Thunder + fiber-optic cabling used for seismic imaging
Most of what we know about the Earth’s interior comes from observing seismic waves. These travel at somewhat different speeds depending on the details of the rock they’re moving through—whether…
August 2026
Neck fans might look goofy, but tests show they work surprisingly well
Wearable neck fans, the kind that drape around users’ collarbones and shoot short streams of cooling air upward, have existed for the better part of two decades, but have never…
Fisherman finds live WWII mine at bottom of Danube River in Slovakia
Europe’s brutal heatwaves have left the Danube River at historically low water levels. Over the last few weeks alone, residents in Serbia and Hungary discovered World War II artifacts like…
British man spends $7,000 building a street-legal sports car in his shed
Looking for a new car in 2026 can feel like a drag. Physical designs often coalesce into middle-of-the-road conformity, while increasingly complex components and additional tech make the more exciting,…
Waymo doubles spending on lobbying in robotaxi battle with Uber
Waymo has sharply increased its lobbying spending as it seeks to persuade US regulators to clear a path for fully autonomous taxi services, intensifying its battle with rival Uber over…
Scientists smash atoms together to create ‘little’ big bangs
It’s difficult to imagine anything of consequence occurring within a millionth of a second, but one of the most pivotal moments in cosmic history occurred in that miniscule time.. Physicists…
NASA abandons mission to save Swift Observatory from a fiery death
NASA engineers have confirmed they can’t spare the historic Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory from a fiery demise, despite their best efforts. In July, mission specialists partnering with Katalyst Space Technologies…
11 stunning images celebrating Earth’s life—and the scientists who study it
An expressive little orange-tailed marsh dart damselfly (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum) peering through a hole in a leaf is the winner of the 2026 BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology image…
SpaceX’s orbital data centers would create a new category of e-waste
Elon Musk’s talk about maintaining a million-strong AI data center satellite megaconstellation may not exactly be practical or economical, but it might be unique. It’s about the closest we’ve come…
Grok exfiltrates user data when malicious instructions are encrypted
Earlier this week, researchers outlined an attack that used a secret input provided by Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise to cause the AI assistant to exfiltrate a password present in…