A few weeks after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, many scientific institutions felt the need to issue public statements against that war. At the time, I was president of the Commission for the History of Physics within […]
One of the great unanswered questions in physics concerns the nature of neutrinos, the lightest known particles with mass. A process called neutrinoless double beta decay could provide the answer. In ordinary double beta decay, two neutrons inside a nucleus […]
For millennia, farming in Switzerland did not reduce plant diversity but helped increase it, researchers have shown in a detailed reconstruction covering the past 7000 years. Only recent decades paint a different picture. The fall of the Roman Empire and […]
Authors: Sergi Muria Maldonado, Professor de Didàctica de les Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona; Anton Aubanell Pou, Professor de l’Institut de Formació Continuada i professor jubilat de Didàctica de les Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, and Jordi Font González, Professor de Didàctica […]
When energy storage is discussed in the context of the energy transition, the conversation almost invariably turns to electricity. Solar and wind power have made the temporal mismatch between energy production and energy demand one of the defining challenges of […]
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 […]
For more than a century, a well-known 18-electron rule has guided the field of organometallic chemistry. Now, researchers at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with scientists from Germany, Russia, and Japan, have successfully synthesized a novel […]
Author: Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Professor of Statistics, University of Toronto As a mild-mannered statistics professor, it’s not often that I get contacted directly by the CEO of a multi-million-dollar company, much less regarding allegations of cheating and malfeasance among world […]
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 […]
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 […]