ExtremeTech

2 days ago | extremetech.com | Ryan Whitwam

Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA The James Webb Space Telescope was late to launch, but the observatory is making up for lost time. After several years of operation, Webb has captured some truly stunning cosmic vistas, complete with a raft of scientific data that has helped scientists advance their understanding of the universe. The telescope may operate for 20 years, and it's off to a good start. Let's take a look at the best of Webb so far.

3 days ago | extremetech.com | Ryan Whitwam |Jon Martindale

Credit: NASA Earth is a pretty great place if you're a human, what with all the gravity and breathable air. But year by year, humanity's situation on Earth becomes more precarious. With climate change, economic insecurity, and pandemics stressing the world's resources, why spend all this money on space exploration? It's easy to see why this argument comes up: There are big problems to solve here on Earth, and going to space is expensive.

6 days ago | extremetech.com | Josh Gulick |Jon Martindale

Credit: TSMC TSMC made clear this week that it has big plans for Fab 21, its Arizona chip manufacturing campus. In an earnings call, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei dismissed reports that the company was considering a joint venture with Intel and laid out the chipmaker’s plans for its burgeoning US presence.

6 days ago | extremetech.com | Ryan Whitwam |Jon Martindale

Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has changed humanity's relationship with space. Where once we had to painstakingly plan every rocket launch and dump most of the vehicle in the ocean, SpaceX now sends Falcon 9s into orbit at an industrial scale. This reusable rocket regularly deploys dozens of internet satellites and has now completed multiple launches to the International Space Station. NASA has even authorized the Falcon 9 and its Dragon capsule to transport astronauts, a first for private aerospace.

6 days ago | extremetech.com | Jon Martindale |Devesh Beri

If you have a fancy new RTX 50-series graphics card, or something equally capable, and want to try out Nvidia's impressive Zorah demo for yourself, now you can. Initially unveiled alongside its RTX 50 graphics cards at CES 2025, Nvidia's new demo lets you see how advanced raytracing and neural shaders might make the games of the future look borderline photo realistic. Graphics demos are nothing new in gaming—I still remember being blown away by 3DMark 2001's Matrix-inspired elevator scene.