Crooked Bough News Round-up

— Mount Toba eruption doesn't seem like it could nearly kill our species

 

at 8/9/26 5:00am

The massive Toba eruption seems to have had little climate impact.

[Category: Science, climate change, eruption, geology, Mount Toba]

— DeepMind’s hurricane breakthrough has surprised weather scientists

 

at 8/8/26 5:05am

Open source WeatherNext model can make accurate predictions with lower-resolution weather data.

[Category: AI, Science, atlantic hurricane season, deepmind, hurricane, syndication, weather forecasting, WeatherNext]

— The ultimate eclipse chase: A Concorde raced against the Moon's shadow

 

at 8/7/26 1:00pm

Fitted with telescopes, the plane did our longest imaging of the Sun's corona.

[Category: Science, astronomy, concorde, Eclipse]

— How snails engineer their slime

 

at 8/7/26 11:25am

Collagen and calcium work in tandem to achieve varying mechanical properties of different kinds of mucus.

[Category: Science, Biology, colloids, materials science, slime and mucus, snails]

— The world's biggest solar telescope caught vortexes on the Sun's surface

 

at 8/7/26 7:20am

We expected them to be there, but they had previously been too small to see.

[Category: Science, astronomy, astrophysics, solar telescope, Sun, vortexes]

— Trump is losing his war on wind power

 

at 8/7/26 6:58am

A court rules that a hold on all wind projects clearly violates the law.

[Category: Policy, Science, Department of Defense, Energy, law, lawsuit, renewable energy, wind power]

— Large genome models used to design new viruses

 

at 8/6/26 1:04pm

The AI system makes genetically distant versions of a bacteria-killing virus.

[Category: AI, Science, bacteriophage, Genome, Genomics, large genome model, phage, virus]

— Parasitic zombie-ant fungus thrives in mosses, too

 

at 8/6/26 11:13am

This may help fungi survive host scarcity and explains why infected hosts prefer the mosses as death sites.

[Category: Science, Biology, botany, Cordyceps, extended phenotypes, fungi]

— This Atlantic hurricane season is looking like a dud, but there will be a price to pay

 

at 8/5/26 1:19pm

"The models are forecasting something outside the envelope of anything we have ever observed."

[Category: Science, El Niño, hurricane season, science, Weather]

— D-Wave shows off its new entry in quantum computing race

 

at 8/5/26 10:37am

Company noted for building quantum annealers now also making gate-based hardware.

[Category: Science, Computer science, D-Wave, dual-rail qubits, Physics, quantum computing, quantum mechanics, qubits]

— Research roundup: 6 cool science stories we almost missed

 

at 8/3/26 2:13pm

Also: Cyborg diving suits for cockroaches, why sleepy sperm whales blow bubbles, Betelgeuse's companion star.

[Category: Science, ancient DCA, animal behavior, Archaeology, astronomy, Biology, Robotics]

— Here's how engineers plan to save the satellite sent to save NASA's Swift mission

 

at 8/1/26 12:20pm

"We believe that a capture of Swift, an attempted capture of Swift, is very much in the cards."

[Category: Science, Space, Commercial space, katalyst space, NASA, satellite servicing, Swift]

— How fruit flies chase invisible ribbons of smell to get to their source

 

at 8/1/26 4:00am

Tracking smells in turbulent air takes a keen sense of direction and sharp memory.

[Category: Science, Biology, memory, navigation, neurobiology, olfaction]

— Not just Neanderthals: Ghost lineage in Africa left its mark on our DNA

 

at 7/31/26 4:17pm

Some group with no modern descendants contributed a lot to our genomes.

[Category: Science, Denisovans, evolution, Genetics, Genomics, ghost lineages, human evolution, Neanderthals]

— Researchers devise a full-color night vision goggle

 

at 7/31/26 11:58am

Wavelength and intensity in the infrared are translated into colors in the visible.

[Category: Science, color vision, infrared, LEDs, materials science, Night Vision]

— China could supply EV manufacturing boom with recycled EVs

 

at 7/31/26 11:29am

Look at chemistry of batteries and motors shows big opportunity for recycling.

[Category: Science, EV battery recycling]

— Space Force-backed mission does its best impression of Top Gun in orbit

 

at 7/30/26 11:35am

"Dogfighting in space doesn’t quite have the drama of an aerial dogfight."

[Category: Science, Space, military space, responsive space, rocket lab, true anomaly, US Space Force, victus haze]

— Quantum computers outperform classical ones, with results you can trust

 

at 7/30/26 9:59am

Three approaches to the issue of quantum results that can't be verified classically.

[Category: Science, algorithms, Computer science, error mitigation, ibm, ising model, Physics, quantum computing, quantum mechanics]

— Yet more qubit tech: New quantum dot options, diamond vacancies

 

at 7/29/26 11:37am

Companies are making sure we have a surplus of options for building qubits.

[Category: Science, Computer science, ibm, Nitrogen vacancies, Physics, quantum computing, quantum dots, quantum mechanics, qubits]

— What happens when you put AI to work deciphering lost languages?

 

at 7/29/26 7:23am

AI is fantastic at spotting patterns, but human insight is the key.

[Category: AI, Science, bronze age, etruscan civilization, Linear A, syndication]

— Attitude control issues leave Swift rescue mission spinning in orbit

 

at 7/28/26 4:09pm

"Preliminary investigation shows that two of Link's three reaction wheels currently are not operable."

[Category: Science, Space, katalyst space, NASA, rescue, Swift]

As of 8/9/26 11:19am. Last new 8/9/26 7:27am.