
Ben Turner
Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.
Latest articles by Ben Turner

Google's AI tells users to add glue to their pizza, eat rocks and make chlorine gas
By Ben Turner published
Social media has been flooded with bizarre and dangerous advice that appears to have been made by Google's new AI overview feature. The company continues to defend the 'high quality' search tool.

Crows can count out loud, startling study reveals
By Ben Turner published
This is the first time an animal other than humans has been seen performing the feat of vocal numeracy.

Euclid space telescope: ESA's groundbreaking mission to study dark matter and dark energy
By Ben Turner last updated
The Euclid space telescope uses its incredibly wide field of view to hunt for two of the universe's most mysterious components: dark matter and dark energy. The six-year mission could change cosmology forever.

This year's hurricane season could see 25 named storms, NOAA says in record-breaking forecast
By Ben Turner published
Unusually high temperatures combined with the abatement of the El Niño could lead to more major hurricanes this year.

Scientists just discovered an enormous lithium reservoir under Pennsylvania
By Ben Turner published
The new source of lithium, which could meet up to 40% of U.S. demand, was discovered in fracking wastewater.

Euclid space telescope reveals more than 300,000 new objects in 1st 24 hours of observations (photos)
By Ben Turner published
The Euclid space telescope has released five mesmerizing new photos of our universe, kicking off a six-year campaign to unveil the secrets of dark matter, dark energy and other cosmological mysteries.

Scientists discover the possible origin of the sun's magnetic field, and it's not where they thought it was
By Ben Turner published
New simulations suggest that the origins of the sun's explosive storms could lie much closer to its surface than first thought.

Warm ocean water is rushing beneath Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier,' making its collapse more likely
By Ben Turner published
Warm seawater flowing into the glacier's underside could significantly accelerate the process of its collapse.

'Playing Russian roulette with your health': Officials warn that social media trend of consuming raw milk will not protect you from bird flu
By Ben Turner published
Raw milk sales have surged following reports of H5N1 infections in dairy cows in the U.S. But drinking unpasteurized products will cause more harm than good, experts warn.

Scientists discover bizarre region around black holes that proves Einstein right yet again
By Ben Turner published
Einstein's general theory of relativity predicted that so-called 'plunging regions' around black holes would accelerate matter into them at the speed of light. Now, X-ray observations of a remote black hole have proved him right.

Newfound 'glitch' in Einstein's relativity could rewrite the rules of the universe, study suggests
By Ben Turner published
Einstein's theory of general relativity is our best description of the universe at large scales, but a new observation that reports a "glitch" in gravity around ancient structures could force it to be modified.

OpenAI unveils huge upgrade to ChatGPT that makes it more eerily human than ever
By Ben Turner published
ChatGPT's latest upgrade means the voice assistant can now respond to audio, text and visual inputs in real time. The new chatbot, named ChatGPT-4o, will be rolled out to alpha testers in the coming weeks.

NASA details plan to build a levitating robot train on the moon
By Ben Turner published
NASA's plan to build a train track on the moon is part of the agency's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which aims to develop "science fiction-like" projects for future space exploration.

'A dream come true': Nuclear clock breakthrough could revolutionize study of the universe's fundamental forces
By Ben Turner published
By nudging a thorium-229 nucleus into a higher energy state, physicists have made it possible to develop a nuclear clock that could probe the most fundamental forces in physics. However, there is still a long way to go.

Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch scrubbed due to loud buzzing valve
By Ben Turner published
The first crewed launch of Boeing's Starliner space capsule was canceled on Monday (May 6) due to a loudly buzzing valve on the Atlas V rocket carrying it. The delay is yet another headache for Boeing in its attempt to get its Starliner capsule up and running.

Antarctic ice hole the size of Switzerland keeps cracking open. Now scientists finally know why.
By Ben Turner published
The Maud Rise polynya has been sporadically opening up in Antarctica's ice since at least the 1970s. Now climatologists finally know why.

James Webb telescope spots wind blowing faster than a bullet on '2-faced planet' with eternal night
By Ben Turner published
New James Webb Space Telescope observations of the exoplanet WASP-43b reveal that the hot gas giant is tidally locked, meaning one side permanently faces its sun while the other always stares out into space.

Stunning image shows atoms transforming into quantum waves — just as Schrödinger predicted
By Ben Turner published
A new imaging technique, which captured frozen lithium atoms transforming into quantum waves, could be used to probe some of the most poorly understood aspects of the quantum world.

James Webb telescope reveals fiery 'mane' of the Horsehead Nebula in spectacular new images
By Ben Turner published
Captured in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope, the star-forming Horsehead Nebula is located 1,300 light-years away in the Orion Constellation.

China reveals most detailed geological map of the moon ever created
By Ben Turner published
Chinese astronomers have shared the most detailed geological map of the moon ever created, revealing more than 12,000 structures. The new atlas will be essential for picking out landing locations and resource sites for future lunar missions.

Why do people hear their names being called in the woods?
By Ben Turner published
Auditory pareidolia is a phenomenon in which people can hear familiar sounds from seemingly static background noise.

Yellowstone Lake's weird resistance to climate change could be about to crack
By Ben Turner published
Yellowstone's lake's ice cover has remained unaffected by increasing temperatures due to increased snowfall. But this could make it vulnerable to a sudden shift.

'We were in disbelief': Antarctica is behaving in a way we've never seen before. Can it recover?
By Ben Turner published
Feature Antarctic sea ice has been disappearing over the last several summers. Now, climate scientists are wondering whether it will ever come back.

Hundreds of emperor penguin chicks spotted plunging off a 50-foot cliff in 1st-of-its-kind footage
By Ben Turner published
The fledglings are typically reared on floating platforms of sea ice, but an unprecedented decline in the ice extent has driven young onto cliffs.

'Unprecedented,' 'Gobsmacked', 'Unbelievable': Changes in Antarctica's sea ice could have dramatic impacts, says climate scientist Edward Doddridge
By Ben Turner published
In 1898, the crew of the first scientific expedition to Antarctica became trapped inside sea ice around the southernmost continent. Much of that once thick ice is dwindling, says polar researcher Edward Doddridge.
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