Brothers build a robot to solve Rubik’s cubes in record-setting time
A pair of brothers in the U.K. have officially broken the Guinness World Record for the fastest time solving a four-by-four Rubik’s Cube with a robot. Their DIY machine, which…
2026
Centuries before the Inca, Peru’s wealthy imported parrots from afar
Centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire, a much smaller kingdom on the central coast of Peru already had a sophisticated trade network—one it used to import live parrots…
We study pandemics, and the resurgence of measles is a grim sign of what’s coming
In the three decades between 1993 and 2024, measles in the US was relatively rare—a few hundred cases each year, at most. But suddenly, the disease has become so entrenched…
14,000 routers are infected by malware that’s highly resistant to takedowns
Researchers say they have uncovered a takedown-resistant botnet of 14,000 routers and other network devices—primarily made by Asus—that have been conscripted into a proxy network that anonymously carries traffic used…
British man powers DIY car with discarded vapes
Anyone who’s walked through the grounds of a music festival or even peeked into a public trash bin has likely noticed a deluge of discarded, single-use nicotine vapes. These vapes…
Explore the human body in stunning, 3D detail with a new online tool
If watching The Pitt is giving you a renewed interest in the human body in all of its gory glory, there’s a new tool that will help satisfy your curiosity.…
Anduril, the autonomous weapons maker, doubles the size of its space unit
Anduril Industries announced on Wednesday that it is acquiring ExoAnalytic Solutions, a space intelligence firm that operates a vast network of sensors monitoring the veiled movements of satellites thousands of…
Civil War shipwreck remains in ‘fantastic’ shape on ocean floor
One of the most famous shipwrecks in United States history has received a glow-up, courtesy of stunningly detailed, underwater 3D scanning technology. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently…
Don’t lick that cold metal pole in winter—if you do, don’t panic
We all remember that infamous scene in the 1983 classic, A Christmas Story, where a young boy licks a cold metal post on the playground and ends up getting his…
Quantum computing meets the Möbius molecule
Last week, IBM trumpeted its contributions to a rather unusual paper: the production of a molecule with a half-Möbius topology, assisted by an algorithm run in part on a quantum…