by F.D. Flam, Bloomberg Opinion Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Although life can seem to go whizzing by, humans are actually weirdly long-lived animals. A new study helps explain why: menopause. The fact that female humans lose fertility while still remaining vigorous and strong is extremely rare—most other animals keep reproducing until they are near death. … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Experiments in the weightless environment of space have led to “crazy progress” in the fight against cancer, NASA officials said at a recent event highlighting an important and personal initiative of US President Joe Biden. Space is “a unique place for research,” astronaut Frank Rubio said at the event in Washington. … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain March Madness—the time when the best men’s and women’s college basketball teams challenge each other—is a made-for-television spectacle watched by millions. While March Madness has been around for decades, one of the tournament’s biggest changes happened in 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down the ban on sports betting. Since then, … Read more
by Eric Vanderduys, Adam McKeown, Chris R. Pavey, John Martin and Peter Caley, The Conversation Grey-headed flying foxes sleep and socialise during the day but are often well aware of approaching humans. Credit: Adam McKeown, CSIRO Flying foxes, or fruit bats, are familiar to many Australians. So it may come as a surprise to learn … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Pangolins are fascinating creatures known for their unique appearance and distinctive scales. They are mammals belonging to the order Pholidota and are native to Africa and Asia. Due to their primary diet of ants and termites, pangolins are often referred to as “scaly anteaters”. The African pangolin species are dispersed throughout … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain It’s an uncomfortable truth: Jon Stewart and Donald Trump both tapped the same well of latent public disaffection with politics and the media in the 2000s. Trust in media and government had been declining for several decades. But the symbiotic relationship between the White House and the press during the Iraq … Read more
A virtual broadcasting map can have a significant impact on quantum information processing. Credit: Fractal Hassan/Unsplash In a new study, scientists propose the concept of “virtual quantum broadcasting,” which provides a workaround to the longstanding no-cloning theorem, thereby offering new possibilities for the transmission of quantum information. The study, published in Physical Review Letters, outlines … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain For ecologists, one of the most pressing questions is to understand how ecosystems will change or adapt as the climate changes rapidly. We are already seeing many species of plant and animal moving uphill and towards the poles in response to higher temperatures. It’s very likely most species will move to … Read more
(a, b) BSE images of polished surface with cracks of Al2O3-B4C@TiB2 composite ceramics. (c) Schematic diagram for crack propagation. Credit: Journal of Advanced Ceramics, Tsinghua University Press Toughening has always been an important research direction of structure ceramics. The addition of secondary phases to the ceramic matrix to prepare composite ceramics is an effective toughening … Read more
Timeline of policy developments for public sector artifi cial intelligence (AI) adoption, April 2018 to March 2024. Credit: Use of artificial intelligence in government (2024) A new report on the UK government’s use of AI offers insight into accelerating its adoption and overcoming the barriers to transforming public services, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds. … Read more
