Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 5

The world's most powerful space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, has turned its sensitive instruments on the center of the Milky Way galaxy and the supermassive black hole located there called Sagittarius A*.

Most celestial objects are gravitationally bound in one way or another to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. To put in perspective the sheer size of Sagittarius A*, researchers estimate you could fit 4.1 million Suns in the supermassive black hole in terms of total mass, and if you lined Suns side by side, about 17 Suns could fit across the event horizon. It's fair to say it's big. Sagittarius A* is about 26,000 light-years away from Earth, and researchers decided to point Webb at it to observe its chaotic impact on the surrounding space.

In a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers write Webb's observations revealed incredible flares of light ejecting out from the supermassive black hole. These observations from Webb mark the most detailed look researchers have been able to make around the Milky Way's central black hole, and according to the study, these flares of light are coming from the inner edge of the accretion disk, which is a disklike flow of gas, plasma, dust, or particles around any astronomical object, and in this case Sagittarius A*.

In another advancement for robotics, Figure AI has introduced Helix, a new Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model that enables humanoid robots to see, understand, and interact with the world in real-time. Unlike traditional robotic systems, Helix allows robots to pick up objects they've never seen before, coordinate with other robots, and even understand natural language instructions, like putting away groceries in the right place.

In the footage, Helix-powered robots are presented with common grocery items - like eggs, fruit, and ketchup - and tasked with figuring out where they belong. Unlike conventional robots that require extensive programming or thousands of pre-recorded examples, Helix enables these robots to make real-time decisions based on their environment and natural language commands.

The robots move slowly throughout the demonstration, taking their time to process each object in the scene. However, they very carefully and deliberately identify each object in the scene, and carry out the task as assigned.

The race to create advanced humanoid robots has intensified significantly in 2025. 1X Technologies released a teaser showcasing NEO Gamma, their latest offering designed to help out around the house.

NEO Gamma is 'built for the home,' equipped for daily household tasks such as tidying, deep cleaning, and home management. It sports a unique, fabric-knit design that conveys a retro-futuristic aesthetic - somewhat reminiscent of something you'd see in a sci-fi arthouse film like Ex Machina (2014) or Swan Song (2021).

The teaser footage shows that the robot is designed with a distinctively human-centric feel. Opting for gentleness and simplicity in both its design and movements. Typically, you'll find a metallic, mechanical look to most humanoid robots showcased these days. However, the visuals of NEO pouring a cup of coffee or carrying around loads of laundry effectively convey what a robot could look like as a complement to your home, with some of that intimidation factor removed.

Elon Musk has taken to his personal X account to call for the International Space Station (ISS) to be deorbited early, as it serves "very little incremental utility."

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO recommended the ISS be deorbited "2 years from now," which is ahead of the official NASA scheduled that was to deorbit the floating laboratory sometime in 2030. Notably, SpaceX was awarded a contract in 2024 that was worth close to $1 billion to power the deorbiting process, which involves SpaceX creating a deorbiting vehicle that is ready for use by 2029. However, Musk seems to want to speed that timeline up significantly.

For those who don't know, the International Space Station is used by not only the United States to conduct scientific experiments in microgravity but also its partners, such as the European Space Agency (ESA), JAXA, Japan's NASA equivalent, and others. Moreover, the ending of the ISS won't just affect government space agencies but also the private sector, as several companies have already solidified plans that involve the ISS. So, why deorbit the ISS early?

The asteroid that was determined to be the most significant threat to Earth has now had it's chances of impacting our planet updated by NASA.

NASA has taken to its website to once again update the probability of 2024 YR4 impacting Earth, with the space agency initially estimating a 1.3% of it colliding with our planet in 2032, which was then promptly increased to 2.3%, and then a 3.1% chance after follow-up observations. Now, after more observations have been conducted the space agency can report the probability of impact in 2032 has been brought down to just 0.28%. NASA took to its Planetary Defense blog on February 20 to write, "Observations made overnight on Feb. 19 - 20 of asteroid 2024 YR4 have further decreased its chance of Earth impact on Dec. 22, 2032, to 0.28%."

While Earth can wipe its brow and almost say, "Close one!" the Moon isn't so lucky, as these follow-up observations increased the chance of asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting our closest neighbor. "With this new data, the chance of an impact with the Moon increased slightly to 1%," writes the space agency. For those wondering why the impact probabilities have been jumping around so much, NASA explains this is simply the process of scientific evaluation, with the space agency writing on its FAQ:

Meta has invented a device that is capable of replacing a keyboard for typing with a user instead thinking of the text they want to produce.

Two studies published by Meta last week detail researchers creating a new state-of-the-art brain scanner and combining it with a deep learning AI model that's designed to interpret brain signals and convert them into text. Here's how it works. The new platform consists of a magnetoencephalography scanner, which is a neuroimaging technique designed to measure and record the magnetic activity produced by the electric currents generated by brain signals.

The activity recorded by the machine is then combined with the deep learning AI model that interprets the signals into the keys pressed by an individual. The AI model eventually reached a level of accuracy that entire sentences could be reconstructed. Researchers said the system was capable of correctly predicting the keys typed by a "skilled" typist 80% of the time. Meta says the new system is the most accurate brain-typing system that doesn't involve an invasive procedure such as a brain-computer-interface (BCI), which involves surgery and connecting a device to the brain.

At the moment, there are only a few options for dental replacements, such as dentures, titanium implants, or leaving the gap completely blank. But what if you could get lab-grown teeth implanted?

Researchers from the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine have penned a new study published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine that details the process of growing a mix of human and pig tooth cells in pig jaws. The stem cells were implanted in the mandibles, or jaw, of the test pigs and were found to continue to grow, paving the way for a potential new viable method of lab-grown human teeth.

The researchers took cells from the enamel of pig teeth and cells from the dental pulp of human teeth, combined them with other human cells, and placed them on a biodegradable tooth-shaped frame that is constructed of parts of pig teeth. These were then implanted into adult Yucatan minipigs and grown for between 2 and 4 months. After the growth period was completed, the researchers observed "the formation of tooth-like tissues." It should be noted these aren't fully grown human teeth inside a pig, but the beginning foundations of them.

After betting massively on augmented and virtual reality, Meta has selected its next venture - AI-powered humanoid robotics.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Meta will be pouring a significant amount of money into the research and development of AI-powered humanoid robotics, whose focus will be on completing household chores. The recent report states Meta is forming a new team within its Reality Labs hardware division to begin the work and that internally, the company is planning on making all of the sensors, software, and AI instead of outsourcing. The currently unannounced plan involves Meta in talks with robotics companies such as Unitree Robotics and Figure AI Inc.

At the moment, Meta doesn't plan on releasing a humanoid Meta-branded robot that would be similar to the likes of Tesla's Optimus robot, but according to people familiar with the matter, it isn't completely off the table. Furthermore, Meta confirmed the formation of the new team within the company to employees on Friday and that this team will be led by the former CEO of General Motors Co.'s Cruise self-driving car division, Marc Whitten.

NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) officials have issued an update on an asteroid that is officially considered the most significant threat to Earth.

A NASA-operated telescope located in Chile detected a suspicious object on Christmas Day, and after human researchers conducted manual follow-up observations, the object was found to be an asteroid now referred to as 2024 YR4. Astronomers discovered the asteroid's orbit around the Sun is elongated, and it's currently traveling directly away from Earth, almost in a straight line.

Because of its position relative to Earth and its straight-line trajectory, researchers struggled to measure its characteristics and project its orbit into the future. Preliminary measurements stated that 2024 YR4 is anywhere between 130 and 300 feet in diameter and is traveling at a speed of 38,700 mph.

Engineers are attempting to discover new ways to leverage AI to make breakthroughs in various scientific fields, and one may have just happened that harnesses the power and speed of light.

Researchers have penned a new study published in Nature Photonics that builds upon an earlier concept initially unveiled in 2018, where researchers showcased the power of diffractive neural networks. For those who don't know, traditional computing is comprised of electronic circuit boards, and while extremely powerful in their own right, they do have limitations or concessions users must make. Electronic circuit boards have inherent latency as it takes time for the data to be moved. Additionally, this process can be extremely energy-demanding.

However, researchers have designed a new AI chip that manipulates light as it's capable of performing the calculation instantly versus a traditional computer that has to interpret light. As light travels through the new AI chip, it's directed, significantly speeding up the transmission process of data and also reducing the power needed for a calculation to be completed. While being a ground-breaking design that has many implications for numerous fields of computing, the new light-manipulating AI chip does face significant problems, and that is scaling it at the product.

Researchers have discovered seismic signals can reach deeper into Mars than previously anticipated, according to two new papers published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Scientists looked at how meteoroids hitting the surface of Mars can cause Marsquakes that vibrate through the various layers of the Red Planet. Using data from NASA's InSight Lander, a robotic lander designed to measure the seismic activity of Mars, and combining that with the data on a recent meteoroid impact, researchers discerned the seismic activity caused by the impact of the meteoroid traveled much deeper than previously anticipated.

Before this recent meteoroid impact, researchers believed Mars' layers had a dampening effect on seismic activity, resulting in seismic waves caused by meteoroid impacts only traveling so far. However, the recent impact crater in the Cerberus Fossae has busted that theory or at least revealed something more is at play. The Cerberus Fossae impact crater measured 71-foot-wide, and according to the studies, the seismic wave it produced took a more direct route to the planet's mantle, with one of the InSight team members describing Mars' interior as having some sort of "seismic highway" through to the mantle.

NASA has shared an image of a celestial "boom" that was captured by the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, which peered at the event from 600 million light years away.

Located in the constellation Gemini, Hubble captured the above image, showcasing a supernova taking place. The "boom" or supernova is the blue dot at the center of the image, and according to NASA's recent statement, the supernova is called SN 2022aajn and has never been the subject of published research. However, SN 2022aajn is classified as a Type Ia supernova, which results from the explosion of the core of a dead star.

These types of supernovae assist astronomers in determining the distance between Earth and distant galaxies, as these types of supernovae have the same "intrinsic luminosity - no matter how bright they seem from Earth." Astronomers can then compare the observed brightness to the known intrinsic brightness, enabling a calculation to be done on the distance to the supernova and to it's host galaxy. There is one small problem that throws a wrench into this method of calculating distance. Cosmic dust.

The International Space Station (ISS) provides an incredible vantage point to capture some of Earth's most magical phenomena, such as auroras.

NASA has taken to the official International Space Station X account to share some footage captured on January 4. The post states the ISS soared into an aurora "dancing" over Canada, with the video showcasing city lights in the landscape below. Following the footage, the floating laboratory orbited into a sunrise 259 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.

For those that don't know, an aurora is caused by the interaction between solar wind and Earth's magnetic field. Here's how it works. The solar wind contains a stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun, and when these charged particles collide with Earth's magnetic field, they are directed toward our planet's poles. The charged particles collide with the gasses in Earth's upper atmosphere, such as oxygen and nitrogen, resulting in the gases becoming excited and releasing energy in the form of light.

Many chefs consider the cooking of an egg art as it can be pretty tricky to cook eggs consistently in their various end forms, especially when considering how to obtain their most nutritional value. But what if you had science to help?

Researchers have looked at the science of cooking an egg and penned a new study now published in the journal Communications Engineering that combines both perfect cooking time and nutritional value. The study looked at the different temperatures of cooked eggs and compared their nutritional value. Firstly, the yolk of an egg begins to harden at 149 degrees Fahrenheit (65 C), while the white of the egg starts hardening at 185 degrees Fahrenheit (85 C).

Researchers explain that cooking an egg in 212F (100C) water for 12 minutes will result in both the yolk and the egg white being hard. Cooking egg sous vide, or the process of sealing food in a bag and cooking it in a water bath at a precise temperature, which is typically between 60 and 70C (140F and 158F) when it comes to eggs, the egg yolk is at a temperature of approximately 65C (149F). While the yolk temperature is ideal in this method the researchers found this temperature is still too low for the proteins within the egg white to fully develop, meaning it's not as nutritionally dense.

A team of researchers set out to answer a simple question - If an extraterrestrial civilization existed with technology similar to the level of the technology we have on Earth today, would they be able to detect Earth and the evidence of humanity on its surface? And from how far away?

The team was led by Dr. Sofia Sheikh of the SETI Institute, with collaborators from the Characterizing Atmospheric Technosignatures project and the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center. Using a theoretical, modeling-based method, the team looked at the technosignatures emitted from Earth, such as radar emissions from observatories, and discovered the maximum distance a hypothetical civilization with technology similar to ours could detect them. What the team found was these technosignatures are detectable from up to 12,000 light-years away.

The team proposed the idea of how Earth would look to the rest of the galaxy through creating a hypothetical "mirror Earth." The team found that different forms of technosignatures have different ranges, such as atmospheric technosignatures, such as nitrogen dioxide emissions have increased in their detectability compared to a year ago, with the team finding instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is capable of detecting such signatures from as far as 5.7 light-years away.

NASA has confirmed its Mars rover has discovered a Martian sample unlike any other the rover has found throughout its travels across the plains of the Red Planet.

The Mars rover named Perseverance is making its way out of the Jezero Crater, which it landed in with the now-deceased Mars helicopter in 2021. Perseverance has been exploring the Jezero Crater in search of evidence of ancient microbial life. Part of its mission is to collect samples of the Martian environment, which will eventually be sent back to Earth for scientific analysis. NASA recently announced Perseverance has stumbled across and now collected a sample that is unlike any other it has collected before.

According to the space agency, the new "one-of-a-kind treasure" is a 1.1-inch rock sample collected from an area called "Silver Mountain". NASA wrote on the official Perseverance X account the rock sample has "textures, unlike anything we've seen before." According to NASA, the rocks in the area Perseverance is exploring are of great scientific interest as they have the possibility of offering a peek into Mars' past. As for the exciting sample, and others like it in the area, researchers believe they have been pushed up from deep within the planet after an asteroid impact that occurred billions of years ago.

The world's most powerful space telescope has captured stunning images of the minuscule objects surrounding a celestial object located approximately 450 light-years away from Earth.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has honed in on the newborn star known as Herbig Haro 30 (HH 30), which is located in the constellation Taurus. The European Space Agency (ESA) has taken to its website to detail the above photograph, which shows the young star seemingly encased in a dense cloud of dust. However, that isn't all that is present within the image. Astronomers are particularly interested in HH 30 and, by extension, these new images, as they show an example of outflowing gas from the star-forming a narrow jet.

These intense jets of gas cause shockwaves through the dust and gas that are forming a disk around the newborn star. The shockwaves heat the material surrounding the star, resulting in a luminescent glow. Astronomers are particularly interested in the evolutionary formation of these disks, as the same process is what created the solar system we are living in today.

Apple has teased the future with a team of robotics researchers at the company designing and prototyping a robot with lifelike movements, that looks like a lamp that you'll have on your desk.

In a new video published last month on the Apple Machine Learning Research website, we get a look at something that resembles Pixar mascot Luxo Jr. The video shows the robot interacting with a person in a lifelike way, with the user asking the robot what the weather will be like today, and the robot looks out the window before responding with the forecast... a nice touch.

The user says that they'll be going for a hike that day, but the robot looks sad when it finds out it's not invited on the journey. In another situation, the robot responds to the user's hand gestures by moving to provide the desired lighting for iPhone photography. In another test, the robot pushes a mug on the desk towards the person, acting as a reminder to drink more water.

Microplastics are becoming more and more of a concern as researchers are discovering them in almost every facet of life, and now a new study has pointed to the presence of microplastics in... human brains.

It was only last year that researchers from the University of Mexico discovered microplastics in human testicle tissue, and now a new study published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine has revealed through sample analysis microplastics in the human brain tissue. The tissue was collected from people in 2016 and 2024, and according to the study, each of the brain samples contained microplastics and even smaller plastics called nanoplastics. Notably, the more recent samples contained 50% more plastics than the older samples.

The discovery of microplastics in the brain isn't totally new, as researchers penned a study in 2024 that detailed their presence, but this new study has looked at how microplastics can enter the brain, and according to the researchers, inhalation is a key factor. The researchers explain that when individuals inhale microplastics, which can be present in something as innocuous as indoor dust, the microplastics can travel through the nose to the olfactory bulb, a region of the brain responsible for processing smells.

When you hear the word 'cordyceps' - one might shudder at the mental visual of a fungus-brained humanoid. After all, it was a real condition (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) occurring in ants that inspired the infection in The Last of Us.

You can add a new fear to the list, as a similar parasite was discovered in spiders located in Northern Ireland. The zombie-spider fungus, entitled G. attenboroughii (after Sir David Attenborough) was originally discovered in 2021 during the filming of BBC's Winterwatch in a gunpowder storeroom at Castle Espie. As reported by LiveScience, the parasite infects spiders while they're still alive. It causes a fluffy white fungus to accumulate on their bodies and has a range of 'zombie-like' effects as it takes over its host.

In a study published January 24th, G. attenboroughii was officially confirmed as a new species. Similar to the zombie-ant fungus, the infection works by penetrating the host's body, producing toxins to kill said host, while releasing antibiotics to preserve the corpse while extracting nutrients. From there, under the right conditions, the fungus eventually grows long structures to spread spores and reproduce. Leading to disturbing visuals such as that pictured below: