An elderly patient receives an intravenous drip while using a ventilator in the hallway of the emergency ward in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Andy Wong, File Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they … Read more
The Compact Muon Solenoid detector is located 100 meters underground on the Franco-Swiss borderer at CERN and collects data from the Large Hadron Collider. The detector has been operational since 2010 and is used by one of largest international scientific collaborations in history to study the fundamental laws of nature. Credit: Brice, Maximilien: CERN After … Read more
Credit: Moe Magners from Pexels “Honestly, I can’t wait to have grandkids and spoil them—but I don’t want to be called “Granny.’” (overheard on the No. 96 tram in Melbourne) “I love it. It’s not the word that needs to change, it’s our culture.” (Deborah, proud granny) What’s wrong with ‘granny?’ From its debut in … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain When tickets for Green Day’s 2025 Australian tour went on sale, fans joined a queue—a ritual that has been practiced for decades on footpaths, on phones, and now online. But as Green Day fans reached the purchase point, the price varied. For some, a seated ticket rose as high as A$500. … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain In the build-up to his government’s first budget, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been setting expectations low. It will be “painful,” he has warned, and a “difficult trade-off” will have to be made because of the economic inheritance left by the last government. The UK will have to “accept short-term pain … Read more
DNA double helix. Credit: public domain Researchers have reconstructed the oldest human genomes ever found in South Africa from two people who lived around 10,000 years ago, allowing a better understanding of how the region was populated, an author of the study said Sunday. The genetic sequences were from a man and a woman whose … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain It’s been 20 years since a paper in the journal Science showed the environmental accumulation of tiny plastic fragments and fibers. It named the particles “microplastics.” The paper opened an entire research field. Since then, more than 7,000 published studies have shown the prevalence of microplastics in the environment, in wildlife … Read more
Systematic investigations of the intrinsic antiferromagnetic diode effect. a, Nonlinear conductivity σ2ω and longitudinal resistance Rxx as functions of the vertical electric field Ez. b, Nonlinear conductivity as a function of the vertical magnetic field μ0Hz in the AFM state. The red dashed line is the average line of σ2ω. c, Experimentally measured longitudinal resistance … Read more
But not all questions about quantum systems are easier to answer using quantum algorithms. Some are equally easy for classical algorithms, which run on ordinary computers, while others are hard for both classical and quantum ones. To understand where quantum algorithms and the computers that can run them might offer an advantage, researchers often analyze … Read more
Pierre Gentine. Credit: Columbia Engineering Last year was the hottest on record. Around the world, we are witnessing more extreme events—from massive forest fires to floods to “hot tub’” ocean temperatures—with devastating consequences for human life and our planet’s biodiversity. The economic costs are already tremendously high. Despite mounting feelings of eco-anxiety, my colleagues and … Read more
