Excavators found part of a structure formed by two overlapping logs. Barham et al. Nature (2023), Author provided To most people, complex technologies separate modern humans from their ancestors who lived in the Stone Age, thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago. In today’s fast changing world, older technologies,Continue Reading
The footprints come from a group of people of different ages. National Park Service When and how humans first settled in the Americas is a subject of considerable controversy. In the 20th century, archaeologists believed that humans reached the North American interior no earlier than around 14,000 years ago. ButContinue Reading
Roman Tarasevych/Shutterstock One difference between men and women has been well documented by economists, psychologists and biologists – that women are tend to be more cautious and take fewer risks. Evidence has also been gathered about how this difference affects women’s lives, particularly with regard to careers and earnings. ForContinue Reading
Hemachatus nyangensis in Nyanga National Park, Zimbabwe Donald Broadley, Author provided Around the world, natural history museums hold a treasure trove of knowledge about Earth’s animals. But much of the precious information is sealed off to genetic scientists because formalin, the chemical often used to preserve specimens, damages DNA andContinue Reading
Hubis/Shutterstocl Civil war has broken out in the field of consciousness research. More than 100 consciousness researchers have signed a letter accusing one of the most popular scientific theories of consciousness – the integrated information theory – of being pseudoscience. Immediately, several other figures in the field responded by critiquingContinue Reading
The purple-striped Jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata) Lukas Gojda/Shutterstock Ding! The courier hands me an unassuming brown box with “live animals” plastered on the side. I begin carefully unboxing. The cardboard exterior gives way to a white polystyrene clamshell, cloistering a pearly sphere-shaped, water-filled bag. Lightly pulsing, I spot them: three cannonballContinue Reading
Zuzha/Shutterstock Sometimes we see faces that aren’t really there. You may be looking at the front of a car or a burnt piece of toast when you notice a face-like pattern. This is called face pareidolia and is a mistake made by the brain’s face detection system. But it’s anContinue Reading
ArtemisDiana / Shutterstock The world has witnessed breathtaking advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI), with ChatGPT being one of the best known examples. To prevent harm and misuse of the technology, politicians are now considering regulating AI. Yet they face an overlooked barrier: AI may have a right to freeContinue Reading
Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock The UK’s long-debated online safety bill (OSB) has been approved by the House of Lords, clearing the way for it to become law. But it has pitted the government, which proposed the bill, against tech companies that provide secure messaging services. Critics say it will allowContinue Reading
Nasa/GSFC Around 15 years ago, I was on a European Space Agency (Esa) committee, looking at Esa’s strategy for proposed forthcoming space missions. Under consideration was a mission to an asteroid. Over dinner, one of the committee members, an astrophysicist, quizzed me on why we needed to visit one ofContinue Reading
