Article archives

MI weekly selection #356

MI weekly selection #356

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

NY forest fossils date back 386M years The 386-million-year-old fossils of trees found in New York’s Catskills are likely the remains of the world’s oldest forest. Researchers found the remains of three different types of trees in what is now a quarry. New Scientist Ancient seawall finally gave way to rising waters A seawall dating […]

Next generation nanoprobes for the microspectroscopic study of biosystems

Next generation nanoprobes for the microspectroscopic study of biosystems

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyQuantum physics

By DIPC

Nonlinear processes are attractive in microscopy and spectroscopy since they can be excited with light in the near‐infrared, which offers several advantages, from a deep tissue penetration capability or a reduced photodamage due to the lower photon energy, to a spatially more confined probed volume, which can result in an improved lateral resolution. These processes […]

Conspiracy theories: how belief is rooted in evolution – not ignorance

Conspiracy theories: how belief is rooted in evolution – not ignorance

Sociology

By Invited Researcher

Despite creative efforts to tackle it, belief in conspiracy theories, alternative facts and fake news show no sign of abating. This is clearly a huge problem, as seen when it comes to climate change, vaccines and expertise in general – with anti-scientific attitudes increasingly influencing politics. So why can’t we stop such views from spreading? […]

MI weekly selection #355

MI weekly selection #355

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Alternative explanation for landslides in Mars Long landslides on Mars may have been caused by vibrations of unstable light rocks at the bottom of the slide. The findings, which offer an alternative view to previous suggestions that the landslides were caused by underlying ice, could give researchers more insight on the landslide risks on Mars […]

Excited-state aromaticity

Excited-state aromaticity

ChemistryMaterials

By DIPC

We usually take for granted that aromaticity is something that belongs to the ground state of a molecule; but the fact is that nothing forbids aromaticity appearing in an excited state. In the same way that molecular properties are largely affected by the ground-state aromaticity, excited-state aromaticity can guide the understanding of excited-state processes, the […]

MI weekly selection #354

MI weekly selection #354

Science

By César Tomé

Satellite data, algorithms can help predict volcanic eruptions Satellite radar and algorithms can be used to determine when a volcano is on the verge of an eruption. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar images can show ground movement at volcanoes and an algorithm can analyze the changes, compare them to previous movements and create an alert. Eos […]

Direct observation of dynamic tube dilation in entangled polymer blends

Direct observation of dynamic tube dilation in entangled polymer blends

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

One of the unique features of the chemistry of carbon (and, to some extent, silicon) is its ability to form long chains of atoms. Polymers are substances that have macromolecules composed of many repeating units (known as ‘mers’). Many naturally occurring substances are polymers, including rubber and many substances based on glucose, such as the […]