News
Autonomous vehicles were supposed to cut traffic'what if they don't?
1+ hour, 28+ min ago (319+ words) Data shows Waymo's robotaxis are empty for almost half of the miles they drive. The age of robotaxis, long the preserve of science fiction, is now a reality, at least in a handful of American cities. It took just over…...
Beans use an immune receptor to call in airstrikes on caterpillars
20+ hour, 49+ min ago (225+ words) When they're being eaten, bean plants release chemicals that draw in parasitic wasps. For decades, scientists have understood that plants can release volatile organic compounds'essentially airborne chemical signals'to attract the natural enemies of the things that eat them, like caterpillars....
How long will it take to rebuild Blue Origin's launch pad? We asked some Space X vets.
19+ hour, 26+ min ago (1445+ words) Everyone is in a place where it's no fun to be there." A former NASA engineer named John Muratore sat on console as launch director in early September 2016 as propellant flowed onto a Falcon 9 rocket in Florida. Ahead of a…...
Male bowerbirds hope to dazzle females with bright human-made items
18+ hour, 22+ min ago (476+ words) Male bowerbirds prefer colorful human items to decorate bowers Ars Technica Male bowerbirds are notorious for their complex mating rituals. They build intricate tunnels out of twigs'the bowers from which they get their name'and then decorate them with random colorful…...
Microsoft plans Linux tools and an RTX Spark desktop for Windows developers
18+ hour, 47+ min ago (222+ words) One hardware announcement and several software highlights from Microsoft Build. On the hardware front, we didn't get any updates for existing Surface devices (not counting yesterday's Surface Laptop Ultra announcement), but we did get something new: the Surface RTX Spark…...
Google announces deepfake call detection for Android, new Air Drop device support
23+ hour, 27+ min ago (368+ words) Google's June Android feature drop includes more scam detection, more Air Drop, and yes, more AI. We're expecting Android 17 to begin rolling out later this month, but first, Google has a batch of updates for the wider Android device ecosystem....
Why a Neo Geo port of Doom is functionally impossible
1+ day, 1+ hour ago (360+ words) Here at Ars, we've taken pleasure in reporting on versions of Doom that run on everything from wireless earbuds and printers to Windows' notepad. exe and even inside Doom itself. So when we hear that a piece of game-playing hardware…...
The truth lies in the past in Silo S3 trailer
23+ hour, 40+ min ago (629+ words) Ars Technica In April, we got a short teaser for the third season of Silo, the critically acclaimed Apple TV series based on the trilogy by novelist Hugh Howey, which hinted at a mysterious origin story dating back centuries. Apple…...
Mathematicians warn of AI threats to profession as industry encroaches
23+ hour, 19+ min ago (620+ words) Mathematicians warned against rising tech industry influence in a declaration describing the many challenges that AI poses to mathematics research. The timing of the declaration comes two weeks after Open AI publicized one of its AI models as having disproved…...
Blue Origin has set a very aggressive return-to-flight timeline
1+ day, 1+ hour ago (475+ words) The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen, and LNG tanks are all in good shape." The chief executive of Blue Origin, whose large New Glenn rocket exploded spectacularly less than a week ago at the company's launch site in Florida, vowed…...