Helion Energy wants to build fusion power on a start-up timeline
This company says its pulsed plasma machine will deliver electricity to the grid by 2029. Some physicists warn that its promises are outrunning what the technology has proved
The programmer whose code underpins the Internet
Sharla Boehm, a math teacher, spent her summers coding. She’d go on to build what would eventually evolve into the Internet
This startup wants to make drugs in orbit. If it succeeds, it could transform the space economy
Varda’s plan to develop medicines in microgravity has its advantages, but it requires a big up-front cost
The next quantum revolution may require a helium ‘gold rush’ on the moon
The rare isotope helium-3 is one of Earth’s most precious commodities—so precious, in fact, that it might prove profitable to mine from the moon
Tiny robot drones learn to navigate the world like honeybees
Mapping their starting point like bees do helps autonomous drones find their way
Scientists make AI play Battleship to help it do science better
AI models and people played “collaborative” Battleship to test strategies for efficiently solving problems
What happens when you let AI agents run an entire start-up
Journalist Evan Ratliff explores what happens when AI agents are given real autonomy to build and run a start‑up from scratch
School cell phone bans may boost student well-being—but not test scores, new study suggests
Banning cell phones in schools has been touted as a silver bullet for poor test scores and low student well-being and attendance, but new research suggests the results are more mixed
SpaceX’s AI pivot promises the stars. Could it cost NASA the moon?
Massive investments in AI may bring synergy and revenue to SpaceX, or could create problems for it and NASA, especially if the AI bubble pops
Watch NASA test its new X-59 jet designed to go faster than the speed of sound
This next-generation plane is made to go faster than sound without producing a full sonic boom
What is the AI compute crunch—and how will it affect chatbots?
Rate limits on Claude and other tools could hint at a deeper squeeze on the chips, power and data centers needed to run advanced AI. Researcher Lennart Heim explains
Scientists used AI to rewrite part of life’s alphabet
An engineered E. coli strain survived after one amino acid was designed out of many of its ribosomal proteins—an early test of whether life’s chemistry can be simplified