Scientists are edging closer to making a super-secure, super-fast quantum internet possible: they’ve now been able to ‘teleport’ high-fidelity quantum information over a total distance of 44 kilometres (27 miles). Both data fidelity and transfer distance are crucial when it comes to building a real, working quantum internet, and making progress in either of these
Month: December 2020
Are you looking forward to starting or changing something in 2021? Whatever your New Year’s resolutions, there’s an evidence-based way to make them stick for longer – and it’s all in the phrasing. Rather than telling yourself you’ll stop or avoid doing something, tell yourself you’re going to start doing something instead. For example: a
Despite several cliff-scaling efforts to locate another of its kind, so far this native Hawaiian flower appears to be unique. Found on one of the steep forested slopes of Helu that loom over Lahaina in West Maui, Hawaii, Cyanea heluensis was first discovered back in 2010 but it has only just been formally described. Botanist
Just when we thought octopuses couldn’t be any weirder, it turns out that they and their cephalopod brethren evolve differently from nearly every other organism on the planet. In a surprising twist, in April 2017 scientists discovered that octopuses, along with some squid and cuttlefish species, routinely edit their RNA (ribonucleic acid) sequences to adapt
Sometimes, the Universe provides just the perfect method for expressing our feelings. A space cloud 7,500 light-years away has given us the most appropriate farewell we can think of for this whole dumpster fire of a year, 2020. This small clump of material is part of a much larger cloud complex called the Carina Nebula,
Although we humans generally have control of our skeletal musculature, there’s at least one we don’t always have a handle on. In the middle ear sits the tensor tympani, and it seems most people are unable to contract it voluntarily. Those that can contract their tensor tympani – a small muscle located above the auditory
The best present this holiday season came in a small package, parachuted into the Australian desert from far within our Solar System on 5 December 2020. Inside, astronomers were delighted to unwrap the first significant samples of a rocky asteroid which is currently 9 million kilometres (5.6 million miles) away, and returned to Earth in
For a while now, physicists have been hunting for primordial black holes, exotic objects that could have formed in the early Universe and spawned a whole range of cosmic shenanigans. Using a giant 8.2-metre-wide (that’s 27 feet) telescope, physicists from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics
With just a handful of days left in this strange beast of a year that will most certainly go down in history books, we thought it would be nice to reflect on the marvellous things scientists still delivered, despite everything. Of course, scientific achievements are usually years in the making. Nevertheless, here’s a round-up of
It’s taken nearly five years, 45 research expeditions, and more than 80 scientists and students, but the largest oceanic research enterprise, the ATLAS project, is officially complete. Exploring 12 locations in the deep northern Atlantic, the project has set a gold standard for future marine research. Driving underwater robots to areas never before explored, researchers have uncovered
Space rocks crash to Earth carrying compounds that were formed billions of years ago. Spaceships perform fancy flips in the air but explode when they touch back down too quickly. And sometimes, iguanas fall from trees and land belly-up, frozen on the ground. Here’s a list of seven intriguing objects – and a few reptiles
The way things behave in microgravity may seem obvious to us now, after humans have been venturing into space for over 50 years. But we haven’t always been certain how space might affect certain things. Like fire. Or planarian worms. Or even plants. It’s only by conducting experiments that we can learn the answers to
We’re naturally reluctant to abandon something we’ve sunk time, effort, and money into, even when the best option is to just walk away – and it turns out that monkeys feel exactly the same, according to a new study. This “sunk costs” phenomenon can apply to our relationships, home improvements, books, video games, car repairs,
Almost a millennium ago, a major upheaval occurred in Earth’s atmosphere: a giant cloud of sulphur-rich particles flowed throughout the stratosphere, turning skies dark for months or even years, before ultimately falling down to Earth. We know this event happened because researchers have drilled and analysed ice cores – samples taken from deep within ice
To the disgust of many of our readers, we have discovered that keeping leeches as pets is actually a thing. And yeah, it’s certainly… a bit different. But in light of humanity’s disconnect with nature, and our concerning lack of knowledge about parasitic creatures, the idea that some of us are nurturing these parasites is also, uh, fascinating. “They’re
The world’s (former) largest iceberg continues to break apart into smaller pieces on the doorstep of a major marine wildlife haven and home to millions of macaroni and king penguins in Antarctica. This comes less than a week after the mammoth iceberg, known as A68a, first split in two, Live Science recently reported. Scientists at the US National
Scientists have just set a new world record for high-temperature sustained plasma with the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, reaching an ion temperature of above 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) for a period of 20 seconds. Known as Korea’s “artificial sun”, the KSTAR uses magnetic fields to generate and stabilise
In an exciting development, a new type of whale song may very well belong to a previously unknown population of blue whales, peacefully swimming in the Indian Ocean. The unusual song was picked up at three different underwater locations separated by 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) of ocean. First recorded in 2017 off the coast of
A 2,000-year-old fast-food stall unearthed from the ash of Pompeii has given researchers new clues about the snacking habits of the ancient Romans. The ornate snack bar counter, decorated with polychrome patterns and frozen by volcanic ash, was partially exhumed last year but archaeologists extended work on the site to reveal it in its full
A young German pilot said Sunday he traced a giant syringe in the sky as a way of marking the start of Germany’s roll out of vaccines against the coronavirus. Samy Kramer, a 20-year-old amateur pilot, had carefully plotted out the route he needed to take in advance in order to create the effect in
A very rare astronomical phenomenon has been in the headlines a lot recently, and for good reason. It will be hundreds of years until we can see Jupiter and Saturn this close to one another again. However, there are some even more “truly strange and very rare phenomena” that can currently be observed in our night sky. The
In 1950, Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi sat down to lunch with some of his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he had worked five years prior as part of the Manhattan Project. According to various accounts, the conversation turned to aliens and the recent spate of UFOs. Into this, Fermi issued a statement that would go
Most people know the world’s oceans are on the rise, but further inland, the scales of climate change are tipping in the exact opposite direction. As melting glaciers feed fresh water to the oceans, heat and drought are draining our lakes and inland seas of precious liquid. The largest inland body of water on Earth,
Sometimes, science is all about the mind-aching big picture. Like the idea that our Universe is just a giant hologram, or that we’ve actually detected gravitational waves from a neutron star collision. Or that we might not actually have as much free will as we think… Those are really exciting concepts. But then there are other
Imagine opening the weekend paper and looking through the puzzle pages for the Sudoku. You spend your morning working through this logic puzzle, only to realise by the last few squares there’s no consistent way to finish it. “I must have made a mistake,” you think. So you try again, this time starting from the
It’s one of the greatest puzzles in physics. All the particles that make up the matter around us, such electrons and protons, have antimatter versions which are nearly identical, but with mirrored properties such as the opposite electric charge. When an antimatter and a matter particle meet, they annihilate in a flash of energy. If
The start of electric aviation is upon us, but it’s going to take many more years before the average environmentalist can fly guilt free on a fully electric long haul jet. In the meantime, scientists are trying to make the commercial planes we already have more sustainable, and one of the best ways to do
Astronomers hunting for radio signals from alien civilizations have detected an “intriguing signal” from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun, The Guardian reported. The researchers are still preparing a paper on the discovery, and the data have not been made public, according to The Guardian. But the signal is reportedly
A small town in Romania called Costesti is home to unusual geological manifestations – bulging bulbous boulders called trovants. These stones have long intrigued locals, with their organic-looking shapes and strange cement oozings, inspiring myths about the stones’ ability to grow and move – like living beings rather than inanimate objects. Trovants vary greatly in
We all know that Earth is old, but it’s hard to put into perspective just how old it is. After all, what does 4.5 billion years really mean? How do you even comprehend that amount of time with our short-lived human brains? Well, Business Insider has done a pretty incredible job of it in this
Within the next few decades, according to some experts, we may see the arrival of the next step in the development of artificial intelligence. So-called “artificial general intelligence“, or AGI, will have intellectual capabilities far beyond those of humans. AGI could transform human life for the better, but uncontrolled AGI could also lead to catastrophes
Found mostly in the open prairies of North America and some remote regions of Northern Europe, snow doughnuts or snow rollers might look like icy man-made structures, but these tire-shaped curiosities are entirely natural. They’re very rarely seen because the number of weather conditions that need to be just right for them to form –
A newly developed glue that gets its stickiness from a magnetic field could lead to serious energy and cost savings for companies that need to stick things together on an industrial scale. To harden – or cure – the mix of chemicals in most epoxy-based glues, some kind of environmental effect like heat, light, or
We’re learning more about earthquake triggers all the time, but there’s also plenty still to find out about how these seismic shifts work. Now, geologists think they’ve identified a key mechanism behind some of the biggest earthquakes on the planet. Megathrust earthquakes happen at subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is being pushed under another.
It’s been one heck of a year, but we’re on the home stretch. Now, let’s celebrate by looking at something very strange that seems to make no sense whatsoever to my poor befuddled brain. What we have here is the winner of this year’s Best Illusion of the Year Contest for 2020, and it is
Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Valviloculus pleristaminis makes for a perfect example. Scientists only recently identified this mysterious, extinct flower. It once bloomed in the Cretaceous period - a floral relic of a bygone age, preserved in time-stopping amber since some nameless day when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. “This isn’t
Any species reaching for the stars is bound to have its fingertips singed. Probably more than once. One of NASA’s posts on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website is an iconic reminder of the mishaps in our spacefaring history. “A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert after being tracked by
Above water, they sound like bellowing Wookies. Below the ice, they sound like chirping, chattering robots. Either way, the Weddell seals of Antarctica should have no trouble finding work in an upcoming Star Wars project. “The Weddell seals’ calls create an almost unbelievable, otherworldly soundscape under the ice,” Paul Cziko, a visiting professor at the University of Oregon
For Thai rescue worker Mana Srivate, performing resuscitation has been part of his job for 26 years. A few days ago, things went down a little differently – he achieved his first successful resuscitation of a baby elephant. “When the baby elephant [started] to move, I almost cried,” Mana told Reuters. The young Indian elephant (Elephas
They’re among the most popular and captivating animals in the ocean – a creature that delights at every splash or glimpse. And many are dying. A deadly skin condition, first noted in dolphins near New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has now been formally identified by scientists. ‘Freshwater skin disease’, as researchers define the
When Shah Bahauddin was deciding what to research for his PhD, he had no intention of becoming embroiled in one of the most vexing problems in astrophysics: why is the Sun’s distant atmosphere so much hotter than it’s roiling surface? His modest topic of choice was a tiny and brief loop of solar light, barely
The Solar System’s two biggest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, came within planetary kissing range in Monday’s evening sky, an intimacy that will not occur again until 2080. This “great conjunction”, as it is known to astronomers, occurred fortuitously on the winter solstice for those in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of summer in the
In the ancient past, Europe was a very different place – once upon a time, Britain was yet tethered to the European continent. Only millennia later, when that connection had long been severed, did modern humans start to rediscover ancient artefacts of stone age peoples that once dwelled in lands now hidden below the waves.
In 2008, something unique fell out of the sky over Sudan, exploding into fragments across the vast, arid expanses of the Nubian Desert. This hurtling object from above became known as Almahata Sitta: a collection of roughly 600 meteorite fragments, painstakingly recovered by researchers, and taking its name – ‘Station Six’ – from a nearby
In the northern sky in December is a beautiful cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, or the “seven sisters”. Look carefully and you will probably count six stars. So why do we say there are seven of them? Many cultures around the world refer to the Pleiades as “seven sisters”, and also tell quite
A female wolf pup mummy, perfectly preserved as it remained locked in permafrost for 57,000 years, is finally giving up some of its secrets, including how the grey wolf died and ended up alone in the ice so long ago. The mummified grey wolf (Canis lupus) was discovered by a gold miner excavating permafrost in Yukon, Canada,
Close your eyes. What colour is a river? The perfect blue we can see in our imagination is not usually reflected in reality, where rivers can run green, brown, yellow, and more. These different hues are not superficial. The colour of rivers reflects the health of natural waterways, which means simply looking at a river
Dropping your smartphone often means living with a cracked screen until your next upgrade, or footing an expensive repair bill – but researchers have been busy bringing self-healing display technology closer to a practical reality. A team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a self-healing electronic material that can repair
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next Page »