January 17, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon is inching toward launch NASA rolled out the fully stacked Artemis II rocket and Orion capsule on Saturday, embarking on a four-mile journey to the launch pad By Claire Cameron edited by Clara Moskowitz Photo by Jim…
Marco Schioppo (back) and Adam Parke monitoring the ultra-stable laser at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, UK David Severn, Part of Quantum Untangled (2025) at Science Gallery, King’s College London Two nonchalant physicists, one with a wry smile, are monitoring some of the most advanced quantum technology in the UK, an ultra-stable laser at…
Every night before bedtime, I take my dogs outside to do their doggy business, letting them run around in the yard on the eastern side of my house. I live under very dark skies in rural Virginia, and even though I’m a card-carrying astronomer, it’s always a shock to look up and see so many…
Do quantum computers offer a way to vastly improve agriculture? As quantum computers continue to advance, identifying problems they can solve faster than the world’s best conventional computers is becoming increasingly important – but it turns out that a key task held up as a future goal by quantum proponents may not need a quantum…
A gene that is important for human hearing could determine whether a dog’s ears are pendulous like a basset hound’s or stubby like a rottweiler’s, according to a genetic analysis of more than 3,000 dogs, wolves and coyotes. The study, presented on 11 January at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego, California,…
James Webb Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster containing the SN Eos supernova Astronomers have caught a massive star exploding just moments after the universe emerged from the cosmic dark ages, shedding light on how the first stars were born and how they die. When stars run out of fuel and explode, they produce…
January 15, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Astronomers Spot Mysterious Bar-Shaped Cloud of Iron Inside an Iconic Nebula A distinctive nebula inside the constellation Lyra holds a never-before-seen cloud of iron atoms—and researchers aren’t sure why By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron The Ring Nebula is a sight to…
IBM’s Quantum System Two on display at a data centre in Germany Quantum computing seems to pop up in the news pretty often these days. You’ve probably seen quantum chips gracing your feeds and their odd, steampunk-ish cooling systems in the pages of magazines and newspapers. Politicians and business leaders are peppering their announcements with…
January 15, 2026 4 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA’s historic Artemis II moon mission is almost ready to launch On Friday NASA laid out the time line for Artemis II, humanity’s first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years By Lee Billings edited by Claire Cameron NASA’s Space Launch…
A trawler in the Southern Ocean Shutterstock A treaty that will protect areas of the largely lawless high seas from fishing has come into force, marking a “turning point” for ocean conservation. International waters outside the exclusive economic zones that stretch 370 kilometres from countries’ coasts are sometimes known as a “wild west” where there…
