Scientists are edging closer to making a super-secure, super-fast quantum internet possible: they’ve now been able to ‘teleport’ high-fidelity quantum information over a total distance of 44 kilometres (27 miles). Both data fidelity and transfer distance are crucial when it comes to building a real, working quantum internet, and making progress in either of these
Month: December 2020
Sometimes, the Universe provides just the perfect method for expressing our feelings. A space cloud 7,500 light-years away has given us the most appropriate farewell we can think of for this whole dumpster fire of a year, 2020. This small clump of material is part of a much larger cloud complex called the Carina Nebula,
The world’s (former) largest iceberg continues to break apart into smaller pieces on the doorstep of a major marine wildlife haven and home to millions of macaroni and king penguins in Antarctica. This comes less than a week after the mammoth iceberg, known as A68a, first split in two, Live Science recently reported. Scientists at the US National
Scientists have just set a new world record for high-temperature sustained plasma with the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, reaching an ion temperature of above 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) for a period of 20 seconds. Known as Korea’s “artificial sun”, the KSTAR uses magnetic fields to generate and stabilise
In an exciting development, a new type of whale song may very well belong to a previously unknown population of blue whales, peacefully swimming in the Indian Ocean. The unusual song was picked up at three different underwater locations separated by 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) of ocean. First recorded in 2017 off the coast of
A 2,000-year-old fast-food stall unearthed from the ash of Pompeii has given researchers new clues about the snacking habits of the ancient Romans. The ornate snack bar counter, decorated with polychrome patterns and frozen by volcanic ash, was partially exhumed last year but archaeologists extended work on the site to reveal it in its full
A young German pilot said Sunday he traced a giant syringe in the sky as a way of marking the start of Germany’s roll out of vaccines against the coronavirus. Samy Kramer, a 20-year-old amateur pilot, had carefully plotted out the route he needed to take in advance in order to create the effect in
A very rare astronomical phenomenon has been in the headlines a lot recently, and for good reason. It will be hundreds of years until we can see Jupiter and Saturn this close to one another again. However, there are some even more “truly strange and very rare phenomena” that can currently be observed in our night sky. The
In 1950, Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi sat down to lunch with some of his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he had worked five years prior as part of the Manhattan Project. According to various accounts, the conversation turned to aliens and the recent spate of UFOs. Into this, Fermi issued a statement that would go
Most people know the world’s oceans are on the rise, but further inland, the scales of climate change are tipping in the exact opposite direction. As melting glaciers feed fresh water to the oceans, heat and drought are draining our lakes and inland seas of precious liquid. The largest inland body of water on Earth,
Sometimes, science is all about the mind-aching big picture. Like the idea that our Universe is just a giant hologram, or that we’ve actually detected gravitational waves from a neutron star collision. Or that we might not actually have as much free will as we think… Those are really exciting concepts. But then there are other
Imagine opening the weekend paper and looking through the puzzle pages for the Sudoku. You spend your morning working through this logic puzzle, only to realise by the last few squares there’s no consistent way to finish it. “I must have made a mistake,” you think. So you try again, this time starting from the
It’s one of the greatest puzzles in physics. All the particles that make up the matter around us, such electrons and protons, have antimatter versions which are nearly identical, but with mirrored properties such as the opposite electric charge. When an antimatter and a matter particle meet, they annihilate in a flash of energy. If
The start of electric aviation is upon us, but it’s going to take many more years before the average environmentalist can fly guilt free on a fully electric long haul jet. In the meantime, scientists are trying to make the commercial planes we already have more sustainable, and one of the best ways to do
Astronomers hunting for radio signals from alien civilizations have detected an “intriguing signal” from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun, The Guardian reported. The researchers are still preparing a paper on the discovery, and the data have not been made public, according to The Guardian. But the signal is reportedly
A small town in Romania called Costesti is home to unusual geological manifestations – bulging bulbous boulders called trovants. These stones have long intrigued locals, with their organic-looking shapes and strange cement oozings, inspiring myths about the stones’ ability to grow and move – like living beings rather than inanimate objects. Trovants vary greatly in
We all know that Earth is old, but it’s hard to put into perspective just how old it is. After all, what does 4.5 billion years really mean? How do you even comprehend that amount of time with our short-lived human brains? Well, Business Insider has done a pretty incredible job of it in this
Within the next few decades, according to some experts, we may see the arrival of the next step in the development of artificial intelligence. So-called “artificial general intelligence“, or AGI, will have intellectual capabilities far beyond those of humans. AGI could transform human life for the better, but uncontrolled AGI could also lead to catastrophes
Found mostly in the open prairies of North America and some remote regions of Northern Europe, snow doughnuts or snow rollers might look like icy man-made structures, but these tire-shaped curiosities are entirely natural. They’re very rarely seen because the number of weather conditions that need to be just right for them to form –
A newly developed glue that gets its stickiness from a magnetic field could lead to serious energy and cost savings for companies that need to stick things together on an industrial scale. To harden – or cure – the mix of chemicals in most epoxy-based glues, some kind of environmental effect like heat, light, or
We’re learning more about earthquake triggers all the time, but there’s also plenty still to find out about how these seismic shifts work. Now, geologists think they’ve identified a key mechanism behind some of the biggest earthquakes on the planet. Megathrust earthquakes happen at subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is being pushed under another.
It’s been one heck of a year, but we’re on the home stretch. Now, let’s celebrate by looking at something very strange that seems to make no sense whatsoever to my poor befuddled brain. What we have here is the winner of this year’s Best Illusion of the Year Contest for 2020, and it is
Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Valviloculus pleristaminis makes for a perfect example. Scientists only recently identified this mysterious, extinct flower. It once bloomed in the Cretaceous period - a floral relic of a bygone age, preserved in time-stopping amber since some nameless day when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. “This isn’t
Any species reaching for the stars is bound to have its fingertips singed. Probably more than once. One of NASA’s posts on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website is an iconic reminder of the mishaps in our spacefaring history. “A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert after being tracked by
Above water, they sound like bellowing Wookies. Below the ice, they sound like chirping, chattering robots. Either way, the Weddell seals of Antarctica should have no trouble finding work in an upcoming Star Wars project. “The Weddell seals’ calls create an almost unbelievable, otherworldly soundscape under the ice,” Paul Cziko, a visiting professor at the University of Oregon
For Thai rescue worker Mana Srivate, performing resuscitation has been part of his job for 26 years. A few days ago, things went down a little differently – he achieved his first successful resuscitation of a baby elephant. “When the baby elephant [started] to move, I almost cried,” Mana told Reuters. The young Indian elephant (Elephas
They’re among the most popular and captivating animals in the ocean – a creature that delights at every splash or glimpse. And many are dying. A deadly skin condition, first noted in dolphins near New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has now been formally identified by scientists. ‘Freshwater skin disease’, as researchers define the
When Shah Bahauddin was deciding what to research for his PhD, he had no intention of becoming embroiled in one of the most vexing problems in astrophysics: why is the Sun’s distant atmosphere so much hotter than it’s roiling surface? His modest topic of choice was a tiny and brief loop of solar light, barely
The Solar System’s two biggest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, came within planetary kissing range in Monday’s evening sky, an intimacy that will not occur again until 2080. This “great conjunction”, as it is known to astronomers, occurred fortuitously on the winter solstice for those in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of summer in the
In the ancient past, Europe was a very different place – once upon a time, Britain was yet tethered to the European continent. Only millennia later, when that connection had long been severed, did modern humans start to rediscover ancient artefacts of stone age peoples that once dwelled in lands now hidden below the waves.
In 2008, something unique fell out of the sky over Sudan, exploding into fragments across the vast, arid expanses of the Nubian Desert. This hurtling object from above became known as Almahata Sitta: a collection of roughly 600 meteorite fragments, painstakingly recovered by researchers, and taking its name – ‘Station Six’ – from a nearby
In the northern sky in December is a beautiful cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, or the “seven sisters”. Look carefully and you will probably count six stars. So why do we say there are seven of them? Many cultures around the world refer to the Pleiades as “seven sisters”, and also tell quite
A female wolf pup mummy, perfectly preserved as it remained locked in permafrost for 57,000 years, is finally giving up some of its secrets, including how the grey wolf died and ended up alone in the ice so long ago. The mummified grey wolf (Canis lupus) was discovered by a gold miner excavating permafrost in Yukon, Canada,
Close your eyes. What colour is a river? The perfect blue we can see in our imagination is not usually reflected in reality, where rivers can run green, brown, yellow, and more. These different hues are not superficial. The colour of rivers reflects the health of natural waterways, which means simply looking at a river
Dropping your smartphone often means living with a cracked screen until your next upgrade, or footing an expensive repair bill – but researchers have been busy bringing self-healing display technology closer to a practical reality. A team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a self-healing electronic material that can repair
In new proof that 2020 has been a crappy year basically everywhere, scientists have captured video evidence of octopuses randomly punching at fish, possibly for no reason other than being spiteful. While this remarkable, rather nasty-sounding behaviour might seem like it comes from a place of direct conflict between different animal species, that’s not the
While many of us might long to just sleep through this entire winter, humans – unlike a lot of other mammals – don’t have the capacity to hibernate. But a newly published study has investigated if early humans had this ability at some point. The results – although preliminary – surprisingly suggest that they did,
Astronomers hunting for radio signals from alien civilizations have detected an “intriguing signal” from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun, The Guardian reported. The researchers are still preparing a paper on the discovery, and the data have not been made public, according to The Guardian. But the signal is reportedly
An iceberg the size of Delaware, which was on course to crash into an island populated by a penguin colony, has broken into two pieces, scientists tracking its journey said on Friday. In the last few weeks, the iceberg, dubbed A68a, came dangerously close to South Georgia Island in the south Atlantic, threatening to cut off
The skulls of two baboons, mummified more than 3,000 years ago, have helped narrow down the location of a fabled “land of plenty”, which once supplied ancient Egypt with gold, frankincense, myrrh and monkeys. Known as the land of Punt, or ‘God’s land’, this faraway fantastical realm may have actually existed outside its renowned mythology,
Geologically speaking, Australia is a relatively quiet place to live. Earthquakes are rare and typically gentle, and as for volcanoes, there hasn’t been as much as a burp of magma on the mainland in thousands of years. It wasn’t always this way. In fact, the land is littered with the remains of mysterious eruptions that
Like listening to music, something is calming about being outdoors, and it might have to do with how we see and perceive natural patterns. When the shape of something is repeated at ever smaller scales, like the branching of a tree, the spiral of a shell, or the fingers of a river, studies have shown
How much are you conscious of right now? Are you conscious of just the words in the centre of your visual field or all the words surrounding it? We tend to assume that our visual consciousness gives us a rich and detailed picture of the entire scene in front of us. The truth is very
Humans have been trying to ‘let it go’ long before Queen Elsa began singing in her icy isolation. Now that many in the world are facing their longer quarantines, it’s become much harder to stop ruminating on all our fresh concerns. A new psychology study has come at just the right time. Brain imaging and
There are hidden costs to eating meat not included in the price tag. If consumers in the western world were also charged for the greenhouse gas impacts of their hearty meal of protein, a new study estimates they would have to pay nearly 2.5 times – or 146 percent more – than today. If the meat
How many particles do you need before individual atoms start behaving collectively? According to new research, the number is incredibly low. As few as six atoms will start transitioning into a macroscopic system, under the right conditions. Using a specially designed ultra-cold laser trap, physicists observed the quantum precursor of the transition from a normal
The best and most diverse forests are the ones that plant themselves. It’s something these amazing ecosystems have been doing for hundreds of millions of years, and some environmental advocates in the United Kingdom think we should simply get out of the way. A new report from the environmental non-profit Rewilding Britain argues trees should
Like watching a movie in reverse, physicists have just demonstrated a new technique for the time-reversal of a wave of optical light. That doesn’t mean that they have actually reversed the flow of time; rather, they have found a way to induce an optical wave to retrace a forward path in reverse, returning to its