For the first time, a faint signal caused by the merging of two almost equally mysterious objects – black holes and a neutron stars – has been recorded on Earth. On January 5 2020, when the world was...
Science
Homo Longi: Extinct Human Species That May Replace Neanderthals...
In 1933 a mysterious fossil skull was discovered near Harbin City in the Heilongjiang province of north-eastern China. Despite being nearly perfectly preserved – with square eye sockets, thick brow...
IQ Tests: Are Humans Getting Smarter?
From the algorithms that make our social media accounts function to the sleep-tracking technology in our smartwatches, the world has never seemed so technologically advanced and developed. This is...
IQ Tests Can’t Measure It, But ‘Cognitive Flexibility’ Is Key To...
IQ is often hailed as a crucial driver of success, particularly in fields such as science, innovation and technology. In fact, many people have an endless fascination with the IQ scores of famous...
A New Era of Spaceflight? Promising Advances in Rocket Propulsion
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has recently commissioned three private companies, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, to develop nuclear fission thermal...
Black Swans And Other Deviations: Like Evolution, All Scientific...
Discussions about the nature of science and scientific theories are often confused by the outdated view that such theories are rendered false when anomalies arise. The notion of a scientific theory...
Origin Of Life: Lightning Strikes May Have Provided Missing...
The origin of life on Earth is one of the most complex puzzles facing scientists. It involves not only identifying the numerous chemical reactions that must take place to create a replicating...
Farming Without Disturbing Soil Could Cut Agriculture’s Climate...
Perhaps because there are no chimney stacks belching smoke, the contribution of the world’s farms to climate change seems somehow remote. But agriculture accounts for a staggering 26% of all...
Animal Adoptions Make No Evolutionary Sense, So Why Do They...
Scientists used to think that humans are special because we have larger brains than other animals. However, some experts in human evolution have suggested that it isn’t how we think that makes the...
Nuclear Power: How Might Radioactive Waste Water Affect The...
It’s been just over a decade since the fourth most powerful earthquake of the modern era triggered a tsunami that struck Fukushima on the eastern coastline of Japan, causing thousands of deaths and...
From Bioweapons to Super-Soldiers: How the UK is Joining the...
The UK government recently announced an £800 million, taxpayer-funded Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria). The brainchild of the British prime minister’s former chief...
Mars: How Ingenuity Helicopter Made The First Flight On Another...
Imagine that you are flying a model helicopter or a drone. You are there with the auto controls. You switch them on. The rotors start to turn, gradually increasing their spin. You watch, then push...
COVID-19 Vaccines are a Victory for Public Research, Not ‘Greed’...
Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, reportedly attributed the success of the COVID-19 vaccines to “capitalism” and “greed”. But he is wrong – the idea that private ingenuity and naked competition...
Transparent Wood is Coming, and It Could Make an Energy...
Wood is an ancient material humans have been using for millions of years, for the construction of housing, ships and as a source of fuel for burning. It’s also a renewable source, and one way to...
How to Build a Moon Base
Half a century after humans first walked on the moon, a number of private companies and nations are planning to build permanent bases on the lunar surface. Despite the technological progress since...
Science of Champion Runners: Inside The Body of Elite Endurance...
The 40th anniversary of the London Marathon takes place on Sunday, October 4 2020. Athletes will run on a closed-loop circuit around St James’s Park before finishing on The Mall. This year’s lineup...
Nature Versus Nurture: How Modern Science Is Rewriting It
The question of whether it is genes or environment that largely shapes human behaviour has been debated for centuries. During the second half of the 20th century, there were two camps of scientists –...
Super Shoes: Explaining Athletics’ New Technological Arms Race
In the 1960s, when traditional cinder athletics tracks were replaced by spongy, synthetic surfaces, endurance running experienced a revolution. Long distance runners began clocking far faster times...
Chimpanzees in Volatile Habitats Evolved to Behave More Flexibly...
A new study explores how chimpanzees behaviour becomes more flexible in the face of climate volatility and what that might say about human evolution One of the reasons humans are so resilient is our...
Here’s How Scientists Know the Coronavirus Came from Bats and...
One of the conspiracy theories that have plagued attempts to keep people informed during the pandemic is the idea that the coronavirus was created in a laboratory. But the vast majority of scientists...