Phys.org, Author at Spotlight Magazine

Data center fights pit social values, democracy and capitalism against each other

Data center projects continue to generate controversy around the country. In part, that’s because a variety of groups have competing interests—some in favor, some opposed and others with no direct view on data centers themselves […]

The universe is less uniform than we thought—cosmology may need a radical rethink

Modern cosmology rests on a simple assumption: If we look on large enough scales, matter should be distributed evenly, with no preferred direction within the cosmos. This is known as the cosmological principle.This post was […]

XMM-Newton and Chandra help revise distance to Milky Way’s outer spiral arms

The European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra X-ray space telescopes have spotted the aftermath of three bright explosions echoing through the outer spiral arms of our galaxy, the Milky Way. By measuring the distance […]

Australia wants a ‘digital duty of care.’ But how will we check what big tech is doing?

You expect to be safe when you go to work or when your kids play at the school playground. When you go to the doctor or get financial advice from the bank, you expect they’ll […]

‘I hate you!’: What little kids really mean when they say this

“I hate you. You’re the worst mum in the world!” It’s a sentence that can feel heartbreaking to parents. You try to set a boundary with your little one, and they lash out with “I […]

Orbit overload could devastate astronomy if 1.7 million proposed satellites brighten night sky

A new European Southern Observatory (ESO) study has found that current proposals to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit, including extremely bright ones, would have “devastating consequences for astronomy.” According to the study, […]

Custom prosthetic hand adapts to each user, decoding 19 gestures in real time

Most prosthetic hands today still struggle with a fundamental problem: No two amputees are the same, yet most devices are designed as if they are. That mismatch makes natural, intuitive control difficult, often turning what […]

How a giant planet survived its star’s death, then migrated inward

When astronomers discovered a giant planet orbiting a dead star in 2020, they wondered how it survived its star’s violent demise. Now, observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may finally explain the planet’s […]

More precise fire extinguishing from the air using simulation and sensor data

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and more intense worldwide. Fires often become infernos because of heat, drought and wind, especially in the summer. The problem is compounded by the climate crisis. Researchers at the Fraunhofer […]

Video: Thousands of planets are hidden in this image

Millions of stars. Thousands of hidden worlds. One unprecedented view of our galaxy. Three years since launch, ESA’s Euclid space telescope reveals the center of the Milky Way galaxy in extraordinary detail: a mosaic of […]