CERN scientists have finally found evidence of a particle decay so rare that it happens only once in roughly 10 billion decays, ending a search spanning more than 40 years. The breakthrough could help physicists uncover hidden particles and forces that lie beyond the reach of today's most powerful accelerators. [...]

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what’s known as Data Center Alley—the world’s largest data center [...]

The latest Windows 11 Insiders Preview enhances the Search feature so that you can access specific settings right from a search window. [...]

AMD has admitted a bug within its External Events Utility is wearing out SSDs, and promises a fix. [...]

As a California state senator, Scott Wiener authored legislation aimed at curbing the risks of advanced AI. Now, after winning a tight congressional race for former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s open San Francisco seat, he could play a key role in setting federal AI policy.  I spoke with Wiener [...]

A proposed catalyst design uses precisely arranged atomic-scale reaction sites to improve ethanol selectivity and productivity, offering a potential route to more efficient carbon dioxide conversion. [...]

Polyethylene and polypropylene nanoplastics trigger lung inflammation in mice, highlighting why nanoparticle safety assessments should consider surface area and reactivity rather than particle mass alone. [...]

Scientists have observed a bizarre quantum state of matter that combines the structure of a crystal with the frictionless flow of a liquid, all at room temperature. The breakthrough overturns a major practical limitation of exotic quantum experiments and could help bring powerful new light-based computing and sensing technologies closer [...]

Today, a scientist who wants to simulate a physical process must pick the right tool for that one job, such as a solver built for flowing water or another designed to model the way a protein folds. Each one is hand-coded around the specific equations that dictate how that process [...]

Humans are intuitive by nature. We can sense meaning beyond the literal words that we encounter. Now, a new artificial intelligence-assisted learning platform developed by MIT engineers is enabling robots to read larger meaning into a human’s natural language commands. In a study to be presented at the annual Conference on [...]

More than a century after Einstein revolutionized our understanding of gravity, scientists have uncovered a surprising new phenomenon hidden within his equations. Researchers at Columbia University and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez have identified a theoretical process called "gravitational reconnection," in which structures within gravitational fields can break apart and reconnect, transferring [...]

A nuclear explosion might save Earth from a deadly asteroid, but new research suggests that hitting the wrong side could make the difference between success and disaster. Scientists found that an asteroid's irregular shape can dramatically affect how it responds to an X-ray blast, with deflection effectiveness varying nearly fivefold [...]

Scientists have discovered a surprising quantum limit that prevents electrons from being tracked with unlimited precision in both space and time. The breakthrough could pave the way for manipulating chemical reactions and developing electronics hundreds of thousands of times faster than today's technology. [...]

Tiny spiked particles mixed into creams create microscopic openings in the skin, increasing delivery of a tested skincare compound nearly 37-fold without requiring injections or patches. [...]

Adding an electron or hole to excitons in carbon nanotubes preserves their optical chirality, opening possibilities for electrically controlled light amplification, detection, and modulation. [...]

This dangerous Linux security hole must be patched as soon as possible. [...]

Discovering new molecules for specific uses is a major driver of progress in a wide variety of industries, whether it’s pharmaceutical companies looking for new drugs, or electronics or energy companies seeking new materials with particular properties. But it’s also largely a trial-and-error process, because there is not yet any [...]

‘Notify when left behind’ is making its way to Android – but to limited devices for now. [...]

I’m not the sort of person who typically pays for a house cleaner. I’m too frugal, and I kind of enjoy putting on a podcast and going to town on my tub with a Magic Eraser. But when I saw an X post about a new humanoid-robot cleaning service in [...]

In an emergency, a human might someday ask a robotic assistant to fetch a wall-mounted defibrillator located down the hall. But if the robot has incorrectly labeled the defibrillator as a fire extinguisher in its stored memory, it may not know where to find the life-saving device.This robotic assistant could [...]

Researchers have proposed a breakthrough technique for reading quantum information without destroying the delicate states that make quantum computers work. By detecting an electrical signal generated by the qubit itself, their method achieved up to 99.85% accuracy in simulations and could make future quantum computers simpler and more efficient. [...]

Texas is the fastest-growing data center market in the US and ground zero for Big Tech’s largest AI buildouts. But the blue wave that swept the Lone Star State may jeopardize that position. Democrat James Talarico won the US Senate seat against Ken Paxton. Gina Hinojosa won the race for governor [...]

Scientists have filmed tiny magnetic vortices called skyrmions melting out of an organized lattice for the first time, revealing new ways to manipulate these unusual structures. The breakthrough could help make brain-like computers a reality, potentially enabling dramatically smaller and more energy-efficient technology. [...]

Scientists have discovered a way to operate multiple silicon qubits simultaneously with remarkable accuracy, overcoming a major challenge in scaling up quantum computers. Their new technique maintained accuracy of approximately 99.9% even when all five qubits were running at once, opening the door to larger and more powerful quantum processors. [...]

Generative AI can create masterpieces in seconds, but a new analysis reveals it breaks the crucial link between making art and personal growth. Hebrew University's Amit Zoran argues that the future of creativity belongs to human discovery and perspective rather than automated digital output. [...]