Saturday 17 October
A few good things to read before sleep.
A short, fresh selection of science, medicine, space, nature and tennis, ready by early evening every day.
Shortly after Artemis II splashdown on April 10, 2026, U.S. Navy divers captured underwater imagery of the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield.
Sunset 18:01 · fully dark from 19:23
No visible passes this week.
Times are local to Amman. Away from city lights you’ll see much more.
Moritz Hardt, author of a new book on benchmarks, believes these “standardized tests” for artificial intelligence are fundamentally broken — but not unfixable. The post He Wants AI Benchmarking To Be a Science, Not a Dark Art first appeared on Quanta Magazine
by Ieuan Scanlon, Anna Rawlings, David Tucker, Daniel S. Thayer, Hywel T. Evans, Joanne Given, Sam Jones, Maria Loane, Chloe Morgan, Joan K. Morris, Sue Jordan Background Education outcomes are associated with life chances. However, deprivation, ill-health…
Astronomers used decades of archival data and new radial velocity measurements to search for exoplanets around a neaby binary star, 70 Oph AB. They didn't find any, which can seem like a failure. But in this case, their work only ruled out large, Jupiter-mass…
The ocean beneath Saturn's moon Enceladus lies under kilometers of ice, but some of its contents do reach the surface. Jets near the south pole spray out water vapor and icy particles, offering a way to investigate the hidden ocean without drilling down to it.
Astronomers using China's FAST radio telescope have discovered a compact cloud of hydrogen with no visible stars or galaxy around it. This could be one of the strongest candidates yet for an isolated "dark galaxy," containing nearly 500,000 times the sun's…
Neutrinos come in three different flavors. A new study finds that neutrino flavor could play a significant role in whether a dying star becomes a supernova or collapses directly into a black hole.
A research team led by the Molecular and Cellular Neurobiotechnology group at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), in collaboration with Míriam Royo's laboratory at the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), the University…
When a knee injury forced me to change my fitness routine, I added Sportneer ankle weights – and got a decent workout I’m a personal trainer. Here’s the equipment I use Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things My…
The website for Springer Journals Online, an agency offering authorship slots in articles in exchange for payment, has gone offline, four days after Retraction Watch published its investigation into its activities. As we reported on Monday, the agency was…
The University of Maryland conducted an internal investigation that identified image duplications and other data integrity issues in the studies, according to the retraction notices.
A small study shows that patients can help fine-tune their own seizure detectors by chatting with an AI agent. However, the more difficult challenge ahead is to build AI that responds appropriately.
Results of a phase 1 trial of the antibody−toxin conjugate D2C7-ATC targeting EGFR/EGFRvIII in patients with recurrent malignant glioma show encouraging safety and efficacy signals, with translational analyses of patient samples indicating intratumoral and…
This cross-sectional study describes health outcomes attributed to recent use of psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), ibogaine, and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) in a nationally representative survey of US adults.
Quantum computers represent a next step in the fast-paced evolution of technology. Using quantum bits (qubits), they have the potential to run certain calculations exponentially faster than conventional computers. However, developing and fine-tuning quantum…
A week-long meeting in Cambridge celebrated Masao Doi’s and Luca Peliti’s pioneering framework to study random processes
Hexagonal close-packed phase could exist deep within the planets Uranus and Neptune, contributing to their peculiar magnetic fields
In the west the technology comes with at least some effort to provide security and a benign intent – not so from China There is much to fear from artificial intelligence developed in China and handed to businesses and governments in the west almost free of…
This article was originally published by Canary Media. America’s energy supply crunch is driving a surge of federal and private investment in new electricity generation — from polluting gas turbines to cleaner developments like solar farms and geothermal…
The actions could have resulted in criminal charges had humans been behind the keyboard.
Cicero’s ideal of manly virtue stressed the performance of self-control and bravery, not boastful egotism and domination - by Catharine Edwards Read on Aeon
The research is rolling in, and the answer is yes. It’s possible to turn tedious work gatherings into more effective and enjoyable experiences.
Research suggests listening more while talking less. Killing aimless meetings can help, too.
No replacement has been named as the 82-year-old departs, with the media announcement referring only to ‘the next generation’ Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free weekly media newsletter here Long-serving broadcaster Robyn Williams is leaving the ABC’s The…
Genome analysis shows how decades of lab cultivation turned C. botulinum, the canned-food killer, into a potent tool for medicine and the beauty industry
Steve Hamilton was fishing in Winter Garden when he was attacked by gator, which was later killed A man fishing at a pond in Florida was killed on Friday by an alligator that was almost 12ft long in a rare kind of animal attack, according to authorities and…
JAKARTA — Wisye Sahambangung is a fisher, community leader, and mangrove conservationist from Sarawet, a coastal Indonesian village in North Sulawesi province. Since 2022, the 45-year-old has led Rhizopora, a women’s group that restores mangroves and helps…
Difficulties in transporting animals since Brexit has contributed to the decline in the number of captive birds.
Britain's Sonay Kartal beats former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko to reach the Wuhan Open final in only her third event after a six-month injury lay-off.
Alexander Zverev is out of the Shanghai Masters.
Britain's Sonay Kartal was forced to dig deep to beat Jelena Ostapenko and secure a spot in her first-ever WTA 1000 final on Saturday.