Some podcasts are self-recommending on the ‘yep, I’m going to be breaking this one down’ level. This was very clearly one of those. So here we go. As usual for...
Space Station returns to a full crew complement after a month
Running solo After these astronauts departed on January 15, just a single NASA astronaut, Chris Williams, remained in orbit. He had reached space on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in...
Ancient Mars was warm and wet, not cold and icy
This is important because it means these rocks were less likely to have been altered in a hydrothermal environment, where scalding hot water was temporarily released by melting ice caused...
Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations
On Friday afternoon, Ars Technica published an article containing fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a source who did not say them. That is a serious...
“It ain’t no unicorn”: These researchers have interviewed 130 Bigfoot hunters
It was the image that launched a cultural icon. In 1967, in the Northern California woods, a 7-foot-tall, ape-like creature covered in black fur and walking upright was captured on...
NASA has a new problem to fix before the next Artemis II countdown test
John Honeycutt, chair of NASA’s Artemis II mission management team, said the decision to relax the safety limit between Artemis I and Artemis II was grounded in test data. “The...
A Valentine’s Day homage to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
That thief turns out to be Jen, who has secretly been studying martial arts. And Jen’s really not keen on her upcoming arranged marriage because she has fallen in love...
Astronomers are filling in the blanks of the Kuiper Belt
Are you out there, Planet X? Next-generation telescopes are mapping this outer frontier. Credit: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook Out beyond the orbit of Neptune lies an expansive ring of ancient relics, dynamical...
WHO slams US-funded newborn vaccine trial as “unethical”
“Exploiting scarcity is not ethical,” the WHO wrote in its statement today. Dangerous trial The United Nations health agency highlighted that the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose is “an effective,...
Platforms bend over backward to help DHS censor ICE critics, advocates say
Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem sued for coercing platforms into censoring ICE posts. Credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images Credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images Pressure is mounting on tech...
When Amazon badly needed a ride, Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket delivered
The Ariane 64 flew with an extended payload shroud to fit all 32 Amazon Leo satellites. Combined, the payload totaled around 20 metric tons, or about 44,000 pounds, according to...
Santa Monica deploys AI-powered parking cameras to protect bike lanes
This spring, a Southern California beach town will become the first city in the country where municipal parking enforcement vehicles will use an AI system looking for potential bike lane...
Verizon imposes new roadblock on users trying to unlock paid-off phones
Verizon unlocks have 35-day waiting period after paying off device plan online. Credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images Verizon this week imposed a new roadblock for people who want to...
Ring cancels Flock deal after dystopian Super Bowl ad prompts mass outrage
Both statements verified that the integration never launched and that no Ring customers’ videos were ever sent to Flock. Ring did not credit users’ privacy concerns for its change of...
The first Android 17 beta is now available on Pixel devices
In short, the first Android 17 beta is chock full of things that may interest developers and modders, but there’s little in the way of user-facing changes right now. Android...
$1.8 million MST3K Kickstarter brings in (almost) everyone from the old show
MST3K‘s 2010s revival looked forward; this one is emphatically looking backward. “I have to admit, the man looks good standing next to puppets.” – Joel Hodgson on Mike Nelson in...
Tiny, 45 base long RNA can make copies of itself
Self-copying RNAs may have been a key stop along the pathway to life. By base pairing with themselves, RNAs can form complex structures with enzymatic activity. Credit: Laguna Design There...
What if riders don’t close a robotaxi door after a ride? Try DoorDash.
Autonomous vehicles have a lot of potential. As long as you program them right, they won’t speed, won’t break traffic laws, and won’t get drunk, high, abusive, or violent. And...
Why is Bezos trolling Musk on X with turtle pics? Because he has a new Moon plan.
“It’s time to go back to the Moon—this time to stay.” Step by step, ferociously? Credit: Jeff Bezos/X The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, does not often post on the...
I spent two days gigging at RentAHuman and didn’t make a single cent
please do this human thing These bots supposedly need a human body to accomplish great things in meatspace. I’m not above doing some gig work to make ends meet. In...
