Science & Tech

Science & Tech

Explore the discoveries that reveal how the world works, alongside the technologies that extend, reshape, and sometimes challenge what’s possible.

Known as the "past hypothesis" problem, the Universe's initially low entropy has long puzzled scientists. Now, cosmic inflation solves it.
apollo 8 earthrise
As the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war, distant, advanced civilizations would never know it. Earth appears peaceful from far away.
A group of identical, featureless figures with one central figure colored dark blue and green, surrounded by swirling lines.
As AI overwhelms the web, we will need a way to distinguish people from machines.
A labeled illustration shows the Large Magellanic Cloud, astronomers' most pristine star (SDSS J0715-7334), and the Milky Way galaxy connected by a wispy trail.
The 1st generation of stars formed, lived, and died very early on. But 2nd generation stars could still persist today. Did we just find one?
A person’s silhouette looks out a spacecraft window at Earth—a blue and white sphere against the darkness of space—reflecting the hope inspired by Artemis II’s journey to the moon.
As humanity journeys to the Moon for the first time since 1972, can we rediscover our shared responsibilities: to the world and each other?
black hole merger
As light travels across the Universe, it's subject to cosmic expansion, changing fields, and relative motion. How about gravitational waves?
An older man with a beard sits on a chair in front of a white backdrop, with yellow neuron-like patterns on a black background surrounding the scene.
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Neuroscientist David Linden sheds light on the biology behind phenomena that medicine has long struggled to explain, from voodoo death and broken heart syndrome to the placebo effect, and why grief shows up in autopsy results
Historic map illustration of the city of Tenochtitlan, surrounded by water, with labeled features and detailed buildings, from the early colonial period in Mexico.
This 1524 map of the Aztec capital was a window into an exotic otherworld — and largely a fiction.
A group of people stands and plays cricket in an urban park at dusk, with city buildings, trees, and illuminated streetlights in the background.
The ozone hole was going to destroy life as we know it, but an unprecedented global effort fixed the problem.
Three illustrated rats in different colors stand upright together, surrounded by sketches and diagrams of rats, fencing patterns, and hints of rat survival strategies in the background.
Cognitive flexibility, opportunistic survival, and social cooperation have allowed rats to thrive in conditions that wipe out other species.
Futuristic Mars habitat with transparent walls, showing people tending to green plants and fungi inside. Astronauts and rovers are visible on the red, rocky Martian surface outside.
Instead of hauling heavy building materials across space, future astronauts may grow fungal shelters from spores, waste, and local regolith.
Illustration of a dumpster filled with discarded electronics, cables, and a cracked laptop—clear evidence of planned obsolescence—with computer components, trash bags, wires spilling out, and a detached eyeball above.
A broken laptop hinge revealed a broader shift in how modern products are designed, sold, and owned
A pixelated silhouette of a leaping cheetah, inspired by d/acc aesthetics, appears to disintegrate into square particles against a blue grid background.
AI is unlocking unprecedented capabilities — and exposing new vulnerabilities just as quickly.
Digital illustration showing a large sphere with red dots and data labels, referencing kessler syndrome, accompanied by close-up insets and smaller circular and linear patterns on the right side.
We’ve populated low-Earth orbit with satellites in record time — now we have to figure out how to keep it safe.
Book cover of "True Color" by Kory Stamper, featuring illustrations of twelve colored book spines—echoing the era of the dye famine—arranged in a grid on a beige background.
When America lost access to German dyes, the crisis revealed a startling truth: color was chemical, tactical, and essential to warfare.
logarithmic history of universe
In a 13.8 billion year old Universe, a few seconds hardly seems like it matters. But these minuscule changes sure do add up over time.
Two peculiar galaxies collide in deep space, forming bright clusters and swirling dust clouds—a striking scene that reveals the beauty and violence of the cosmos against a dark background.
Most massive galaxies are spiral or elliptical shaped. But peculiar galaxies showcase the beautiful violence that helps explain our cosmos.
The book cover of "How Flowers Made Our World" by David George Haskell features a large pink orchid, lush nature scenery, and hints at the evolutionary history of flowers, with text in white and yellow on a dark background.
Once land plants, seagrasses staged one of evolution’s boldest reversals — returning to the ocean and reinventing their biology to thrive beneath the waves.
Illustration of multiple spiral galaxies and stars being pulled toward a central black hole in deep space, with blue and purple light streaks tracing the motion along a dark energy curve that shapes the universe.
Early on, the Universe needed near-perfect flatness, or atoms, stars, and galaxies couldn't form. What happens once dark energy takes over?
bok globule barnard 68 dust wavelength
The image you're seeing isn't a hole in the Universe, and the cosmic voids that do exist aren't hole-like at all.