Category archives: Science

Eight lifesaving ways to improve wildfire risk management

Eight lifesaving ways to improve wildfire risk management

EcologyEconomicsEnvironment

By Invited Researcher

Authors: María-Luisa Chas-Amil, Catedrática de Economía Aplicada, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and Julia María Touza, Professor of Environmental Economics, University of York As the flames advanced towards the village of Bédar, in the Almería province of Andalusia, the mayor gave a desperate order to ring the church bells to warn residents. It was not […]

Substrate dynamics could power brain-inspired chips

Substrate dynamics could power brain-inspired chips

Artificial IntelligenceComputer scienceCondensed matterMaterialsQuantum physics

By Mapping Ignorance

Many of today’s electronic devices — from the semiconductors in your cell phone to the photovoltaic cells in your solar panels — are built on thin-film substrates. The thin film is an electronically conductive material while the substrate is an inert material. Or is it? Physicists and materials scientists have long assumed substrates do not […]

Doing and experiencing in language: how similar are they?

Doing and experiencing in language: how similar are they?

LanguageLinguisticsNeurobiologyNeurolinguistics

By Invited Researcher

Author: Marta Sánchez López, Postdoctoral researcher at Research Centre for Basque Language and Texts (CNRS-IKER) – Université Bordeaux Montaigne. She also collaborates with the The Bilingual Mind Research Group (Gogo Elebiduna), University of the Basque Country. In our daily life, we perceive many different events around us with different participants involved, such as a woman […]

Cracks in the foundations of today’s cosmological model

Cracks in the foundations of today’s cosmological model

Cosmology

By Invited Researcher

Author: Subir Sarkar, Emeritus Professor, Department of Physics, University of Oxford According to our best understanding, the universe is expanding – and is doing so at an accelerating rate. This is believed to be caused by something called the “cosmological constant”, which was first proposed by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity. In […]

Electron lighthouse

Electron lighthouse

Condensed matterPhysics

By Mapping Ignorance

Researchers at the University of Michigan have created a device that enables them to control the flow of electrons through a semiconductor using only laser light—no electrical power source required. This device was built to explore fundamental physics and realize a previously unobserved behavior, but it could also open doors for new applications in areas […]

The hidden role of the immune system in female Alzheimer’s

The hidden role of the immune system in female Alzheimer’s

Biomedicine

By Invited Researcher

For decades, Alzheimer’s research has been dominated by a seemingly intuitive idea: the disease is largely explained by the accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain, primarily beta-amyloid and tau. However, while this view has been useful, it has fallen short in explaining certain fundamental aspects. One of the most striking is that Alzheimer’s affects […]

Rewriting the rules of heteroepitaxy with a flexible crystal

Rewriting the rules of heteroepitaxy with a flexible crystal

Condensed matterDIPC Advanced materialsMaterials

By DIPC

Building electronic devices often requires stacking different crystalline materials on top of one another with atomic precision. This process, called heteroepitaxy, works best when the two crystals share similar atomic patterns. When their symmetries differ, the upper crystal tends to grow in several orientations at once instead of a single one, creating defects that degrade […]

A giant space mirror to test ‘sunlight on demand.’

A giant space mirror to test ‘sunlight on demand.’

Astronomy

By Invited Researcher

Auhtors: Samantha Lawler, Associate Professor, Astronomy, University of Regina and Aaron Boley, Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia A giant mirror to create “sunlight on demand” was just approved by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), despite opposition from astronomers and the public, and real safety concerns. The FCC approved the company […]

Sugar in interstellar space

Sugar in interstellar space

AstronomyBiochemistryChemistryEvolutionPlanetary Science

By Mapping Ignorance

Sugars are key biomolecules in living organisms, as they form the backbone of DNA and RNA and play a fundamental role in metabolic processes. In theories of the origin of life, sugars are also essential for the synthesis of the first nucleic acids. Despite their importance, one of the major questions in origin-of-life research is […]

Inflammation-driven changes in bone marrow: An early indicator of leukemia?

Inflammation-driven changes in bone marrow: An early indicator of leukemia?

Biomedicine

By Rosa García-Verdugo

What if we could stop blood cancers before they even start? New research reveals that chronic inflammation dramatically reshapes the bone marrow environment years before leukemia emerges, potentially offering a window for early intervention. The Hidden Life of the Bone Marrow Every second, your bone marrow produces millions of new blood and immune cells through […]