Live Science

The largest artificial intelligence (AI) firms increasingly understand that they are hostages of one another. If one firm pushes ahead recklessly, others may feel compelled to follow. If one deploys a dangerous model without adequate safeguards, others may see it as a green light to do the same. The debate over AI has centered on what governments should do to regulate this frontier technology. That remains essential. But a more immediate question is emerging: Can the companies building these pow

October's full "Hunter's Moon" is about to rise, and skywatchers will get two great chances to see it appear on the eastern horizon around sunset.Although it officially turns full at 12:11 a.m. EDT on Monday (Oct. 26), the Hunter's Moon will appear almost perfectly full as it rises on both Sunday (Oct. 25) and Monday evenings, giving skywatchers two opportunities to observe it. October's full moon is nicknamed the Hunter's Moon because it was traditionally a signal for hunters to prepare for the

The Nazca Lines are the most famous geoglyphs in the world. Dating back around 2,000 years and reaching a combined length of more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), they depict a variety of motifs, including humans, animals, geometric shapes, plants and flowers. These designs were constructed on the arid hills and valleys of coastal Peru by the Nazca people between 200 B.C. and A.D. 500, long before writing was used in the region.It's not clear exactly how many Nazca Lines there are, but they nu

Actor Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) over five years ago — but this week, she announced that a recent reevaluation found that she doesn't have the condition after all. In the wake of that revelation, she's been left without a diagnosis, and she said on a podcast that she felt she was "back at square one, where I don't know what's going on with me."Applegate's case is not totally unique, although MS diagnosis has improved over the years. Studies offer different est

Last week, Tesla unveiled a new "flying" edition of its Roadster electric vehicle. While some experts remain skeptical that the new "Rocket" EV is feasible in the real world, the demonstration reignited a long-standing debate about whether flying cars could soon become a reality. In response to this demonstration, Live Science polled its readers on whether they think flying cars will be available to consumers in the next five years.

With artificial intelligence (AI), scientists have a powerful new tool for creating never-before-seen proteins, which can be used to make either groundbreaking new medicines or devastating bioweapons. To help guard against nefarious uses of these proteins, scientists have recently figured out a way to "watermark" them without compromising their function. A team from Google DeepMind developed this technique to better track the provenance of AI-designed proteins."This has the potential to reduce b

TENERIFE, Spain — The commander of NASA's Artemis II mission briefly feared that he and his crew would never return home from their trip around the moon after overshooting their turn-back point.Commander Reid Wiseman and his three crewmates were supposed to reach 219,667 nautical miles (252,788 standard miles, or 406,823 kilometers) — farther than any humans have ever traveled from their home planet — before turning back toward Earth on the sixth day of their 10-day mission to the moon. But the

Crows are intelligent animals that can use tools, hold grudges and even host funerals. Now, new research suggests these birds can make certain decisions faster than humans and monkeys — another potential sign of their smarts, the researchers argue. In a study published Thursday (Oct. 22) in the journal Science, researchers found that two carrion crows (Corvus corone) could distinguish the direction of moving dots on a screen in an average of 235 milliseconds, or less than a quarter of a second.

Picture a number line, with the values running from the smallest to the largest. New research shows that the human brain uses a similar system when comparing numbers; in the study, scientists uncovered a "mental map" in which numbers have unique coordinates in the brain, which may help us place them in order of magnitude."Numbers are abstract concepts, but our brains have ways of organizing them that allow us to compare and reason about their values," said study co-authors Daniela Valério, a pos

Cryptic snakes in Southeast Asia have evolved a remarkable trick for evading predators: Instead of slithering, they arch their long bodies and tumble away at high speeds. The dwarf reed snakes (Pseudorabdion) pull off this acrobatic feat by keeping their head in a relatively fixed position while rotating the rest of their body, according to a new study published Monday (Oct. 19) in the journal Current Biology. Researchers filmed the snakes from different angles to better understand the mechanic

On Monday (Oct. 19), Japan's space agency launched a first-of-its-kind sample-return mission to Mars. The historic endeavor marks another major step toward humanity's shared goal of understanding — and perhaps eventually colonizing — one of our closest planetary neighbors, experts say. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) probe is an international effort, constructed with help from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and others. Over the next few year

About 251 million years ago, volcanic eruptions wiped out most life on Earth. For about a million years, the Siberian Traps in Russia spewed huge clouds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to the most severe extinction event in our planet's history.Equatorial temperatures spiked, making much of the land too hot for life. Meanwhile, the oceans became acidic and most of the creatures in them suffocated from lack of oxygen. Known as the Permian-Triassic mass extinction or the "Great Dyi

Climate change is making Earth progressively rounder, new research finds. The findings are a signal of human-caused climate change, however, and tracking the shape of the Earth can help reveal just how much impact people are having on its ice caps. Our planet is not a perfect sphere. Because of its rotation, it is a bit flatter at the poles and bulges in the middle. But the new study reveals that Earth is getting rounder at an accelerated rate, largely due to shifts caused by the melting polar i

Western states that were thought to be resistant to prolonged drought may be more vulnerable than scientists previously believed, a new analysis of groundwater reserves in the Colorado River Basin finds.Researchers revealed the four states that together make up the Upper Basin — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — lost almost twice as much groundwater as the Lower Basin did during an intense drought in the southwestern U.S. between 2020 and 2022. The finding was unexpected and might signal

The Milky Way's supermassive black hole is surrounded by a surprising trove of heavy metals, according to new observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The metals may offer new clues about how Earth got its share of heavy elements — but it could also make one of the greatest mysteries about our local black hole even harder to solve.In astronomy, metals refer to any element heavier than hydrogen or helium, with common examples including oxygen, carbon, iron or gold. These elements ar

A rare silver coin minted during the reign of a famous Viking king has been discovered in a massive hoard in Norway that now comprises 5,500 coins and counting.The coin is inscribed with the name of the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson, who ruled from 1015 to 1028 and, as St. Olaf or "Olaf the Holy," is considered the national saint of Norway.Fewer than 20 coins minted during Olaf's reign have ever been discovered, and the newfound coin is a "national treasure," according to a statement from the U

The Nazis were far from completing a working reactor for their atomic bomb program, despite claims by the project's leader that it was almost ready, a new study finds. The German physicist Werner Heisenberg wrote in 1947 that the reactor for the "Nazi bomb" project ‪— which culminated in Germany's B8 nuclear reactor ‪— was almost finished at the end of World War II.Heisenberg, who led the reactor's development, claimed the reactor was "just insufficient" to create a self-sustaining fission react

Sailor Matt Rutherford has dreamed for several years of becoming the first person to circumnavigate the Arctic Ocean solo, nonstop and unassisted. He finally set out from western Greenland on June 25 to achieve this goal, but threatening encounters with Russia's security agency less than two months later forced him to reverse course.Rutherford is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit environmental organization Ocean Research Project, which gathers and analyzes marine data from a sa

Astronomers have discovered the lightest known pair of neutron stars — two ultradense stellar remnants that circle each other every 2 hours, 22 minutes, veering toward an inevitable collision about 82 million years from now. By timing radio pulses from one of the stars, the researchers detected three subtle effects predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and found that the theory describes the pair's motion to within about 1% — proving the visionary physicist right yet again.

The patient: A 29-year-old man in IndiaThe symptoms: The man, a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force, went to a civilian neurologist after having persistent headaches for 18 months. The headaches would occur approximately two to three times per month, starting in the late afternoon and lasting up to three days. Sleep did not improve his symptoms. The pain was typically greater on the right side of his head, but he would often feel pain on the left side as well. The pilot also reported that just