EXPLAINED: 3 | Vintage Vibes

How much microplastic are we actually breathing in? Here’s what we do and still don’t know

You’ve already inhaled thousands of microscopic particles today. Some will be dust, pollen or soot, and some are plastic. Microplastics – tiny fragments shed from clothes, tyres or packaging – have been found pretty much everywhere. They’re in oceans, soils, wildlife, remote mountaintops and deep-sea trenches and the atmosphere is…

The Conversation · Jul 14

Why climate scientists need to talk more about the very worst-case scenarios

London is under water. The Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Bank of England are all submerged. Far away, the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have collapsed, triggering accelerated sea level rise which, combined with a storm surge in the North Sea and a high…

The Conversation · Jul 13

Animal Memory Research Is Overturning Everything We Thought We Knew About Cognition

The assumption that crumbled firstThe standard view held that episodic memory, the ability to mentally replay a specific past event, not just respond to a learned cue, was uniquely human. Then came a 1998 study by Nicola Clayton and Anthony Dickinson at Cambridge University, published in Nature, that changed the…

Times Life · Jul 13

Gorillas Share More With Humans Than DNA: The Behaviors Science Keeps Underestimating

The Number That Explains Almost NothingGorillas and humans share 98.3% of their DNA. That figure comes from genome sequencing published in Nature in 2012, which also found that roughly 30% of the gorilla genome is actually closer to humans or chimpanzees than chimps and humans are to each other. The…

Times Life · Jul 5

Why the Largest Animals That Have Ever Lived Are Found in the Ocean, Not on Land

The weight problem that land animals cannot escapeA blue whale's heart alone weighs around 180 kilograms, roughly the mass of a full-grown adult Asiatic lion. The whole animal tips the scale at up to 200 tonnes. On land, that number is a physical impossibility, and the reason comes down to…

Times Life · Jul 3

Researchers invent 'new type of pixel' that could create displays that double as cameras — and the internet's first thought is 'what could go wrong?'

ETH Zurich researchers have found a way to both emit and analyze light from the same surface.

TechRadar · Jun 27

A ‘direct wave’ from colliding black holes reveals signature of a whirlpool in spacetime

Black holes are some of the most mysterious objects in the universe, but they aren’t always silent. When two black holes are close enough to each other, they spiral towards one another, eventually crashing in an enormous explosion and forming a single, larger black hole from the combination.

The Conversation · Jun 24

Microsoft's quantum computing technology called into question, again

A new scientific critique in Nature casts doubt on Microsoft's quantum computing claims, potentially impacting its 2029 target. While rivals pursue established methods, Microsoft's long-term bet on a novel technology faces renewed skepticism. The company maintains its research is progressing practically, despite past retractions and current concerns over identifying a…

The Economic Times · Jun 24

A new quantum computer sets a high watermark for accuracy – are we on the verge of a big breakthrough?

In a laboratory in Broomfield, Colorado, 98 atoms are suspended in mid-air, held in place by electric fields and cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero.

The Conversation · Jun 24

Did a casual stroll lead to one of archaeology's greatest finds? The truth behind the viral claim

A viral claim about Ryszard Kapuscinski discovering early Homo skulls at Dmanisi in 1989 is debunked by scientific evidence. The site's significance stems from systematic excavations beginning in 1991, which unearthed a crucial lower jawbone, followed by famous skulls. These discoveries, dating back nearly two million years, have reshaped our…

The Economic Times · Jun 23