Science (Page 4)

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 object to IQ tests for quite personal reasons and remember how stressed they were by sitting a test. Many doubt their result was a fair reflection of their future potential. But how useful are IQ tests really – and what skills and qualities do they miss? More than 30 years ago, I discovered a half-forgotten, unique archive of more than 89,000 IQ-type tests from 1932. This comprised a near-complete national sampleContinue 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’s steady beat. The watch can record the distance covered and the intensity of your workout, guiding you towards your fitness goals. During lunch, you can use it to log calories for a BLT sandwich. As deadlines loom, they can offer gentle reminders to take a moment for yourself. And as you doze off, they might pick up instances of apnoea or other sleep disturbances. But some users could also conflateContinue 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 several decades, but since it is so bright, astronomers assumed it must be a nearby star. Only recent observations revealed its extreme distance and luminosity. The object has been dubbed J0529-4351. This name simply refers to its coordinates on the celestial sphere – a way of projecting the objects in the sky onto the inside of a sphere. It is a type of object called a quasar. The physical nature ofContinue 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Across large parts of the UK, the native red squirrel has been replaced by the grey squirrel, a North American species.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 compared the gut bacteria of red and grey squirrels. We found that differences between the two may explain their competition and red squirrel decline, as well as why grey squirrels are so destructive to woodland. Grey squirrels were introduced to the UK between 1876 and 1929 and have displaced reds in most areas of the UK. Greys carry a virus called “squirrelpox”, which doesn’t affect them but leads to sickness andContinue 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’s programme to be “troubling”, despite “no immediate threat to anyone’s safety”. The problem is that, depending on what type of weapon this is, the consequences of using it could be indiscriminate – threatening everyone’s satellites and causing a breakdown of the vital services that come from space infrastructure. The White House revelations come after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner urged the administration, late on Wednesday, to declassify information concerningContinue 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 and I reveal a surprising truth about a fossil celebrated for decades as one of the best preserved fossils from the Alps. The Tridentinosaurus antiquus was a small lizard-like reptile that lived during the Permian period (299-252 million years ago), where the Alps are today. Discovered in 1931, the specimen was prized for what scientists thought were carbonised traces of the skin visible on the surface of the rock. Generations ofContinue 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 part of the climate problem as a solution. The emissions come from the infrastructure associated with AI, such as building and running the data centres that handle the large amounts of information required to sustain these systems. But different technological approaches to how we build AI systems could help reduce its carbon footprint. Two technologies in particular hold promise for doing this: spiking neural networks and lifelong learning. The lifetime ofContinue 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 Blinkerwall – is a continuous low wall made from over 1,500 granite stones that runs for almost a kilometre. The evidence suggests it was constructed by Palaeolithic people between 11,700 and 9,900 years ago, probably as an aid for hunting reindeer. The archaeologists investigating the Bay of Mecklenburg used a range of submarine equipment, sampling methods and modelling techniques to reconstruct the ancient lake bed and its surrounding landscape. This revealedContinue 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 one brought by Getty Images against StabilityAI, which makes the Stable Diffusion online text-to-image generator. Authors George R.R. Martin and John Grisham have also brought legal cases against ChatGPT owner OpenAI over copyright claims. But the NYT case is not “more of the same” because it throws interesting new arguments into the mix. The legal action focuses in on the value of the training data and a new question relating toContinue Reading

Dream Chaser would ferry cargo, and eventually crew, to low-Earth orbit. Ken Ulbrich / NASA Nasa’s space shuttle operated in low-Earth orbit for 30 years before its retirement in 2011. However, the US space agency’s replacement for this vehicle, Orion, returned to the conical capsule design familiar from the Apollo missions. This was because Nasa intended that this newer craft be used for exploring targets in deep space, such as the Moon. But in recent years, we have seen a return of the spaceplane design. Since 2010, the US Space Force (and formerly the US Air Force) has been launching a robotic spaceplane called the X-37B into low Earth orbit on classified missions. China has its own military spaceplane calledContinue Reading