeats’ Climate Commitments Are Missing the Mark

Apple App Store Experiences Surge in New Apps Amid Vibe Coding Boom

Report Says Software Engineer Job Listings Are Up 30% This Year

Microsoft Says You’re Not Supposed to Take Copilot’s Advice Seriously

Amazon Is Sticking With ‘Rings of Power’ to the End

Trump Is Reportedly Going Full Steam Ahead with the Golden Dome

‘Kamen Rider’ Is Ready to Take on the World

Twitter Just Can’t Stop Leaking Movies

The ‘Mass Effect’ Show is Getting Rewritten to Get Greenlit

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Let us help find what you are looking for...