Science + Technology – The Conversation – new research, AI, space, psychology and more

A person holding a basket of peaches is surrounded by lush, green peach trees.

A fungal disease, along with climate change, threatens Colorado’s prized peaches

Jane Stewart, Colorado State University and David Sterle, Colorado State University

cartoon of a robot with an exaggeratedly long nose and pairs of lines coming from the top of the frame to each arm

You can persuade AI models to accept falsehoods as truth, study shows

Ashique KhudaBukhsh, Rochester Institute of Technology

The Earth shown in space from behind the Moon. Only a sliver of the Earth's surface is visible -- the rest of it is shadowed.

Will future missions to the Moon be sustainable? It may depend on whom you ask

Marco A. Janssen, Arizona State University; Afreen Siddiqi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Parvathy Prem, Johns Hopkins University

An illustration of a larger galaxy pulling in a smaller galaxy

Astrophysicists use ‘space archaeology’ to trace the history of a spiral galaxy

Lisa Kewley, Smithsonian Institution

Most people don’t know what they don’t know, but think they do – correcting your metaknowledge can make you a better teacher and learner

Tommy Blanchard, Tufts University

Painting of 'Aspasia Conversing with Socrates and Alcibiades'

Falling space debris poses an escalating risk as spacecraft get stronger and more heat resistant

Matthew Ray, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Reese Hufnagel, University of Wisconsin-Stout

An illustration shows a satellite burning up as it approaches Earth.

Businesswoman at a table with laptop has closed eyes and holding fingers to her forehead

You can change your emotions – but it’s a 2-step process that takes some effort

Christian Waugh, Wake Forest University

We tested the new World Cup ball – this is what you need to know about how it will fly, dip and swerve

John Eric Goff, University of Puget Sound

A man in red socks places a ball on the turf.

Genome sequencing is rewriting the history of disease outbreaks – but without social context, it can tell only part of the story

Marc Zimmer, Connecticut College

Hand holding magnifying glass over black and white DNA sequence readout

Button-pushing explorers: How to grasp that AI agents can do amazing things while knowing nothing

Ji Y. Son, California State University, Los Angeles and Alice Xu, University of California, Los Angeles

three toy robots in a maze and a fourth outside it

How AI can lead to false arrests and wrongful convictions

Maria Lungu, University of Virginia and Steven L. Johnson, University of Virginia

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Space

A hazy ring of light visible from behind the darkness of the Moon, in a dark sky.

Seeing an eclipse from Earth is awe-inspiring – for astronauts seeing one from space, the scene was even more grand

Deana L. Weibel, Grand Valley State University

Potential signs of life on distant planets sound exciting – but confirmation can take years

Olivia Harper Wilkins, Dickinson College

Star-filled sky with orange nebula spanning from bottom left to top right of image

Artemis II crew brought a human eye and storytelling vision to the photos they took on their mission

Christye Sisson, Rochester Institute of Technology

An astronaut inside a spacecraft holding a camera up to a window with a cloth covering. The lens is pushed through a hole in the covering.

Artemis II crew used modern photography to tell the visual story of their lunar journey – and update some classic Apollo images

Jennifer Levasseur, Smithsonian Institution

An astronaut looking out a window from below. The Earth is taking up most of the view outside the window.

Artemis II moonshot reflects a spacefaring vision present in Jules Verne’s 19th-century novel

Anastasia Klimchynskaya, Illinois Wesleyan University

The Earth, partially shadowed, visible beyond the lunar horizon.

Digital life

Photo of a white-haired man with redacted documents in the background.

Conspiracy theorists are building AI interfaces to the Epstein files – and presenting their views as data analysis

Matthew N. Hannah, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Online hate groups sustain their messages by repeating powerful stories or routinely adding new allegations

Yu-Ru Lin, University of Pittsburgh

cartoon image of a mouth on the screen of a laptop with five multicolor speech balloons around the screen

White House wants to vet powerful AI models for risks − a computer scientist explains why AI safety is so difficult

Ahmed Hamza, University of Colorado Boulder

A rough cube with the letters 'AI' is surrounded by seven yellow floor signs bearing exclamation marks

Mythos AI is a cybersecurity threat, but it doesn’t rewrite the rules of the game

Mohammad Ahmad, West Virginia University

text that says Anthropic overlaying a round seal with an eagle

AI data center boom is leaving consumer electronics short of chips − even though they don’t use the same kinds

Vidya Mani, University of Virginia; Cornell University

an irridecent rainbow pattern reflects off a shiny surface covered with repeated patterns of rectangles of various sizes

More articles about artificial intelligence

New research

Teens aren’t as disengaged as you may think: What adults get wrong about adolescents’ civic contributions

Kimia Shirzad, Penn State and Jen Agans, Penn State

One boy puts his hand on the shoulder of another as they work together at a table

Galaxies of life are collecting dust in museums – digitizing microscope slides can uncover billions of fossils for natural history

Ingrid C. Romero, Smithsonian Institution and Scott L. Wing, Smithsonian Institution

Two stacked program windows, the top of a mosaic of golden yellow and amber circles converging towards a center, and the bottom a specimen resembling a shoulder blade next to an excerpt from a written description

Biological age tests reveal what slows or hastens aging – but they’re useful only for researchers, not consumers

Idan Shalev, Penn State and Abner Apsley, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Two chains of clocks and dollar signs twisted in a double helix shape

Tapping your genome with AI and quantum computing could deliver on the promise of personalized medicine – but practical and ethical hurdles remain

Gary Skuse, Rochester Institute of Technology and Sherry Dadgar, George Washington University

Illustration of twisting ribbon composed of digital particles against a purple-blue gradient backdrop

Umbilical cord blood may hold clues for a child’s risk of developing Type 1 diabetes

Angelica P. Ahrens, University of Florida; Eric W. Triplett, University of Florida, and Johnny Ludvigsson, Linköping University

Close-up of child's arm with small round device attached

Placebo effect can work as well as real medicine – but your body may need permission to use it

Phil Starks, Tufts University

It’s a myth that baby boys are less social than girls – a new look at decades of research shows all babies are born to connect

Lise Eliot, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

Elevated view of two babies, one in pink hat, one in navy blue, lying on backs facing opposite directions

Using atomic nuclei could allow scientists to read time more precisely than ever – what this research could mean for future clocks

Eric R. Hudson, University of California, Los Angeles and Andrei Derevianko, University of Nevada, Reno

A large machine in the dark with bright optical lasers running through it

Brain and mind

How does your brain decide between the road not taken or the same old route? Resolving conflicting memories is key to navigation

Paulina Maxim, Georgia Institute of Technology

Illustration of person standing in the middle of a maze with arrows drawn on the walls

Photographic memory is a myth – here’s what research really says about remembering

Gabrielle Principe, College of Charleston

woman holds a camera up to her face to take a picture

Why do basketball players miss shots they’ve made a thousand times before? Neuroscience has an answer

David Van den Heever, Mississippi State University

Wide shot of basketball player shooting a free throw under a spotlight highlighting other basketballs surrounding him on the court

Irrational decision or helpful evolutionary adaptation? A philosopher on the rationality wars behind ‘nudge’ policy

Alejandro Hortal-Sánchez, Wake Forest University; University of North Carolina – Greensboro

two teenagers with trays of food at a self-serve cafeteria display

Curious Kids

Real kids ask real questions and real experts answer them

Artist's rendition side view of a T. rex dinosaur baring its large teeth.

Why did Tyrannosaurus rex have such short arms?

Sarah Sheffield, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Why do you have to wear a helmet when you’re skateboarding?

Christian Franck, University of Wisconsin-Madison

kid wearing a helmet flying through the air on a skateboard

Kids ask the questions. Scholars answer them.

Be sure to include your name, age and where you live. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

Send in your question!

Graphic that says 'connecting experts with curious kids', with words in background saying 'how? why? who?'

Why is water wet?

Yunyao Li, University of Texas at Arlington

Child in swimsuit grinning with eyes squeezed shut while being hit by several streams of water

Is the science that we do today truth, likely to be a lie, or is it undetermined?

Greg Eghigian, Penn State

Two scientists wearing lab coats sitting at a bench using pipettes and holding flasks.