Seven months after it was launched, the US robotic rover Perseverance successfully landed on Mars on February 18 2021. The landing was part of the mission Mars2020 and was viewed live by millions of...
Science
What Is Chaos? A Complex Systems Scientist Explains
Chaos evokes images of the dinosaurs running wild in Jurassic Park, or my friend’s toddler ravaging the living room. In a chaotic world, you never know what to expect. Stuff is happening all the...
Viruses Are Both The Villains And Heroes Of Life As We Know It
Viruses have a bad reputation. They are responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic and a long list of maladies that have plagued humanity since time immemorial. Is there anything to celebrate about them...
Ivermectin Is A Nobel Prize-Winning Wonder Drug – But Not For...
Ivermectin is an over 30-year-old wonder drug that treats life- and sight-threatening parasitic infections. Its lasting influence on global health has been so profound that two of the key researchers...
James Webb Space Telescope: An Astronomer On The Team Explains...
The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to head to space on Dec. 18, 2021. With it, astronomers hope to find the first galaxies to form in the universe, will search for Earthlike atmospheres...
Gene-Edited Crops: Expert Q+A On What Field Trials Could Mean...
Firmly outside the EU, where regulations are considered tighter, the UK government plans to revise regulations on gene editing in agriculture in England, enabling field trials of crops that have had...
How Soon Could Carbon Capture Technology Solve Industry CO₂...
The recent spike in natural gas prices has closed many plants that make fertiliser in the UK – sending a shockwave through lots of other industries. This is because ammonia...
Extremophiles: Resilient Microorganisms That Help Us Understand...
In the infamous words of Jurassic Park consultant Dr Ian Malcolm, “life finds a way”. In the depths of the ocean, in volcanic springs, under four metres of ice: almost anywhere scientists can think...
The Five Most Impressive Geological Structures In The Solar...
When we talk about amazing geological features, we often limit ourselves to those on Earth. But as a geologist, I think that’s crazy – there are so many structures on other worlds that can excite and...
New Technology Can Create Treatment Against Drug-Resistant...
The big idea A new technique my colleagues and I developed that can kill deadly, multidrug-resistant bacteria in real-time could be used to generate targeted therapies that replace traditional...
Time Travel Is Possible – But Only If You Have An Object With...
The concept of time travel has always captured the imagination of physicists and laypersons alike. But is it really possible? Of course, it is. We’re doing it right now, aren’t we? We are all...
When Human Life Begins Is A Question Of Politics – Not Biology
A Texas law that aims to eliminate almost all abortions in the state is part of a long-standing nationwide movement to restrict the right to abortion. The Texas law went into effect on Sept. 1, 2021...
It’s Still Not Fully Understood How Placebos Work – But An...
If you’ve had both of your COVID vaccinations, you may have suffered some side effects – perhaps headaches, fatigue, fever or a sore arm. These effects are mainly caused by your immune system’s...
Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough: What Do New Results Mean For The...
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has announced a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion, using powerful lasers to produce 1.3 megajoules of energy – about 3% of the energy contained in 1kg of...
We Could Power Households From The Scraps In Our Food Waste Bins...
Imagine if you could power your kettle using the energy generated from the vegetable cuttings quietly breaking down in your kitchen’s compost bin. That reality might not be so far off with the growth...
Big Bang: How We Are Trying To ‘Listen’ To It – And The New...
Exactly what happened at the beginning of the universe, 14 billion years ago, is one of the greatest mysteries in physics – there’s no simple way to probe it. That’s because, in its early stages, the...
Consciousness: How The Brain Chemical ‘Dopamine’ Plays A Key...
Consciousness is arguably the most important scientific topic there is. Without consciousness, there would after all be no science. But while we all know what it is like to be conscious – meaning...
Is Space Infinite? We Asked 5 Experts
We’ve known for some time now our universe is expanding, and in recent years discovered this was happening considerably faster than we’d expected. Yet despite momentous innovations in telescope and...
Germ Theory Denialism Is Alive And Well – And Taking The Nuance...
Back in February 2019, when the pandemic was still far from most people thoughts, the Fox News programme Fox & Friends aired a segment in which contributor Pete Hegseth revealed he had not washed...
Factories Of The Future: We’re Spending Heavily To Give Workers...
“This government is obsessed with skilling up our population,” said Boris Johnson in his recent speech on “levelling up”. There is still a fair amount of uncertainty about exactly...