Cockatoos in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia, will wait in line for a taste of drinking fountain water.

These Australian Cockatoos Learned to Operate Drinking Fountains With Their Feet to Quench Their Thirst

Birds in Sydney’s western suburbs have figured out how to get a sip from the fountains, even though they have access to nearby streams

Scientists captured the highest-resolution images of the sun’s corona to date. The plasma is artificially colorized in the image, with darker pink colors corresponding to brighter light.

See the Highest-Resolution Views of the Sun’s Corona, as Wisps of Plasma Dance in Crystal Clear Detail

Astronomers have captured videos of the sun without the typical blur caused by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere

A study participant puts in a contact lens. Researchers developed lenses with nanoparticles that convert infrared wavelengths into visible light that humans can perceive.

New Contact Lenses Give Users Super-Vision to See Infrared Light—Even With Their Eyes Closed

Researchers have developed experimental contact lenses that use nanoparticles to convert the invisible wavelengths of near-infrared light into visible colors

A group of female South Korean free divers on Jeju Island, known as the Haenyeo, exit the water after catching marine snails in November 2015.

South Korea’s Female Free Divers May Have Evolved to Thrive Underwater, Study Finds

The Haenyeo, a group of skilled divers on Jeju Island, plunge beneath the ocean’s surface without any breathing equipment, thanks to a combination of their training and genetics

"Purdubik's Cube" was developed and built by undergraduate students Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, Matthew Patrohay and Alex Berta.

This Record-Setting Robot Can Solve a Rubik’s Cube Faster Than You Can Blink

Designed by a group of undergraduate students at Purdue University, the robot completes the puzzle in 0.103 seconds

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of extreme solar activity on May 10, 2024.

The U.S. Ran Its First Space Weather Preparedness Drill—Here’s How It Went

Ironically, the exercise last May was interrupted by a real scenario, when Earth was hit by the strongest solar storm in two decades

A still from the Giraffes on Horseback Salad trailer

Salvador Dalí’s Surrealist Screenplay ‘Giraffes on Horseback Salad’ Was Never Made. Can A.I. Bring It to Life?

The Dalí Museum is collaborating with an advertising agency to “reawaken” the Spanish artist’s failed script, which studio executives rejected nearly 90 years ago

An artistic rendering of one of the Voyager probes.

NASA Engineers Revive Long-Dormant Thrusters on Voyager 1, the Farthest Spacecraft From Earth, in a ‘Miracle Save’

In the nick of time, NASA teams addressed clogging issues in the probe’s backup roll thrusters, before the only antenna capable of sending commands to it went offline

The scroll previously known only as PHerc. 172 was written by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus.

Cool Finds

These Ancient Scrolls Have Been a Tantalizing Mystery for 2,000 Years. Researchers Just Deciphered a Title for the First Time

Mount Vesuvius’ eruption preserved the Herculaneum scrolls beneath a blanket of ash. Two millennia later, X-ray scans show that one of them is a philosophical text called “On Vice”

A new study reveals how Chilean flamingos are so adept at finding food.

Feeding Flamingos Create Underwater Tornado-Like Vortices to Capture Their Prey, Study Finds

Rather than passively filter-feeding, the birds use their heads, beaks and feet to generate motion in the water that funnels invertebrates into their mouths

The king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is the world's longest venomous snake, and it's one of the species that can be neutralized with a new antivenom.

200 Snakebites Later, One Man’s Blood May Hold the Key to a Universal Antivenom

Over two decades, Tim Friede has injected himself with snake venom hundreds of times, and subjected himself to more than 200 bites. Now, scientists are working on an antivenom derived from his antibodies

A newly developed A.I. model is based on 40 years of vocalizations from a community of Atlantic spotted dolphins.

Google Is Training a New A.I. Model to Decode Dolphin Chatter—and Potentially Talk Back

The company says its new model, called DolphinGemma, will be made open source this summer. Researchers are also trying to train dolphins to mimic made-up names for certain objects

Microscopic images of the bacteria and mycelium scaffolds. The circles indicate the likely presence of S. pasteurii bacteria.

New, ‘Living’ Building Material Made From Fungi and Bacteria Could Pave the Way to Self-Healing Structures

Researchers are developing the biomaterial as a more environmentally friendly alternative to concrete, but any wide-scale use is still far away

Human perception of color is regulated by three types of cone cells in the eye. By artificially stimulating just one type with a laser, researchers and study participants experienced a new color they call "olo."

Scientists Say They’ve Discovered a New Color—an ‘Unprecedented’ Hue Only Ever Seen by Five People

The color, dubbed olo, is described as an intensely saturated teal. Researchers say it might have applications in understanding color blindness

A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man in the Natural History Museum, Vienna. A new study suggests Neanderthals could not adapt to a period of increased radiation as well as early modern humans did.

Sunscreen, Clothing and Caves May Have Given Modern Humans an Edge Over Neanderthals When Earth’s Magnetic Field Wandered

A new study suggests the extinction of Neanderthals nearly coincided with a shift in Earth’s magnetic field that let more radiation reach the ground. Our species might have adapted more easily

The winning humanoid, called Tiangong Ultra, races alongside human runners. It completed a half-marathon in about 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Humanoid Robots Just Raced Alongside Human Runners in a World-First Half-Marathon. Here’s How It Went

The race, held in China on Saturday, showcases the country’s advancements in humanoid technology. Still, only 6 of the 21 robot contestants made it across the finish line

A cell culture plate with pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into any kind of cell in the body.

Stem Cell Therapies Could Treat Parkinson’s Disease by Rebuilding Lost Circuitry in the Brain, Studies Suggest

Two small clinical trials tested the safety of injecting stem cells into the brains of Parkinson’s patients and found no adverse effects

A rendering of a Sunbird rocket detaching from its station to dock onto an approaching spacecraft.

Fusion Rockets Could Theoretically Cut Our Travel Time to Mars in Half. This U.K. Startup Wants to Give It a Try

The company’s ambitious new Sunbird design aims to harness nuclear fusion in space, despite the fact that commercializing such energy on Earth remains a faraway dream

The far side of the moon—seen here, captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter—could be much drier than expected.

The Moon’s Far Side Is Strangely Dry—Lunar Samples Suggest It’s Much More Parched Than the Side That Faces Earth

Chinese researchers analyzed the first-ever soil samples returned from the far side of the moon, but further samples will be needed to verify their findings

Matteo Paz with Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum after winning the Regeneron Science Talent Search award.

High School Student Discovers 1.5 Million Potential New Astronomical Objects by Developing an A.I. Algorithm

The 18-year-old won $250,000 for training a machine learning model to analyze understudied data from NASA’s retired NEOWISE telescope

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