Dragonfire laser system test firing. UK Ministry of Defence/wikipedia, CC BY-SA A single burst of light is precisely aimed at a tiny drone flying at breakneck speed far in the distance. Instants later, the deactivated drone crashes into the sea. Not a sound made, no human casualties, no messy explosions.Continue Reading
An artist's impression of the the NGC 1851E binary system, looking over the shoulder of the dark mystery companion star MPIfR; Daniëlle Futselaar (artsource.nl), CC BY Sometimes astronomers come across objects in the sky that we can’t easily explain. In our new research, published in Science, we report such aContinue Reading
ESB Professional / Shutterstock Human behaviour is an enigma that fascinates many scientists. And there has been much discussion over the role of probability in explaining how our minds work. Probability is a mathematical framework designed to tell us how likely an event is to occur – and works wellContinue Reading
Stas Malyarevsky / Shutterstock On December 27, 2023, the New York Times (NYT) filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court in Manhattan against Microsoft and OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, alleging that OpenAI had unlawfully used its articles to create artificial intelligence (AI) products. Citing copyright infringement and theContinue Reading
kurhan/Shutterstock Winter illnesses are all around us at the moment – from the common cold, COVID-19 and flu to strep throat and stomach bugs. All have one thing in common: they can make you feel miserable. These illnesses often come with fatigue, lack of appetite and concentration difficulties. Sufferers oftenContinue Reading
This article contains spoilers for the first five episodes of season two of The Traitors. Subterfuge, betrayal, murder and money abound in the BBC hit series The Traitor’s, now in it’s second season. It’s no surprise that it has become a huge hit. The basic premise of the show isContinue Reading
Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock Artificial intelligence (AI) will have serious societal impact globally. So it is more urgent than ever that state leaders cooperate to regulate the technology. There have been various calls already: the Bletchley Declaration at a recent UK summit and the 11 AI principles and code of conductContinue Reading
Tada Images / Shutterstock In 1954, the Guardian’s science correspondent reported on “electronic brains”, which had a form of memory that could let them retrieve information, like airline seat allocations, in a matter of seconds. Nowadays the idea of computers storing information is so commonplace that we don’t even thinkContinue Reading
Nikita M production/Shutterstock You probably don’t think about plant roots all that much – they’re hidden underground after all. Yet they’re continually changing the shape of the world. This process happens in your garden, where plants use invisible mechanisms for their never-ending growth. Scientists discovered about 15 years ago thatContinue Reading
Over ten years ago, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) began mapping the universe to find evidence that could help us understand the nature of the mysterious phenomenon known as dark energy. I’m one of more than 100 contributing scientists that have helped produce the final DES measurement, which has justContinue Reading
