New images of two novae are'like going from a grainy black-and-white photo to high-definition video.' Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. The recent deaths of two white dwarf stars are challenging our understanding of both novae and the powerful physics underlying star death. According to astronomer John Monnier, the initial analysis of these often dramatic novae offers an "extraordinary leap forward" for the field. "The fact that we can now watch stars explode and immediately see the structure of the material being blasted into space is remarkable," said the University of Michigan astronomer and a co-author of a study published on December 5 in the journal .

Amazon's Echo Show devices are among those that will automatically be added to its shared Wi-Fi network scheme, called Amazon Sidewalk. Amazon's Echo Show devices are among those that will automatically be added to its shared Wi-Fi network scheme, called Amazon Sidewalk. Amazon is building a Wi-Fi network – using your Wi-Fi. It's called Amazon Sidewalk, and the company touts it as a way to help its devices work better, by extending the range of low-bandwidth devices to help them stay online. It does that by pooling neighbors' Wi-Fi to help connectivity for devices that are out of range.

Researchers have identified an eerie new form of deep-sea creature using only high-definition video. In 2015, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) piloted a remotely operated vehicle through an underwater canyon off the coast of Puerto Rico. At a depth of more than two miles the drone came across a ctenophore, or comb jelly, unlike any other species researchers had encountered. It was rectangular, had two long tentacles and moved as if it was anchored to the seafloor. Unable to take a specimen, researchers used the footage to develop an anatomical diagram of the gelatinous blob, which they've named Duobrachium sparksae.

One day we will "think about machine learning the way we think about electricity: It's hard to imagine the world without it," said SAP Chief Innovation Officer Juergen Mueller at the recent SAP TechEd Barcelona. Under Mueller, SAP has embarked on a journey to bring machine learning to business around the world, essentially "electrifying" all applications with this technology. For the uninitiated, machine learning takes Big Data, runs it against sophisticated algorithms and helps applications to learn from this information. Massively improved computing power makes this possible in real time. Most importantly, it allows applications to "think" and independently resolve problems – going beyond what they were explicitly programmed to do, and often what humans can do.