Author: Steven Gillespie, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool Psychopaths might account for only about 1% of the general population, but they account for a disproportionate share of violent crime. Distinct from other conditions like sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths tend to show traits such as an absence of remorse or guilt […]
Traditional chemistry textbooks present a tidy picture: Atoms in molecules occupy fixed positions, connected by rigid rods. A molecule such as formic acid (methanoic acid, HCOOH) is imagined as two-dimensional—flat as a sheet of paper. But quantum physics tells a different story. In reality, nature resists rigidity and forces even the simplest structures into the […]
We finish this series with the most influential author of our trio (together with Bacon and Descartes) in shaping the scientific method: the Italian Galileo Galilei, who was also, not coincidentally, the most brilliant and prolific scientist of the three. He shared with Descartes the ambition of reducing the phenomena to be investigated to a […]
When we look at the night sky, we see a scattered collection of stars and galaxies, but to an astrophysicist, these are merely the glowing foam on the crest of a much deeper, invisible ocean. The vast majority of the matter in our universe is dark matter, a substance that does not emit, absorb, or […]
Author: Enrique Gaztañaga, Professor at Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (University of Portsmouth) Wormholes are often imagined as tunnels through space or time — shortcuts across the universe. But this image rests on a misunderstanding of work by physicists Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen. In 1935, while studying the behaviour of particles in regions of […]
For decades, scientists have searched the skies for signs of extraterrestrial technology, contacts. A study from EPFL asks a sharp question: if signals from technological aliens have already reached Earth without us noticing, what should we realistically expect to detect today? Since the first SETI experiment in 1960, astronomers have scanned the Milky Way for […]
Authors: Crisbel Cardenas 1, Eduardo Torre-Pascual 1,2 , Maite de Blas 1,2 , Estíbaliz Sáez de Cámara 1,2, Erlantz Lizundia 1,3 & Ion Agirre-Arisketa 1,2 1 Repsol Foundation Classroom on Energy Transition & Circular Economy. Bilbao School of Engineering. University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Bilbao. España 2 Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department. Bilbao School […]
In the world of organic chemistry, some rules are taught as absolute boundaries. One of the most famous is Bredt’s rule, a guideline that has dictated the limits of molecular architecture for nearly a century. This rule essentially places a “keep off the grass” sign on certain parts of a molecule, specifically forbidding the formation […]
Authors: Florian Bonnet, Démographe et économiste, spécialiste des inégalités territoriales, Ined (Institut national d’études démographiques); Carlo Giovanni Camarda, Docteur, spécialiste des méthodes de prévision (mortalité, longévité, etc.), Ined (Institut national d’études démographiques); France Meslé, Démographe, Ined (Institut national d’études démographiques), and Josselin Thuilliez, Economiste, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Centre national de la recherche scientifique […]
In order to build the computers and devices of tomorrow, we have to understand how they use energy today. That’s harder than it sounds. Memory storage, information processing, and energy use in these technologies involve constant energy flow—systems never settle into thermodynamic balance. To complicate things further, one of the most precise ways to study […]