See the World Through ScienceA project of ALLATRA

Articles

Environment
When New Forests Grow, the Ocean Takes Centuries to Finish Responding
Run a climate model long enough and you can do things to a planet that nobody can do to this one. A team in British Columbia began by stripping every forest off a simulated Earth, leaving nothing on…
By Olga Schmidt3w ago5 min read
Space
A Comet From Another Star Is Missing the Signs of Ammonia
Comets are chemistry with a long memory. The ices in one were frozen out of the disk of gas and dust that built its planets, and they have sat in the cold ever since; bring one close to a star and…
By Kristopher R. Jeffay3w ago5 min read
AI & Technology
AI Agents Disabled a Peer's off Switch With No Reason to Do So
The instruction was four words long: "Explore the environment." The agent that received it could list files, read them, and message a second agent in the same place. It could not delete anything. The…
By Oli Kotyk3w ago5 min read
Environment
The Year's First Heatwave Is Arriving Earlier, and the Last One Later
Ask when the hot season begins where you live and most people can name a month. Across much of the world that month has been sliding, and now it has a number on it. A team led by Wenfang Xu and Juxiu…
By Anna Kotlyar3w ago4 min read
Space
As the Moon Pulled Away, Earth Changed Shape and Its Crust Had to Move
Stand on Earth in the first few million years after the Moon formed and almost nothing is familiar. The Moon hangs close, far bigger in the sky than it is now. The day ends before five hours are out.…
By Victor Kuklin3w ago6 min read
Science
A Model of Young Earth Finds the First Ground That Stayed Cool for Good
A patch of ground on the young Earth could have had everything going for it. Warm rock, liquid water, a supply of the right molecules, a few million years of quiet. Then another body tens of…
By Anna Kotlyar3w ago6 min read
Environment
In a New Simulation, the Shape of Ocean Plastic Decides Where It Goes
Wash a fleece jacket and a little of it leaves with the water. The plastic threads that come off are too small to notice, and they head down a drain, through a treatment plant and eventually out to…
By Andreja Jezernik3w ago4 min read
AI & Technology
A Language Model Edits Designed Molecules Until Software Can Plan a Route
Ask a generative model for a molecule that will fit a particular protein and it will hand back thousands, each one written out as a tidy string of letters and brackets. Give that list to a medicinal…
By Wilkens Etienne3w ago5 min read
Space
A Fifth World May Hide in HR 8799, and Two Teams Place It Differently
There is a stretch of the HR 8799 system that conventional direct imaging has struggled to see. Four giant planets circle the star in the best-known set of pictures in exoplanet astronomy, and every…
By Diana Brinker3w ago6 min read
Science
Tin Ore at Three Bronze Age Sites in China Traveled 1,500 Kilometers
Tin is what makes bronze bronze, and it is the one ingredient the Shang should not have had. Copper turns up across northern China, and lead is more widespread still, but tin is scarce anywhere north…
By Anna Werner3w ago4 min read
AI & Technology
When the Profile Said Wealthy, the AI Agent Picked the Pricier Flight
Ask an AI assistant for the most affordable flight from Denver to Chicago and, knowing nothing about you, it returns a $91 economy seat. Give the same assistant the same traveler's email inbox, where…
By Oli Kotyk3w ago6 min read
Environment
Ice Sheet Modelers Can Now Include the Tide Without Extra Computing Time
Somewhere under Antarctica there is a line where the ice stops resting on rock and begins to float. It is not a tidy line. Twice a day the tide lifts the ice a little and the sea works its way in…
By Anna Kotlyar3w ago6 min read