Last year, a team of scientists presented evidence that spruce trees in Italy’s Dolomite mountains synchronized their bioelectrical activity in anticipation of a partial solar eclipse—a potentially exciting new insight into the complexities of plant communication. The findings naturally generated media interest and even inspired a documentary. But the claims drew sharp criticism from other researchers in the field, with some questioning whether the paper should even have been published. Those initial misgivings are outlined in more detail in a new critique published in the journal Trends in Plant Science.

For the original paper, Alessandro Chiolerio, a physicist at the Italian Institute of Technology, collaborated with plant ecologist Monica Gagliano of Southern Cross University and several others conducting field work in the Costa Bocche forest in the Dolomites. They essentially created an EKG for trees, attaching electrodes to three spruce trees (ranging in age from 20 to 70 years) and five tree stumps in the forest.

Those sensors recorded a marked increase in bioelectrical activity during a partial solar eclipse on October 22, 2022. The activity peaked mid-eclipse and faded away in its aftermath. Chiolerio et al. interpreted this spike in activity as a coordinated response among the trees to the darkened conditions brought on by the eclipse. And older trees’ electrical activity spiked earlier and more strongly than the younger trees, which Chiolerio et al. felt was suggestive of trees developing response mechanisms—a kind of memory captured in associated gravitational effects. Older trees might even transmit this knowledge to younger trees, the authors suggested, based on the detection of bioelectrical waves traveling between the trees.

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Last November, Google announced that it had managed to make Apple’s AirDrop compatible with Quick Share on its Pixel 10 phones, allowing them to easily share photos and files with iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The feature was intuitive, and to quote my colleague Jake Peterson, it’s worked so seamlessly that it was almost like Quick Share and AirDrop “were built this way from the beginning.” But for other Android users, it continued to be business as usual, leading to awkward texts and emails to share files across iOS and Android. Now, though, Google confirmed it’s working to bring AirDrop to other Android phones, too, including phones it doesn’t make. At an event attended by Android Authority, Android Vice President of Engineering Eric Kay said, “Last year, we launched AirDrop interoperability. In 2026, we’re going to be expanding it to a lot more devices.”

To a degree, we kind of knew this was coming. While many Pixel only features are implemented via a special Pixel-only system component, Google added AirDrop compatibility to the Pixel 10 by upgrading Quick Share from a system level feature to a full-on app, with its own APK. That laid the groundwork for other Android phones to eventually get AirDrop compatibility of their own, since they can all use this app. For instance, Nothing CEO Carl Pei said in November that his team was “already exploring” adding AirDrop compatibility to Nothing phones, while chipmaker Qualcomm said it “can’t wait” for the feature to be enabled on Snapdragon—commonly used in Samsung’s Galaxy phones—in the “near future.”

Now, it seems like the wait for AirDrop across the rest of Android won’t be much longer. While Kay didn’t give an exact timeline beyond 2026, he did say that Google is already “working with our partners to expand it into the rest of the ecosystem, and you should see some exciting announcements very soon.” That’s it as far as official communication goes, but I’ve reached out to Google for additional comment and will update if I can snag more details. In the meantime, we do have a few possible dates where we could expect the feature to be announced.

The soonest might be the next Samsung Unpacked, where the company is expected to announce the S26 lineup of phones. According to rumors, that’ll take place on Feb. 25, and it’s not unusual for Google to make an appearance during Unpacked to discuss new features coming to Android that the new phones can take advantage of. Alternatively, Google might save the announcement for its next Google I/O event, which would likely be sometime in May. Or it could just drop the feature online without the fanfare of an official event.

Either way, I can’t wait. I take a lot of photos on my phone for this job, and while sending them from my personal iPhone to my work Mac usually isn’t an issue, getting them off an Android phone I might be reviewing can be a much bigger pain. As someone who’s got an Android tablet, an iPhone, a MacBook, and a Windows PC all within 5 feet of me right now, anything that helps bridge these ecosystems together is a good move in my book.

The automotive industry’s big bet on a rapid adoption of electric vehicles—at least here in the United States—continues to unwind. Today, Stellantis, which owns brands like Jeep and Dodge, as well as Fiat, Peugeot, and others, announced that it has “reset” its business to adapt to reality, which comes with a rather painful $26.2 billion (22.2 billion euro) write-down.

It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was more bullish on electrification. Even the US had relatively ambitious plans to boost EV adoption into the next decade, including a big commitment to charging infrastructure. Ten new battery factories were announced, and the future looked bright.

Not everyone agreed. Some automakers, having been left behind by the push toward battery EVs and away from simple hybrids that offered little in the way of true decarbonization, lobbied hard to relax fuel efficiency standards. Car dealers, uncomfortable with the prospect of investing in and learning about new technology, did so, too. When the Republican Party won the 2024 election, the revanchists got their wish.

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Members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee voted to approve a NASA authorization bill this week, advancing legislation chock full of policy guidelines meant to give lawmakers a voice in the space agency’s strategic direction.

The committee met to “mark up” the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2026, adding more than 40 amendments to the bill before a unanimous vote to refer the legislation to the full House of Representatives. Wednesday’s committee vote was just one of several steps needed for the bill to become law. It must pass a vote on the House floor, win approval from the Senate, and then go to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature.

Ars has reported on one of the amendments, which would authorize NASA to take steps toward a “commercial” deep space program using privately owned rockets and spacecraft rather than vehicles owned by the government.

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German newspaper Bild reported in January that some ski jumpers have been injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics — the theory being that temporarily enlarged genitalia would yield looser-fitting suits when measured by 3D scanners, and those looser suits could act like sails to produce longer jumps.

A study published last October in the scientific journal Frontiers found that a 2cm suit change translated to an extra 5.8 metres in jump distance. No specific athletes have been accused. The World Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday it would investigate if presented with evidence, noting its powers extend to banning practices that violate the “spirit of sport.” The claims arrive as ski jumping already faces scrutiny — two Norwegian coaches and an equipment manager received 18-month bans in January for illegally manipulating suit stitching.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Most people wouldn’t leave their phones behind when they so much as go for a drive, but NASA astronauts have had to leave their phones on Earth while they went to work 250 miles away at the International Space Station. That is, until now.

In a post on X, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman shared that the Crew-12 and Artemis II astronauts will be allowed to bring smartphones along for the journey to the ISS and beyond. “We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and video with the world,” Isaacman said.

While these won’t be the first smartphone images captured in space — that distinction belongs to a trio of miniature phone-based satellites sent into Earth orbit in 2013 which succeeded where the earlier British STRaND-1 project failed. But thanks to the upcoming Artemis II mission, we can look forward to the first smartphone images from the moon’s orbit. The March (for now) launch will be the agency’s first crewed moon mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The crews’ personal devices will be far less cumbersome to use than the old Nikon DSLRs they were previously limited to for high-quality still images. Ideally, this means more spontaneous pictures that can be shared with friends and family back on Earth.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-will-now-allow-astronauts-to-take-their-smartphones-to-space-151310548.html?src=rss