Gadget

The habitable zone, or “Goldilocks zone”, is the region around a star where conditions allow liquid water to exist. Varying with star type, this zone is key in the search for life. Earth’s location in the Sun’s habitable zone has made life possible, and astronomers seek similar rocky exoplanets in other systems to explore the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

A 3D-printed robot crab named “Wavy Dave” was deployed among real fiddler crabs in Portugal to mimic mating displays. The study revealed surprising reactions—rival males waved longer, avoided conflict with larger claws, and even attacked the robot. These findings offer new insights into how crabs adjust their courtship behavior in response to perceived competition in dynamic environments.

SpaceX has signed a landmark agreement with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to deliver Italian science experiments to Mars aboard its Starship rocket. Announced on August 7, 2025, the mission will carry a plant-growth module, a meteorological station, and a radiation detector to collect crucial data during the six-month journey and on the Martian surface. These experiments will study plant growth in space, monitor Mars’ weather, and measure cosmic radiation—information vital for future human exploration. The launch is targeted for the November–December 2026 Mars window, pending Starship’s readiness. This partnership signals a new era of commercial interplanetary missions, enabling nations to buy payload flights without building their own spacecraft.

On July 30, 2025, the NASA–CNES SWOT satellite captured the leading edge of a tsunami wave in the Pacific, triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Recorded about 70 minutes after the quake, the wave measured 1.5 feet in open water but could grow to 30 feet at shore. SWOT’s advanced radar mapped the wave’s height, profile, and direction—providing data never before captured in such detail. NOAA’s Center for Tsunami Research found that integrating SWOT data could greatly improve forecast accuracy, a major step forward in disaster preparedness. Experts see this as a breakthrough in early tsunami detection.

Manoj Bajpayee and Jim Sarbh starrer Inspector Zende is a new Netflix series, set to uncover the real-life story of finding the serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who murdered a lot of tourists in the 1970s across Asia, and how Madhukar Zende, a Mumbai cop, tracked him down and caught him in 1986 and put him behind bars, is a thrilling crime series, releasing on the September 5th.

Microsoft Lens app will be discontinued later this year, the company said last week. The app was designed to scan images of physical documents, text, handwritten papers, and whiteboards and convert them into digital files. However, the Redmond-based tech giant stated that it will be retired in a phased manner by the end of this year.

According to IDC, India’s smartphone market shipped 70 million units in H1 2025, growing 0.9 percent YoY. In Q2 alone, shipments rose 7.3 percent YoY to 37 million. The growth was driven by new model launches across all segments, price cuts on older phones, better offline margins, and strong marketing.

Google DeepMind’s Aeneas model uses AI to reconstruct damaged ancient Roman inscriptions with high accuracy. Its ability to fill in missing text, estimate origins, and connect similar inscriptions makes it a game-changer for historical research. Open-source and free to use, it opens new possibilities in the study of ancient history.

A breakthrough in creative robotics, Robot Drummer combines AI and humanoid design to perform complex drumming patterns with precision and flair. The system could inspire future innovations in robotic musicianship and live entertainment.

Astronomers have confirmed that the blazar OJ 287 hosts the most extreme binary black hole system ever found. Using a global radio telescope array, they captured an ultra-sharp image showing a dramatically bent jet—evidence of two supermassive black holes locked in orbit. The system’s 12-year flare cycle and jet twists match predictions of a smaller companion black hole disturbing the primary’s disk. This discovery offers new insights into galaxy evolution, black hole mergers, and gravitational wave detection, making OJ 287 a prime target for future space observatories like LISA.