Otter populations crashed in Britain around the 1960s from the lethal effects of chemical pollution in rivers and lakes – or so we thought. Our research has looked more closely at what happened to otters in Britain over the last 800 years and has revealed a more complex picture. SinceContinue Reading
SpeedKingz/Shutterstock Many people object to intelligence tests. Some say IQ test scores are too often abused. They says it’s unfair that when children “fail” these tests it can mean they receive a worse secondary education than their more successful peers – sentencing them to a lifetime of disadvantage. Some objectContinue Reading
Jacob Lund / Shutterstock For millions of people, smartwatches aren’t just a piece of technology. They can use them to take control of their health in ways never thought possible. As you go on your morning run, a smartwatch can monitor the rhythmic pounding of your feet and your heart’sContinue Reading
Merlin74 / Shutterstock A new study published in Nature Astronomy describes the most luminous object ever observed by astronomers. It is a black hole with a mass of 17 billion Suns, swallowing a greater amount of mass than the Sun every single day. It has been known about for severalContinue Reading
Across large parts of the UK, the native red squirrel has been replaced by the grey squirrel, a North American species. As well as endangering reds, grey squirrels pose a threat to our woodlands because of the damage they cause to trees. New research from my colleagues and I comparedContinue Reading
NicoElNino / Shutterstock In a week where national security has taken centre stage in Washington, the White House confirmed on Thursday that it had evidence that Russia was developing a space-based nuclear anti satellite weapon. John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, informed reporters that the White House believe Russia’sContinue Reading
The Tridentinosaurus counterfeit Valentina Rossi, CC BY-NC-ND Fake fossils are among us, passing almost undetected under the eye of experts all over the world. This is a serious problem – counterfeited specimens can mislead palaeontologists into studying an ancient past that never existed. In a new study, my colleagues andContinue Reading
Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock Given the huge problem-solving potential of artificial intelligence (AI), it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think that AI could also help us in tackling the climate crisis. However, when we consider the energy needs of AI models, it becomes clear that the technology is as much a partContinue Reading
Artist's impression of the Blinkerwall: the ancient stone wall used as a hunting structure. Michał Grabowski, Author provided Archaeologists have identified what may be Europe’s oldest human-made megastructure, submerged 21 metres below the Baltic Sea in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany. This structure – which has been named the BlinkerwallContinue Reading
pio3 / Shutterstock The New York Times’ (NYT) legal proceedings against OpenAI and Microsoft has opened a new frontier in the ongoing legal challenges brought on by the use of copyrighted data to “train”, or improve generative AI. There are already a variety of lawsuits against AI companies, including oneContinue Reading
