Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a flying ferry
An electric hydrofoil ferry could be the future of public transportation. Enlarge (credit: Candela) Three feet above the waves, the Candela P-12 sprints across Lake Mälaren near Stockholm, Sweden. With only its hydrofoils cut.....»»
Researchers find babbling by zebra finch chicks is important step to memorizing songs
When babies learn to talk or birds learn to sing, the same principle applies: listen and then imitate. This is how the first babble becomes the first word or vocalization. Male zebra finch chicks initially memorize the song of an adult bird. Later, t.....»»
Cut light pollution and treat glass to help migrating birds, say researchers
Spring bird migration has begun. Under cover of darkness, 2.5–3.5 billion birds will fly northward to their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, now is one of the most important times of yea.....»»
Formation-flying spacecraft could probe the solar system for new physics
It's an exciting time for the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. Thanks to cutting-edge observatories, instruments, and new techniques, scientists are getting closer to experimentally verifying theories that remain largely untested. Th.....»»
Saturday Citations: Listening to bird dreams, securing qubits, imagining impossible billiards
It's Saturday, which means that in a universe where the arrow of time moves backward, people have to go to work tomorrow. In such a hypothetical universe, Garfield hates Fridays—tough to imagine. This week, we looked at several hundred breaking sci.....»»
Words are flowing out like endless rain: Recapping a busy week of LLM news
Gemini 1.5 Pro launch, new version of GPT-4 Turbo, new Mistral model, and more. Enlarge / An image of a boy amazed by flying letters. (credit: Getty Images) Some weeks in AI news are eerily quiet, but during others, gett.....»»
Bird Flu Is Spreading in Alarming New Ways
H5N1 has infected cattle across the US and jumped from a mammal to a human for the first time. Experts fear it may someday evolve to spread among humans......»»
What do bird dreams sound like?
For more than 20 years, researchers have known that areas of birds' brains dedicated to singing show neural patterns during sleep akin to the ones they use while awake and singing......»»
Scientists find blue light makes buildings more deadly to migrating birds
Bird collisions with buildings are nothing new, but a new study by scientists at The University of New Mexico sheds light on a potential cause......»»
Apple Vision Pro: I tried it on a plane and it was chaotic
Mashable's tech editor Kimmie G takes a ride in the sky to put Apple's Vision Pro to the test. Mashable's tech editor Kimmie G put Apple's Vision Pro to the test on her JetBlue flight from JFK to Juan Santamaría International Airport in.....»»
Inexplicable cloud of magnetized plasma found in Hydra galaxy cluster
High sensitivity radio observations have discovered a cloud of magnetized plasma in the Hydra galaxy cluster. The odd location and shape of this plasma defy all conventional explanations. Dubbed the Flying Fox based on its silhouette, this plasma wil.....»»
Solar eclipse chasers from Colorado will seek clues for predicting geomagnetic space storms
When Monday's solar eclipse casts its shadow, Colorado-based scientists will chase it in a jet flying faster than 500 mph and aim a coffin-shaped instrument straight at the sun's corona, taking measurements that eventually could help weather forecast.....»»
Four in five bird species cannot tolerate intense human pressures, data show
Currently 14% of the world's 11,000 bird species are threatened with extinction. A new study assessed the populations of bird species across a spectrum of landscapes from pristine habitats to human-dominated environments......»»
Boeing 1 month out from 4 years of catchup to SpaceX with 1st crewed Starliner flight
After nearly four years of playing catchup, Boeing is finally set to join SpaceX as one of two commercial partners capable of flying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station......»»
Scientists pursue the total solar eclipse with NASA jet planes
The April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse will produce stunning views across North America. While anyone along the eclipse path with a clear sky will see the spectacular event, the best view might be 50,000 feet in the air, aboard NASA's WB-57 jet plane.....»»
Bird flu flare: Cattle in 5 states now positive as Texas egg farm shuts down
The risk to the general public remains low, federal officials say. Enlarge / Chicken eggs are disposed of at a quarantined farm with bird flu in Israel's northern village of Margaliot on January 3, 2022. (credit: Getty | JALAA M.....»»
After 10 years of work, landmark study reveals new "tree of life" for all birds living today
The largest-ever study of bird genomes has produced a remarkably clear picture of the bird family tree. Published in the journal Nature today, our study shows that most of the modern groups of birds first appeared within 5 million years after the ext.....»»
A frozen chunk of genome rewrites our understanding of bird evolution
An enormous meteor spelled doom for most dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But not all. In the aftermath of the extinction event, birds—technically dinosaurs themselves—flourished......»»
Computational tools fuel reconstruction of new and improved bird family tree
An international team of scientists has built the largest and most detailed bird family tree to date—an intricate chart delineating 93 million years of evolutionary relationships between 363 bird species, representing 92% of all bird families......»»
Daily Telescope: A flying telescope gets photobombed by some planets
It's a bird... It's a plane... It's a telescope. Enlarge / The SOFIA telescope. (credit: Chris Johnson) Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a littl.....»»
Cows in Texas and Kansas test positive for highly pathogenic bird flu
The risk to the public is low, and the milk supply is safe. Enlarge (credit: Getty | Peter Cade) Wild migratory birds likely spread a deadly strain of bird flu to dairy cows in Texas and Kansas, state and federal officia.....»»