Jeff Hecht

NASA's Perseverance rover has reached the rim of the Jezero crater and is on its way to explore Witch Hazel Hill skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news…

By far the oldest and largest impact crater has been found on Venus skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news…

We finally have found where most meteorites come from skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news…

Did Earth have a ring long before dinosaurs roamed? It looks possible. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news…

@MEStatePolice You can't make these things up. Why did a presumably experienced truck driver think he could get a giant wind turbine blade under under a railroad bridge.

Update on the wind turbine blade accident: Initial investigations indicate the tractor trailer was not far enough into the left lane when navigating under the train trestle, resulting in the crash. The blade, mounted on large brackets, struck the trestle, causing the rollover. The bridge only sustained minor damage. Due to the length of the blade (240 feet), turning the vehicle around is not feasible. The current plan is to load the blade onto another trailer and reverse it back to Searsport. Estimates say it will be removed early tomorrow morning. Route 1 will remain closed until it's removed. Traffic is being re-routed from the bridge to 174A to 1A and back to Route 1. Currently on scene is the Maine State Police, @MaineDOT1, Stockton Springs FD, Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, and Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Today is the day. The hearing. A chance to put the case. To convince them that this is imperative. That it is worth the cost. That we owe the debt to those who went before. That it is our destiny. We must create a new colony on Mars. #scifi by @jeffhecht nature.com/articles/d4158…

“Leopard spots” on a Mars rock could come from life — or they could simply be a sign of a type of chemical reaction that requires water. Read more from @jeffhecht here: buff.ly/3SDlOTd

Training AI on AI-generated documents churns out gibberish, reports a Nature paper. nature.com/articles/d4158…? Pretty damn obvious and very dangerous.

This was a tragic (but really well reported) article in Tech Review. When I was working on Plastic Fantastic, some physicists said, this (2002 fraud) case was isolated and will be unlikely to recur as we can easily address the enabling factors. Go figure. technologyreview.com/2024/05/15/109…

@jjaron Weird. Monroe (at the end) may have something. As I understand it, the power of a quantum computer increases very rapidly with the number of Qbits. Maybe the governments have pulled the number of Qbits out of the air to make others think they know where the limit is.

EXCLUSIVE: Governments around the world are using identical, extremely specific wording to limit the export of quantum computers, but no one will say why. The computers in question are functionally useless, as far as we know newscientist.com/article/243602…

Ai has no place in science or in scientific illustration!!!

@jjaron The dot-com bubble and collapse was really weird, loaded with smoke, mirrors and fraud. This one won't be exactly the same, but a lot of valuation is going to end up as smoke, mirrors and likely fraud

Did not know this. Cisco, of all companies! Further supports my view that Nvidia's time at the top will be short lived

@HNTurtledove @TeePublic Nice -- Happy bday

Very sorry to hear of the passing of Ed Stone, jpl.nasa.gov/news/ed-stone-… Voyager project scientist, former JPL director and one of the greats of space science. Before that he was my freshman physics TA at Caltech, and a great teacher as well. He will be missed.

A surprise in the inner part of the main asteroid belt -- NASA's Lucy mission found the 720-meter asteroid Dinkinesh has a contact binary moon with two twin lobes locked in orbit. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news…

@jjaron Look at the troubles of self-driving cars and you can see the future of AI.

Last year, I wrote a leader arguing that cramming generative AI into search would be like changing all of a city's road signs overnight - transforming our online infrastructure would be unhelpful at best, and disastrous if it goes wrong 1/2 newscientist.com/article/mg2573…

@jdhowgego Here in the US it's paywalled if you don't have a subscription.

Why can’t I read the New Yorker Lucy Letby story? I am getting a 404 error no matter how many times I try..

There are few things as exciting in our little corner of science as a new specimen of Archaeopteryx...with a skull...in a major, easily accessible museum! Congratulations to @FieldMuseum & @Paleontologista! These lovely photos are from this great article: bit.ly/44w9Z64

Does using GPS rot your brain? Not exactly, but finding your own way around may exercise it enough to stave off dementia. zdnet.com/article/worrie…

Astronomers at four sites spotted a sun-grazing comet during the April 8 eclipse. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news…