Sci &Tech

A rocket launch looks like a contest between raw power and engineering control, but the most critical moments happen before the vehicle even leaves the ground. In the final seconds on the launchpad, forces build rapidly as engines ignite while the rocket is still restrained. To an outside observer, some of the systems activated at…

Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple is required to allow developers to freely inform customers of alternative offers outside its App Store. Gabby Jones | Bloomberg via Getty Images The Apple and Google Play app stores are hosting dozens of “nudify” apps that can take photos of people and use artificial intelligence to generate…

The idea of dark matter has existed for decades, mostly as a necessary explanation rather than something clearly seen. New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope are adding texture to that idea, without resolving it completely. Scientists working with Webb data have produced a detailed map showing where dark matter appears to sit in…

A general view of Micron Technology’s building in Singapore, June 23, 2020.  Micron Gcm Studio | Reuters Micron Technology on Tuesday committed approximately $24 billion to expand its wafer manufacturing operations in Singapore, as the American memory chipmaker moves to expand production amid global shortages.  In a press release, Micron said the investment would add…

The total solar eclipse of August 12, 2026, will sweep across parts of the northern hemisphere, briefly turning day into dusk along a narrow path. Greenland, Iceland, and northern Spain will lie directly beneath the moon’s shadow, while much of Europe, Scandinavia, West Africa, and parts of North America will see a partial eclipse. Timings…

A kangaroo near White Cliffs, an Outback area in the state of New South Wales, Australia. | Photo Credit: AFP For a long time, biomechanics experts believed that giant, extinct kangaroos were simply too heavy to hop. While the largest modern kangaroos weigh around 90 kg, their prehistoric relatives were much larger and weighed more…

Chinese officials are reviewing Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus for possible technology control violations, FT reported on Tuesday. Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Meta Platforms is set to test new subscription models across its apps, including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp in the coming months, according to a report from TechCrunch…

If there’s a soup of cells and you make them settle down and work together in orderly fashion, you reduce the system’s entropy. | Photo Credit: Bioscience Image Library by Fayette Reynolds Living things dump a lot of heat into their surroundings. The universe is strict about conserving energy. If there’s a soup of cells…

The Microsoft data center campus, currently under construction, is reflected in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, September 18, 2025. Audrey Richardson | Reuters Local officials have signed off on Microsoft’s plans to build 15 more data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, near an existing site that the technology company is expanding. Additional data center capacity will allow…

Shruti Kumar (name changed) is a professor at a medical research institute, working on diagnosing a neglected tropical disease that infects almost a million new people every year. Prof. Kumar said that with the increasing number of requests by scientific publishers to peer review research manuscripts in recent years, the process takes so much of…