Science

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:UC Berkeley researchers created a framework designed to identify regions of our genome with super-archaic DNA.Experts believe we somehow inherited that DNA either directly or indirectly through interbreeding between species.Whether early Homo sapiens interbred with ghost species or inherited ghost DNA through Neanderthals and Densiovans who interbred … Read more

When a blue whale dives below the waves, their heart rate plummets to conserve oxygen.Their massive hearts can slow to just two beats per minute as they dive hundreds of meters in search of food.If your heart slowed that much, you’d probably pass out. And yet, somehow, filter-feeding cetacean divers like the blue whale (Balaenoptera … Read more

2026-08-07T08:39:59.065Z Do clouds ruin a total solar eclipse? Clouds won’t necessarily sour your eclipse expedition. (Image credit: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) One of the biggest worries before any eclipse is weather.While a perfectly blue sky is ideal, you don’t necessarily need one to enjoy the experience. Even under thin clouds, many of the most dramatic effects … Read more

Two NASA astronauts installed the seventh and final set of mounting hardware for new sets of solar arrays during a successful 6.5-hour spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.Jessica Meir and Anil Menon on Thursday (Aug. 6), assembled the modification kit for one of the space station’s eight power channels, which will allow for the … Read more

Letting go is hard, especially when it concerns an irreplaceable space probe like the two Voyagers. Fortunately JPL engineers have managed to pull off a ‘big bang’ switch on Voyager 2, involving two heaters and another device that was kept on to keep providing sufficient heat to the spacecraft to allow it to keep functioning. … Read more

Earth’s metallic core contains almost all of the planet’s gold, including enough, by one widely cited calculation, to spread a layer about 50 centimetres deep across every continent. None of that makes the core a mine. It begins roughly 2,900 kilometres down. What changed in 2025 was not the accessibility of that gold, but the … Read more

Four environmental organizations filed a petition Thursday asking the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its approval of a startup’s plan to beam on-demand sunlight from space to Earth, arguing the agency ignored the project’s potential impacts on wildlife, astronomy research and eye safety.DarkSky International, Environment America, the American Bird Conservancy and Public Employees for Environmental … Read more

Astronomers capture highest-resolution image ever of the Sun’s surface – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors

Like hoverboards, teleportation or smart glasses that don’t make you look like an absolute twat, space colonisation is a technological advent long-promised but as yet undelivered. Before Neil Armstrong even set foot on the moon, the US military was envisaging a long-term lunar outpost. The cost proved prohibitive and the Apollo missions came and went, … Read more

South Korea space agency shares Moon images after SpaceX rocket debris crash BBCScientists are certain a wayward SpaceX rocket slammed into the moon as predicted AP NewsSouth Korean satellite captures before and after views of SpaceX rocket’s moon crash The Press DemocratNASA Will Attempt to Observe Rocket Part’s Lunar Impact NASA (.gov)SpaceX rocket thought to … Read more