MIT Researchers Develop a Low-Cost Technique To Get Lithium Out of Rocks
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT News: Currently, lithium hard rock extraction involves baking the rock at over 1,000 Celsius and chemically leaching it to extract lithium. The rest of the rock is discarded. Now, a team of researchers from MIT and elsewhere has developed a low-temperature process for extracting batt … ⌘ Read more

Startups win, science funding static in Budget 2026
Startup entrepreneurs had some good news in Budget 2026, while scientists were largely treading water amid major sector reforms.

According to the NZ Association of Scientists (NZAS), funding for NZ’s science and innovation system was about $30 million higher in 2026 than last year and was tracking slightly below inflation. ⌘ Read more

Perfect Randomness Realized For the First Time
ETH Zurich researchers say they have generated certified “perfect randomness” for the first time by using a quantum Bell-test setup with two entangled superconducting chips connected by a 30-meter cooled link. “In the long term, this work could play a similar role in digital security as atomic clocks do for timekeeping: a physically certified source of randomness that other syst … ⌘ Read more

A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Aerodynamic drag is a major “barrier” in high-speed airplanes, automobiles, and bullet trains. This is because a design with less aerodynamic drag allows the aircraft to move at higher speeds with less energy. When an aircraft or car body moves at high speed, a thin layer of air cal … ⌘ Read more

Chemistry behind the Garden Grove chemical tank
Article URL: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/methyl-methacrylate-tank

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48284712

Points: 9

# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more

GenomNZ win Science NZ top prize for decades of genetic livestock improvement
GenomNZ has picked up the supreme award at this year’s Science New Zealand Awards, as well as the success in innovation/commercialisation award.

The commercial animal DNA genotyping laboratory is part of the Crown Research Institute (CRiI) AgResearch, which has now been merged into the new Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI). ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Launches 29 Starlink Satellites on Memorial Day
“The expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink network of internet relay satellites continued Monday with a Memorial Day launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,” reports Spaceflight Now.

The mission added another 29 Starlink satellites to more than 10,000 already in low Earth orbit:

This was SpaceX’s 60th orbital flight of the year, consisting of 59 Falcon 9 rocket … ⌘ Read more

Sponsored: Science Working for New Zealand
This year marks 100 years since the establishment of the DSIR, a milestone in the history of publicly funded science organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand. We’re marking the centenary by sharing stories of science working for New Zealand: research that has supported our economy, protected people and cared for the environment for 100 years and counting.

Today, the Public Research Organisations - the Bioeconomy Science Institute, Earth Sciences New Zealand, … ⌘ Read more

It’s Like the Olympics - But Steroids Are Allowed
“Think Olympics on steroids. Literally,” quips the BBC, describing Sunday’s controversial Enhanced Games event in Las Vegas featuring dozens of athletes “using performance-enhancing drugs to try and break world records in track, weightlifting and swimming.

Some $25m (£18.6m) in prize money is up for grabs — with cash prizes for winners… The drugs they use must be legal, … ⌘ Read more

Caltech Could Lose Control of JPL For First Time In Decades
NASA plans to open competition for the contract to operate JPL for the first time in nearly a century, meaning Caltech’s historic role managing the iconic deep-space lab could come to an end when its current agreement expires in 2028. According to JPL, Caltech has managed the lab since the its inception in the 1930s, and has done so for NASA since the ag … ⌘ Read more

SpaceX’s Upgraded Starship V3 Launches For First Time
SpaceX’s upgraded Starship V3 launched today from Starbase, Texas for the first time, successfully deploying 22 dummy Starlink satellites and completing a planned fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Reuters reports: The towering vehicle, consisting of the upper-stage Starship astronaut vessel stacked atop a Super Heavy booster rocket, blasted off at about 5:30 p.m … ⌘ Read more

All the Fancy Measuring Devices Used in Science Rely on Two Stone-Age Techniques
The multifarious methods we use to gather experimental data ultimately boil down to counting or comparing. ⌘ Read more

At Least 80% Responsibility For Ill Health In Old Age Down to Individual, Study Says
A new Oxford Longevity Project report argues that individuals bear at least 80% of the responsibility for ill health in old age. “The report (PDF), launched at the Smart Ageing Summit in Oxford last week, argues that individuals have far greater control over their longevity than is commonly understood,” re … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Claims It Solved an 80-Year-Old Math Problem
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: OpenAI claims its new reasoning model has produced an original mathematical proof disproving a famous unsolved conjecture in geometry, which was first posed by Paul Erdos in 1946. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s because this isn’t the first time OpenAI has made such a bold claim. Seven months ago, the AI giant’s … ⌘ Read more

NASA Expects Chinese Crewed Mission Around the Moon In 2027
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says he expects China to fly taikonauts around the moon in 2027, “ratcheting up perceptions of a space race between China and the United States,” reports SpaceNews. He is using that prospect to argue for a revamped Artemis strategy and an accelerated path toward a U.S. lunar return. From the report: “The next time the w … ⌘ Read more

Colossal Biosciences Is Growing Chickens In a 3D-Printed Artificial Eggshell
Colossal Biosciences says it has grown chickens inside 3D-printed artificial eggshells. “The company says the egg technology could help conserve at-risk bird species,” reports MIT Technology. “It could also play a role in a project to re-create the extinct giant moa, a flightless 12-foot-tall bird that once lived in New … ⌘ Read more

Trump Wants to Be the Hero Vapers Don’t Really Need
The White House says Trump’s pro-vape stance is based on “gold standard science.” It feels more like vice-signaling to a demographic that often doesn’t vote—over products that are widely available. ⌘ Read more

Webb Discovers One of the Universe’s First Galaxies
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified an ultra-faint galaxy seen just 800 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy contains almost no heavy elements, shows signs of intense early stellar radiation, and could offer a rare glimpse into the first stages of galaxy formation. Phys.org reports: In a paper published in the journal Nature, a team o … ⌘ Read more

Sponsored: Plant and food research
This year marks 100 years since the establishment of the DSIR, a milestone in the history of publicly funded science organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand. We’re marking the centenary by sharing stories of science working for New Zealand: research that has supported our economy, protected people and cared for the environment for 100 years and counting.

Today, the Public Research Organisations - the Bioeconomy Science Institute, Earth Sciences New Zealand, the New Zealand … ⌘ Read more

WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The World Health Organization declared on Saturday that the spread of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda was a global health emergency. The announcement was made a day after Africa’s leading public health authority reported that an outbreak in a province in the northeast of the … ⌘ Read more

‘We Still Can’t See Dark Matter. But What If We Can Hear It?’
“We may have accidentally detected dark matter back in 2019,” writes ScienceAlert.

“What if instead of trying to see dark matter, scientists attempted to hear it instead?” asks Space.com:
New research suggests dark matter could leave a tiny but discernible imprint in the cacophony of ripples in spacetime called “gravitational waves” that ring through the … ⌘ Read more

Gekürzte US-Hilfen heizten Gewalt an
In mehreren afrikanischen Ländern ist infolge von Kürzungen der US-Hilfen ein deutlicher Anstieg der Gewalt zu verzeichnen. Zu diesem Schluss kommt eine Studie im Fachjournal „Science“, die am Donnerstag veröffentlicht wurde. Die US-Regierung von Präsident Donald Trump hatte die US-Hilfsorganisation USAID im vergangenen Jahr aufgelöst, was eine radikale Kürzung der Entwicklungshilfen – vor allem für viele afrikanische Länder – zur Folge hatte. ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Unveils Sweeping Starship V3 Upgrades
SpaceX has detailed major Starship V3 upgrades ahead of a launch targeted as early as May 19. The changes are meant to move Starship closer to its core goals: rapid reuse, Starlink deployment, orbital refueling, and eventually Moon and Mars missions. Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Teslarati: Here is an explicit, broken-down list of the key changes, first start … ⌘ Read more

Therabody Promo Codes: 15% Off May 2026
Save on the science-backed devices you’ve been eyeing with 15% off Theragun discount code and 30% off other great deals. ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Forms $200 Million Partnership With the Gates Foundation
Anthropic announced today that it is partnering with the Gates Foundation to “commit $200 million in grant funding, Claude usage credits, and technical support for programs in global health, life sciences, education, and economic mobility over the next four years.”

“This commitment is central to Anthropic’s efforts to extend the benefits of A … ⌘ Read more

Physicists Find Possible Errors In 100-Year-Old Model of the Universe
A trio of preprint papers suggests the universe may not be perfectly uniform on the largest scales, finding tentative 2-to-4-sigma deviations from a core assumption of standard cosmology known as FLRW geometry. Live Science reports: The work combines observations of distant exploding stars and large-scale galaxy surveys to probe whet … ⌘ Read more

Why Are Some People Mosquito Magnets?
fjo3 shares a report from Phys.org: Ever felt like mosquitoes bite you while ignoring everyone else? Scientists are now making progress in deciphering the complex chemical cocktail that makes particular people more enticing to these disease-spreading bloodsuckers. “It’s not a misconception – mosquitoes are attracted to some people more than others,” Frederic Simard of France’s Institute of Resear … ⌘ Read more

First Real-Time Brain-Controlled Hearing Device
Researchers at Columbia demonstrated the first real-time brain-controlled hearing system that can identify which speaker a listener is focusing on in a noisy environment and automatically amplify that voice while suppressing others. “This breakthrough addresses the ‘cocktail party effect,’ a major limitation of conventional hearing aids, which often struggle to distinguish betw … ⌘ Read more

Arts and Cultural Engagement ‘Linked To Slower Pace of Biological Aging’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly, according to the latest study to link taking an active interest in art and culture with improved health. The findings are the first to show that both participating in arts activities and attending … ⌘ Read more

Most Polymarket Users Lose Money, While Top 1% Claim 76.5% of Gains, Study Finds
In Polymarket’s prediction market, “most people end up losing money,” reports the Washington Post — typically a few bucks.

“Since Polymarket launched in 2022, a few thousand people have lost the bulk of the money… and an even smaller group — .05 percent of users — has gone home with most of the overall profits, ac … ⌘ Read more

Rocket Lab Reports Growing Demand for Commercial Space Products. Stock Surges 34%
For just the first three months of 2026, Rocket Lab’s launch business reports $63.7 million in revenue, reports CNBC — plus another $136.7 million from its space systems business. Besides beating Wall Street’s expectations, Rocket Lab also announced that its backlog has more than doubled from a year ago to $2.2 … ⌘ Read more

Rush Rescue Mission for NASA’s $500M Space Telescope Passes Key Milestone
NASA’s $500 million Neil Gehrels Swift space observatory was launched in 2004. But it’s now “at risk of falling back through the atmosphere and burning up without intervention,” reports Spaceflight Now.

Fortunately, a mission to prevent that “just passed a notable prelaunch testing milestone.”
On Friday, NASA announced that th … ⌘ Read more

Plant Seeds Do Something Incredible When the Sound of Rain Strikes
“Plant seeds can sense the vibrations generated by falling raindrops,” reports ScienceAlert, “and respond by waking from their state of dormancy to welcome the water, new research shows…. to germinate in ‘anticipation’ of the coming deluge.”
The finding, discovered by MIT mechanical engineers Nicholas Makris and Cadine Navarro, offers th … ⌘ Read more

The Science of Gardening, with EpicGardening ⌘ Read more

Fiber Optic Cables Can Eavesdrop On Nearby Conversations
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Cold War spies planted bugs in walls, lamps, and telephones. Now, scientists warn, the cables themselves could listen in. A fiber optic technique used to detect earthquakes can also pick up the faint vibrations of nearby speech, researchers reported this week here at the general assembly of the European Geos … ⌘ Read more

NASA Keeps Track As Mexico City Sinks Into the Ground
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Walking into Mexico City’s sprawling central Zocalo is a dizzying experience. At one end of the plaza, the capital’s cathedral, with its soaring spires, slumps in one direction. An attached church, known as the Metropolitan Sanctuary, tilts in the other. The nearby National Palace also seems off-kilter. The tee … ⌘ Read more

Venom and Hot Peppers Offer a Key to Killing Resistant Bacteria
Researchers have developed three new antibiotics from scorpion venom and habanero peppers to combat tuberculosis and other drug-resistant pathogens. ⌘ Read more

Single Dose of Magic Mushroom Psychedelic Can Cause Anatomical Brain Changes
A small study found that a single 25mg dose of psilocybin produced measurable brain changes that were still visible a month later, along with reported improvements in psychological insight, wellbeing, and mental flexibility. The Guardian reports: Evidence for the changes came from specialized scans that measured the dif … ⌘ Read more

Oscars Bans AI Actors and Writing From Awards
The Academy has clarified that only human-performed acting and human-authored writing are eligible for Oscar nominations. The Oscars will not ban AI tools broadly, but says it will judge films based on the degree to which humans remain central to the creative work. The BBC reports: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences […], which controls the US film industry’s … ⌘ Read more

Astronomers May Have Detected an Atmosphere Around a Tiny, Icy World Past Pluto
“The Associated Press is reporting on a new study in Nature Astronomy suggesting that a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto harbors a thin, delicate atmosphere that may have been created by volcanic eruptions or a comet strike,” writes longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot. From the report: Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Discover 27 Potential New Planets That Orbit Two Stars
Astronomers have identified 27 potential new circumbinary planets – worlds that orbit two stars, like Star Wars’ Tatooine. “To date, only about 18 circumbinary planets … had been identified in the universe,” reports the Guardian. “More than 6,000 planets have been discovered that orbit single stars, like Earth does around the sun.” The Gua … ⌘ Read more

Infrasound Waves Stop Kitchen Fires, But Can They Replace Sprinklers?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In a makeshift demonstration kitchen in Concord, California, cooking oil splatters in and around a frying pan, which catches fire on an unattended gas stove. Within moments, a smoke detector wails. But in this demonstration, something less common happens: An AI-driven sensor activa … ⌘ Read more

Science Has Found Even More Ways Coffee Is Good for You
A new study shows the mechanisms of how coffee modifies the microbiome, reduces inflammation, and influences mood. Even decaf has its perks. ⌘ Read more

Carbon Pollution Is Making Food Less Nutritious, Risking the Health of Billions
A new meta-analysis found nutrients in food decreased over the last 40 years, reports the Washington Post. “Many of humanity’s most important crops — including wheat, potatoes, beans — contain fewer vitamins and minerals than they did a generation ago.”

“The invisible culprit behind this damaging phenomenon? Carbo … ⌘ Read more

Former NASA Engineers Create Ingenious Way To Save Homes From Wildfires Using Noise
“Scientists have created a miraculous new way to stop fires from spreading through neighborhoods using nothing but sound,” reports the New York Post:

Former NASA engineers with California-based Sonic Fire Tech found that using sound waves can snuff out blazes and potentially be used to stop another Pacifi … ⌘ Read more

An Amateur Just Solved a 60-Year-Old Math Problem - by Asking AI
Slashdot reader joshuark writes: Scientific American reports that a ChatGPT AI has proved a conjecture with a method no human had developed. A 23-year-old student Liam Price just cracked a 60-year-old problem that world-class mathematicians have tried and failed to solve. The new solution that Price got in response to a single prompt to GPT-5. … ⌘ Read more

Retina Scan for Diabetes Could Also Reduce Deaths During Pregnancy in Developing Countries
This week Bill Gates wrote a blog post about a special camera from medtech startup Remidio, which delivers high-resolution images of a patient’s retina in seconds. The camera plugs into a phone running an AI system that watches for early signs of diabetes — all without needing a blood draw, e … ⌘ Read more

New Lithium-Plasma Engine Passes Key Mars Propulsion Test
NASA engineers have tested a next-generation lithium-plasma electric propulsion system that reached 120 kilowatts, a new U.S. record and about 25 times the power of the electric thrusters on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. “Designing and building these thrusters over the last couple of years has been a long lead-up to this first test,” said James Polk, who is a s … ⌘ Read more

Therabody Promo Codes: 15% Off May 2026
Save on the science-backed devices you’ve been eyeing with 15% off Theragun discount code and 30% off other great deals. ⌘ Read more

AI Agent Designed To Speed Up Company’s Coding Wipes Entire Database In 9 Seconds
joshuark shares a report from Live Science: An AI coding agent designed to help a small software company streamline its tasks instead blew a hole through its business in just nine seconds. PocketOS founder Jer Crane, said that the AI coding agent Cursor –powered by Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 model – delet … ⌘ Read more