When astronomers in the eighteenth century first turned powerful telescopes toward the Milky Way, they noticed something puzzling: tight, spherical swarms of stars scattered across the sky. Now we know that each contains hundreds of thousands of suns packed into […]
Author: Chris Kirkland, Professor of Geochronology, Curtin University In the Pilbara of Western Australia, some of Earth’s oldest rocks lie beneath the sky, as they have for billions of years. They are dark, weathered volcanic rocks, close to 3.5 billion […]
Author: José Luis Granados Mateo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (EHU) and a member of the Integrated History and Philosophy of Science (iHPS) research group. His work focuses on […]
Androgenetic alopecia is characterized by a progressive hair loss. This represents a cosmetic issue, treated with a limited set of pharmacological tools such as minoxidil or finasteride. While these therapies can be effective in some patients, their results are often […]
Chemistry • DIPC Computational and Theoretical Chemistry • Quantum chemistry
Ever since the birth of quantum mechanics in the early twentieth century, chemists have struggled with a fundamental paradox. On one hand, Lewis dot structures and molecular drawings teach us to think of electrons as localized entities—either sitting neatly in […]
As we saw in our last entry, we must grant Gabriel that he does not conceive of the spirit and spiritual as an “immortal soul” or any similar ghostlike entity, but rather as something grounded in human thought—more specifically, in […]
Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials • Quantum physics
When we study solid-state physics, we usually begin with crystals. In a crystal, atoms repeat in a strict and regular pattern, much like tiles on a bathroom floor. Because every small region looks the same as every other, electrons move […]
Animal cafés are places where customers can enjoy food and drinks while interacting with animals such as cats, rabbits, or dogs. These cafés have become popular in many Asian cities, especially where apartments are small and the cost of living […]
When Georg Ohm wired up pieces of copper in 1827, he struck a rule so robust that it still underpins every phone and supercomputer on Earth: double the current, double the voltage. Simple, linear, universal—or so we thought. Over the […]
Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, is renowned for its ability to conduct electricity with ease. When two graphene sheets are stacked and twisted at a “magic angle” of about one degree, something remarkable […]
Authors: Thomas M. Pitot, Chercheur postdoctoral en microbiologie, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) and Catherine Girard, Professeure-Chercheure en microbiologie, Université Laval Viruses play a major role in the functioning of ecosystems. They profoundly influence the dynamics of microbial communities […]
The world’s population is growing, people are living longer, and industry continues to expand. These changes bring many benefits, but they can also increase risks to human health. Over time, people are exposed to many substances in the environment, some […]
Author: José Iriarte, Professor of Archaeology, University of Exeter From the air, you see it only through the constant jolt, tilt and shudder of the low-flying Cessna aircraft. The landscape of the Llanos de Moxos, northern Bolivia, appears as a […]
Author: Kovi Rose, Astrophysics PhD Candidate, University of Sydney Kovi Rose, University of Sydney A pair of stars spiralling around each other. That’s the origin of a new source of repeating radio bursts we’ve detected, called ASKAP J1745. In recent […]
Author: Melissa Lee, Senior Lecturer, School of Mathematics, Monash University Last week, OpenAI shocked the mathematical community by revealing that one of its internal artificial intelligence (AI) models had found a counterexample to a famous conjecture made by legendary Hungarian […]