Shutterstock/LukyToky COVID-19 has seen all the rules change when it comes to social engagement. Workplaces and schools have closed, gatherings have been banned, and the use of social media and other online tools has risen to bridge the gap. But as we continue to adapt to the various restrictions, weContinue Reading
Elon Musk at Neuralink presentation with robot. Steve Jurvetson/Flickr, CC BY-SA If thoughts, feelings and other mental activities are nothing more than electrochemical signals flowing around a vast network of brain cells, will connecting these signals with digital electronics allow us to enhance the abilities of our brains? That’s whatContinue Reading
Mariano/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA When did something like us first appear on the planet? It turns out there’s remarkably little agreement on this question. Fossils and DNA suggest people looking like us, anatomically modern Homo sapiens, evolved around 300,000 years ago. Surprisingly, archaeology – tools, artefacts, cave art – suggest thatContinue Reading
StratfordProductions/Shutterstock Algorithms appear to be in retreat in the UK – for now. Not only did national governments recently U-turn over their use of algorithms to assign the grades of school leavers, but numerous local authorities have also scrapped similar technology used to make decisions on benefits and other welfareContinue Reading
Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock The world-altering coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to be just 60 nanometres to 120 nanometres in size. This is so mind bogglingly small that you could fit more than 400 of these virus particles into the width of a single hair on your head. In fact,Continue Reading
Keeping vaccines stable. Shutterstock/Rohane Hamilton Amid unpredictable outbreaks, and fears of a second wave, the hunt is on for a vaccine against COVID-19. The reason for this is simple: vaccines work. They save lives and economies. For example, there were 11.6 million smallpox cases reported between 1920 and 1978, andContinue Reading
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is likely to survive a suspected poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok, according to the hospital treating him. There have now been at least six known cases of serious Novichok poisoning in the past two years. But only one victim tragically died from it. WhyContinue Reading
Videoflow/Shutterstock The advent of mass working from home has made many people more aware of the security risks of sending sensitive information via the internet. The best we can do at the moment is make it difficult to intercept and hack your messages – but we can’t make it impossible.Continue Reading
The demand for cheaper, greener electricity means that the energy landscape is changing faster than at any other point in history. This is particularly true of solar-powered electricity and battery storage. The cost of both has dropped at unprecedented rates over the past decade and energy efficient technologies such asContinue Reading
Artist impression of merging black holes. Mark Myers, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) One of the greatest things about being an astrophysicist is that you keep discovering things you didn’t think were possible. Now the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Observatory have discovered theirContinue Reading
