Sean Carroll: The multiverse might be impossible to test directly. Even if such a theory were true, the worry goes, how would we ever know? Is it scientific to even talk about it?
A U.S. federal court of appeals upheld the right of environmental regulators to curb harmful carbon emissions via clean car standards and limit industrial pollution from new power plants. The court rejected a series of lawsuits that had been filed against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the Coalition for Responsible Regulation, which included coal,…
Gentle electrical zaps to the brain can accelerate learning and boost performance on a wide range of mental tasks, scientists have reported in recent years. But a new study suggests there may be a hidden price: Gains in one aspect of cognition may come with deficits in another. Researchers who study transcranial electrical stimulation, which…
Guess who’s not talking about climate change? Besides the usual suspects, we can now add some unusual ones: most of the major media outlets in the U.S., according to a new analysis from Media Matters for America, a media watchdog website. In the face of last month’s record heat wave in the U.S., Media Matters…
This time, they say, Einstein might really be wrong. A high-octane debate has broken out among the world’s physicists about what would happen if you jumped into a black hole, a fearsome gravitational monster that can swallow matter, energy and even light. You would die, of course, but how? Crushed smaller than a dust mote…
While innocently surveying the Cosmos, astronomers serendipitously stumbled across a particularly uncouth galaxy. NGC 660 unleashed an epic belch, an event that we could see 44 million light-years distant. This event emanated from the galaxy’s core, around the likely location of a supermassive black hole. Why did the supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s core…
Remote-control warfare is set to enter a new phase with the arrival of miniaturized bombs carried by smaller, cheaper drones. The move was perhaps to be expected, given the astonishing rise to US military prominence of these aircraft. Until now, larger, fighter-jet-sized drones, such as the Predator and Reaper, have been the vehicle for attacks….