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Lion tracks from the ice age: How two ways of seeing brought ancient animals to life
Science News

Lion tracks from the ice age: How two ways of seeing brought ancient animals to life

The coastline near the southern tip of Africa looked vastly different between about 400,000 years ago and 70,000 years ago, compared with today. At times it lay as much as 100km (62 miles) south of its present location, exposing the vast Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, which contained an extensive habitat for large mammals. At other times the sea level was briefly as much as 13 meters (43 feet) higher than today's mean level.

📅 2026-10-15 19:00:33    •    Phys.org
Why a high school in Virginia is getting a quantum computer
Science News

Why a high school in Virginia is getting a quantum computer

Starting in January, students attending Skyview High School in Virginia will learn about the building blocks and principles underlying quantum computers by working with one directly

📅 2026-10-15 19:00:00    •    New Scientist
Towering glacial ice cliffs may collapse in fits and starts
Science News

Towering glacial ice cliffs may collapse in fits and starts

The cliff face of Thrym glacier in Skjoldungen fjord, Greenland, in August 2025Caroline Needell The world’s thickest glaciers may “calve” icebergs up to three times faster than previously predicted. However, such rapid retreat may not be sustained over long periods. Instead, the large bodies of ice – which include Antarctica’s Thwaites glacier – may collapse in bursts, with intervening periods of stability. The behaviour of tall ice cliffs is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in predicting future sea level rise. Several of the world’s largest glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica extend out to sea, with their bases resting on the sea floor. Their coastal edges can form ice cliffs loom...

📅 2026-10-15 18:00:00    •    New Scientist
Google showcases way to fix quantum computer errors more efficiently
Science News

Google showcases way to fix quantum computer errors more efficiently

The Willow quantum computerGoogle Quantum AI Making quantum computers error-proof is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the technology. Researchers at Google Quantum AI have now demonstrated one way to do so more efficiently. Their work suggests the smaller quantum computers that will be available in the next few years could be more impactful than expected. Quantum computers can run mathematical operations, analogous to addition or multiplication, that conventional computers cannot. This makes them suitable for solving some problems that had previously been considered unsolvable, such as those that underpin cryptography. Most important among the quantum operations the computers r...

📅 2026-10-15 18:00:00    •    New Scientist
AI helps detect media bias, informing voters and news consumers
Science News

AI helps detect media bias, informing voters and news consumers

In 2024, a collaborative Penn venture introduced a more objective way for people to examine how different outlets cover the same events and ultimately decide how they perceive and use information shared in the media. The Media Bias Detector, conceived in Penn's Computational Social Science (CSS) Lab, a joint venture of Penn Engineering, the Annenberg School for Communication and the Wharton School, uses artificial intelligence to analyze news articles for characteristics including topic, tone, political lean, and the facts and people included in coverage.

📅 2026-10-15 16:00:12    •    Phys.org
'We're not a competitor to fusion. We are fusion': Inside the race to harness unlimited solar power in space
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'We're not a competitor to fusion. We are fusion': Inside the race to harness unlimited solar power in space

The year is 2050, and as the sun sets, the night's first constellations emerge in perfect rows. But these amber-glowing arrays aren't stars at all; they're satellite clusters, harvesting the day's last rays before beaming their power back to Earth.If it reads like science fiction, that's because it started that way. Called space-based solar power (SBSP), the concept featured prominently in the techno-utopian imaginations of 20th-century visionaries and writers. But for decades, it was dismissed — a pie in the sky proposal.Now, as a new space race heats up, governments and private companies in China, the U.S., the U.K. and Japan are developing several projects to reassess the idea's feasibili...

📅 2026-10-15 16:00:00    •    Live Science
Why are pets scared of fireworks?
Science News

Why are pets scared of fireworks?

Fireworks are an integral part of many celebrations and cultural events. With their pretty colors, spectacular sights and big bangs, fireworks are a popular attraction for many people.

📅 2026-10-15 15:40:13    •    Phys.org
Quantum calculations reveal how spin defects lose energy
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Quantum calculations reveal how spin defects lose energy

When light hits a tiny defect embedded in a solid material like diamond or silicon carbide, it can kick the defect's electrons into an excited state. These spin defects have the potential to be used as stable, readable qubits for quantum technologies, for example, quantum sensing. But modeling the full physics of their energetics over time—a key step in developing spin defects into new technologies—is a challenging task.

📅 2026-10-15 15:40:09    •    Phys.org
Solving the mystery behind a flightless beetle's transatlantic journey
Science News

Solving the mystery behind a flightless beetle's transatlantic journey

They can't fly or swim, so why do their closest relatives appear on different continents? Grey Gustafson, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, discovered through DNA sequencing that the ancestors of some of today's tiger beetles existed in South America and Africa before the two continents separated. What's more, North America's largest tiger beetles are related to these ancestral South American giant tiger beetles.

📅 2026-10-15 15:20:11    •    Phys.org