Research roundup: 7 cool science stories we almost missed
"Black hole stars," making cookies from plastic, tiny sound-powered drones, and more.
"Black hole stars," making cookies from plastic, tiny sound-powered drones, and more.
The short version
- Credit: Rohan Naidu (University of Hawai’i) Credit: Rohan Naidu (University of Hawai'i) Nature, 2026.
- DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10846-4 ( About DOIs ).
- The receivers were picking up both the direct signal and its reflected echo when a whale was near the surface, as Spiesberger et al. explained in a paper published in the journal Physical Review E.
What happened
It’s known as temporal interference, where the signal’s strongest peak appears to speed up, sometimes seeming to travel faster than light. However, the encoded information still obeys this central principle of special relativity, so it’s not a violation of physics.
Why it matters
Having demonstrated the connection via simulations, Spiesberger is now working to record the effect in the real world, setting up an array of audio microphones on a hard floor with the same acoustic parameters as the ocean floor.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.