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A small songbird inhabiting the Babar Islands, in the Banda Sea, Indonesia, has been identified as a new species after a duo of researchers discovered that its distinctive song sets it apart from its closest relative.

The post Ornithologists Describe New Bird Species from Remote Indonesian Islands appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

China’s largest battery maker CATL has unveiled a new battery pack architecture that allows sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries to be used inside the same enclosure, a move aimed at accelerating sodium-ion deployment in electric vehicles, battery-swapping networks, and energy storage systems.

The design, called “One Shell, Two Cells,” was disclosed during an industrial research event organized by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) News Centre and reported by Securities Times.

The platform uses a standardized battery enclosure capable of housing either lithium-ion or sodium-ion cells without changing the pack’s physical dimensions. The approach could help manufacturers and infrastructure operators switch between battery chemistries without redesigning vehicles, battery-swapping stations, or thermal management systems.

This modular approach could also simplify large-scale battery deployment, allowing manufacturers to streamline production lines while reducing redesign requirements across different vehicle platforms and energy storage systems.

The announcement comes as China’s battery industry pushes sodium-ion technology as a solution to one of lithium batteries’ biggest weaknesses: poor performance in extremely cold temperatures.

One pack, two chemistries

In regions such as Xinjiang, where winter temperatures can fall below -25°C, lithium iron phosphate batteries can experience slower charging and significant capacity losses. Sodium-ion batteries are viewed as a potential alternative because they maintain stronger performance in cold conditions.

According to CATL, the new architecture allows sodium-ion and lithium-ion systems to be exchanged within the same footprint, simplifying deployment across mobility and energy storage applications.

The design could prove particularly useful for battery-swapping operators. The same station infrastructure could support sodium-ion packs in cold northern regions while continuing to use lithium-based batteries in warmer areas.

The development builds on CATL’s broader sodium-ion strategy. Earlier this year, the company’s Chief Scientist Wu Kai said manufacturing bottlenecks affecting sodium-ion batteries had been resolved and that future versions could deliver driving ranges of up to 600 kilometers.

The company is also preparing commercial deliveries of its first sodium-ion energy storage systems later this year.

Durability targets emerge

Beyond the pack architecture, industry participants used the event to highlight progress in sodium-ion battery durability.

CATL and several suppliers reported reaching a 15,000-cycle benchmark, a level that could support operating lifetimes of up to 20 years in stationary storage and other high-use applications.

Cathode supplier Ronbay Technology said its sodium iron phosphate materials have also surpassed 15,000 charge-discharge cycles while improving electrode density. The company currently operates 6,000 tons of annual production capacity and plans significant expansion over the next two years.

Meanwhile, chemical producer Wanhua Chemical outlined efforts to reduce reliance on imported biomass feedstocks used in hard-carbon anodes. The company is developing synthetic hard-carbon materials derived from resin and coal, aiming to lower costs and strengthen domestic supply chains.

The latest announcements suggest China’s sodium-ion battery sector is moving beyond laboratory-scale development and into large-scale commercial deployment. With standardized pack designs, longer lifetimes, and expanding material production, manufacturers are positioning sodium-ion batteries as a complementary technology to lithium-ion systems rather than a direct replacement.

Scientists have finally packed a laboratory-class ultrafast laser onto a tiny photonic chip. Ultrafast lasers generate bursts of light that last only a few hundred femtoseconds, each one just a quadrillionth of a second long. These extremely short pulses are used in a wide range of technologies, including precision manufacturing, eye surgery, and optical frequency [...]

Hackers compromised 19 packages on the PyPI, collectively downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, in a new Shai-Hulud supply-chain attack that delivered malware designed to steal developer secrets. [...]

Apple's focus on efficiency and performance improvements is good news for older iPhones.

The iPhone maker revealed its new artificial intelligence products at its developer conference, the last with Tim Cook as chief executive.

The virologist was stopped at the Detroit airport after working in Congo during an mpox epidemic. His lawyer said the material was for research.

By recreating a nuclear fireball, scientists uncovered unexpected chemistry that could change how radioactive fallout is understood. In the first fraction of a second after a nuclear explosion or a major reactor accident, an immense surge of energy superheats the surrounding environment. Nearby materials and air are instantly vaporized, creating a rapidly expanding fireball made [...]

Deux astronautes français dans l'espace : l'un à bord de l'ISS, l'autre sur la future station privée américaine Haven-1. L'annonce, faite par Emmanuel Macron lors de « Choose France », a tout d'un coup d'éclat. Mais acheter des sièges dans l'espace ne fait pas une politique spatiale. Derrière le...

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Deep in Taiwan’s misty mountains, researchers have confirmed the tallest tree in the country: a thousand-year-old fir tree higher than a 20-story building, which they’ve named “the heaven sword of the Da’an River.” Climbers scaled the tree and dropped a measuring tape from the top to the forest floor during the Lunar New Year holiday in January 2023. The tree measured 84.1-meters (276-feet). The findings have been published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. A team of ecologists, geologists, remote-sensing specialists, professional climbers and Indigenous people that calls itself the “Taiwan tree seekers” began the search in 2014. “The common characteristics [of the team] are probably that we are all tree lovers and like adventures,” Rebecca Chia-Chun Hsu, lead author from Division of Forest Ecology, Institute of Taiwan Forestry Research, told CNN. ‘The Heaven Sword’, Taiwan’s tallest tree, measures 84.1 meters. Photo courtesy of Steven Pearce. Taiwan is one of the few places on Earth where trees can grow this tall. The island sits where the tropics meet the subtropics, and its mountains host several giant conifer species. The species behind the new record, Taiwania cryptomerioides, is known to the Indigenous Rukai people as “the tree that hits the moon.” Although nearly 60% of Taiwan is covered in forest, loggers cleared much of the island’s old-growth forest between 1912 and 1991. However, its steep slopes were too dangerous to reach, and pockets of ancient forest survived. Still, finding the tallest tree amid the rugged terrain was a task. Taiwan…This article was originally published on Mongabay

NASA's Artemis II crew are the fastest people alive, and now they have the patch to prove it.

Mission Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen (the latter with the Canadian Space Agency) spent 10 days in early April flying by the Moon. Their journey took them farther away from Earth than any humans have gone (52,756 miles [406,771 km]) and then, on the way back on board their Orion spacecraft Integrity, they sped up to about 24,664 miles per hour (39,693 k/ph) reentering the atmosphere.

Only three other people in history have traveled faster. NASA's Apollo 10 astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan set the record for the highest speed attained by a crewed vehicle relative to the Earth's surface: 24,791 mph (39,897 kph) on May 26, 1969.

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During his final Worldwide Developers Conference keynote before stepping down as Apple CEO in September, Tim Cook unveiled the long-awaited Siri overhaul that has been at the center of Apple’s AI ambitions for years.

At WWDC 2026, Apple formally introduced Siri AI, a rebuilt version of its digital assistant that arrives after delays and growing pressure from rivals in the artificial intelligence race. The keynote also brought a broad expansion of Apple Intelligence features across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, making AI the defining theme of Cook’s final developer conference.

Alongside the AI announcements, Apple revealed iOS 27, new family safety tools, refinements to its Liquid Glass design language, and the next version of macOS, called Golden Gate.

Siri’s AI transformation

The headline announcement was Siri AI, a redesigned version of Apple’s voice assistant built to handle more natural conversations and provide more contextual responses. Users can now customize how Siri sounds through new pacing and expressiveness controls, while also interacting with the assistant through voice or text.

Apple has moved Siri into a dedicated app while maintaining integration across its operating systems. The assistant also gains access to Visual Intelligence features, allowing it to identify locations and other details from images stored on a user’s device.

The launch marks a significant milestone for Apple after months of scrutiny surrounding delays to advanced Siri features. The company is positioning the new assistant as a central part of its broader AI strategy moving forward.

Apple Intelligence spreads across iOS

Apple Intelligence is now reaching deeper into many of the company’s most-used applications. Safari can monitor webpages and notify users when information changes, while Messages and Mail gain smarter contextual reply suggestions.

Calendar can create events from conversational prompts, and the Home app can summarize camera activity and make footage easier to search. Apple is also bringing AI-assisted automation to Shortcuts, allowing users to describe a task and have the software build the shortcut automatically.

The updates reflect Apple’s effort to weave AI features directly into everyday workflows rather than confining them to standalone tools.

iOS 27 expands compatibility

Apple also highlighted the scale of its upcoming software rollout. The company said iOS 27 will support every iPhone model dating back to the iPhone 11, making it one of the broadest compatibility expansions in the platform’s history.

Apple claimed the update will reach more users than any previous iOS release. The company also announced several performance improvements, including faster photo loading, quicker AirDrop transfers, and multitasking enhancements.

Alongside iOS 27, Apple introduced new tools for families. Parents will be able to create approved app lists for child accounts and manage access over time. A new Communication Safety feature will help prevent children and teenagers from viewing shared content that contains nudity, graphic imagery, and other sensitive material.

Apple also refined its Liquid Glass interface with new readability improvements and user-controlled transparency settings. The company closed the software showcase with a preview of macOS Golden Gate, which will become the next major release for Mac users.

Taken together, the announcements represented Apple’s most ambitious AI-focused software update yet, giving Cook a fitting final WWDC centered on the Siri upgrade that many users had been waiting to see.

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As the FIFA World Cup approaches, NASA is bringing space science and engineering to soccer fans worldwide. From June 11 to July 19, 2026, NASA will host an exhibit at FIFA Fan Festival™ Houston where visitors can learn how research aboard the International Space Station benefits life on Earth and experience missions in low Earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond through the Artemis program. 

On June 11, as the FIFA World Cup begins, NASA’s exhibit at Fan Festival Houston will open to the public. The event is free to attend and open for every match of the tournament in East Downtown, Houston. On June 20, Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche will introduce select Artemis II crew members following their historic mission around the Moon. The crew will participate in World Cup activities ahead of the Netherlands-Sweden match in Houston and will appear on the Fan Festival Houston main stage to share their experience with fans. 

The connection between NASA and the World Cup goes beyond the exhibit floor, reaching all the way to orbit. NASA spinoff technologies are innovations developed for space exploration that go on to shape commercial products and everyday life – even on the soccer field. 

For more than 25 years, research aboard the International Space Station has enabled breakthroughs in science, technology, and human health while advancing innovations that benefit people on Earth. That work includes studies that improve understanding of the aerodynamics and physics involved in soccer ball flight. 

In partnership with the ISS National Laboratory in 2019, researchers used the station’s microgravity environment to study how a soccer ball’s internal mass affects its motion, stability, and rotation. The findings have improved understanding of how embedded technologies, including match-ball sensors, can influence performance during play. The research contributed to studies used in the development and evaluation of soccer balls for major international tournaments, including FIFA World Cup competition. 

Understanding the relationship between an object’s center of mass and its geometric center is key to predicting how free-flying objects move, including spacecraft, satellites, and aircraft. 

Since 2022, Adidas has embedded electronics inside official match balls used in major tournaments. The sensors track speed, position, and contact in real time to support officiating and broadcast technology. But those sensors also add mass in specific locations inside the ball, and uneven mass distribution can affect how a ball moves through the air. 

The space-based research has helped improve understanding of how internal mass, including embedded sensors, can influence stability and rotation in real-world playing conditions. 

This work builds on earlier research into how spinning objects behave in microgravity. 

Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California tested Adidas’ Brazuca ball, developed for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, in wind tunnel conditions at the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory. Researchers studied aerodynamic behavior, including how low-spin kicks can produce “knuckling,” where the ball moves unpredictably due to unstable airflow across the seams. NASA engineers measured the speeds and flow conditions where this effect was most pronounced. 

Adjustments in panel shape, seam depth, and surface texture can influence flight consistency, helping determine whether a ball curves, dips, or holds its line during play. 

Now, NASA and Adidas are presenting that science through a STEMonstration that compares how differently balanced soccer balls spin and move in microgravity. The experiment shows how the same physics that governs motion in space also shape the game millions watch on Earth. 

Through research aboard the International Space Station and technology developed for exploration, NASA continues to demonstrate how discoveries made for space can benefit people on Earth—including athletes and fans participating in the world’s most popular sport. 

Watch the soccer ball STEMonstration video: 

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Apple ha lavorato su prestazioni e interfaccia. Le app saranno più rapide, AirDrop trasferirà fino all’80% più velocemente e la ricerca è stata migliorata... Leggi tutto

Researchers may have unlocked the future of computing by turning flat silicon chips into densely stacked 3D architectures. For decades, the semiconductor industry has boosted computing power by making transistors smaller and fitting more of them onto a single chip. That strategy has fueled remarkable advances in electronics, but it is now approaching fundamental physical [...]

La nuova Siri basata su Apple Intelligence promette contesto personale, azioni tra app e Visual Intelligence, ma non arriverà al lancio su iPhone e iPad nell’Unione Europea... Leggi tutto

A comprehensive investigation by battery researcher Ziroth, involving over 20 independent battery experts, has produced what amounts to definitive proof that Donut Lab’s “miracle” solid-state battery is actually a lithium-ion cell. The company raised approximately $25 million from over 1,300 mostly small investors based on claims that now appear to be false.

The investigation traces the battery technology back to a German company called CT Coatings, reveals a web of companies hiding behind aggressive NDAs, and presents electrochemical evidence — including voltage curves and cell expansion data — that conclusively identifies the tested cell as lithium-ion, not the revolutionary sodium-ion solid-state chemistry Donut Lab promised.

Con i prossimi aggiornamenti software, Apple renderà più semplice gestire app, siti web, contatti e tempi di utilizzo dei dispositivi dei minori... Leggi tutto