John Timmer
Chief science wrangler for Ars Technica. Writes, edits, and teaches science communications.
Last synced from Twitter 907d ago
Researchers find an animal without mitochondria
The “powerhouse of the cell” is apparently not necessary for animal life.
Marsquakes and ancient magnetic fields: InSight’s first data
Last year, we activated the first useful seismograph on Mars.
Researchers entangle quantum memory at facilities over 50km apart
But the entanglement takes longer than the memory holds its state.
Neanderthals may have interbred with a much older human lineage
The result is likely to be disputed, as it relies on a novel technique.
New image shows Betelgeuse isn’t dimming evenly
The enormous star is looking oddly lopsided.
Details pour in from New Horizons’ visit to a Kuiper Belt Object
We've now got some ideas about how its two-lobed shape came to be.
We’ve figured out how mosquitos sense our warmth
Unfortunately, they still seem to be able to find us without it.
Images obtained of two stars in the process of a merger
After an expanding red giant engulfed its neighbor, chaos.
Variant of photovoltaic power could generate 24 hours a day
It's much less efficient than photovoltaics, but it works around the clock.
White dwarf causes strange relativity effect called frame dragging
We've struggled to measure it near Earth, but now have data from a distant stars.
Levitating sand escapes classical world, enters quantum ground state
We're close to being uncertain about where hundreds of millions of atoms are.
US government sees renewables passing natural gas in 20 years
But renewables' prices seem to make the report's projections obsolete already.
Planned nuclear storage material could decay faster than expected
The interface between different materials accelerates chemical breakdown.
As sea levels rise, little of the United States will be unaffected
If you're not near the coast, get ready for lots of new neighbors.
Researchers completely re-engineer yeast to make more biofuel
Systems-level engineering of a living thing is remarkably complicated.
“Living concrete” is an interesting first step
It's not really self healing and can't grow once it's structural.
Higher minimum wages linked to reduced suicide rate
The benefit is limited to low earners during times of economic hardship.
Closest-ever fast radio burst makes some ideas on their origin less likely
Even as we find more bursts, the mysterious high-energy events still defy an explanation.
Ditching coal in the US is saving lives, helping crops
Near shuttered plants, deaths drop and crop productivity rises.
Superior pinpoints racism in science: Naive scientists plus strategic racists
Angela Saini's new book explores why science's racism issues have persisted.