Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the world of the ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman periods. Yet despite the prominence of Dura-Europos in Near Eastern scholarship, there … Read more
Bees play by rolling wooden balls — apparently for fun. The cleaner wrasse fish appears to recognise its own visage in an underwater mirror. Octopuses seem to react to anaesthetic drugs and will avoid settings where they likely experienced past pain. All three of these discoveries came in the last five years — indications that … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Hello, stakeholders. (This is the nongendered term of address I’ve been workshopping because I see “folks” in too many social media posts.) Researchers this week reported on an AI model that attempts to emulate human irrationality in decision-making, which has to be the best approach toward building a human-equivalent general AI, … Read more
On its website, Greenstone describes itself as “a water company” and as “a developer and owner of reliable, sustainable water supplies.” Its CEO, Mike Schlehuber, previously worked for Vidler Water Company—another firm that essentially brokers water supply—as well as Summit Global Management, a company that invests in water suppliers and water rights. Greenstone’s managing director … Read more
An AFP team saw bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef during a recent visit. Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef is suffering one of the most severe coral bleaching events on record, leaving scientists fearful for its survival as the impact of climate change worsens. For 33 years marine biologist … Read more
So-called ‘forever chemicals’ are present in the water, soil, air and food supply — they are invisible and never break down in the environment. The US Environmental Protection Agency on Friday classified two so-called “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances, meaning those responsible for releasing them will have to pay to clean up contamination. The two … Read more
Co@Y containing zeolite-encaged isolated cobalt ions was developed as a robust catalyst for the solvent- and additive-free selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone, surpassing the benchmark industrial catalyst cobalt naphthenate. During the reaction, the reactive oxygen species (O*) were generated at the single-site Co2+, promoting the activation of aromatic C–H bonds and leading to the … Read more
This image was taken by Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4158 (2024-04-17 07:52:27 UTC). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL Curiosity continues to make progress along the margin of upper Gediz Vallis ridge, investigating the broken bedrock in our workspace and acquiring images of the ridge deposit as the rover drives south. Today’s … Read more
In South Korea, research by ZALF and BTU Cottbus shows how adapting planting times and using the CO2 fertilization effect can increase yields of spring potatoes by up to 60%. Credit: Yean-Uk Kim / ZALF A study published in the journal Potato Research presents results on the response of spring and summer potatoes to climate … Read more
Resource-efficient multi-photon processor based on an optical fiber loop. Credit: Marco Di Vita An international collaboration of researchers, led by Philip Walther at University of Vienna, have achieved a significant breakthrough in quantum technology, with the successful demonstration of quantum interference among several single photons using a novel resource-efficient platform. The work published in Science … Read more
