I will close this series by commenting on the most conspicuous element of the contemporary debate about whether science points towards the existence of some kind of ‘cosmic purpose’: the possibility that the universe we observe is only a vanishingly small part of a mega-infinity of worlds – the multiverse, and more specifically, the inflationary […]
Many books have been published on the history of science. Each one provides a specific insight, and together they offer a fairly complete overview of the evolution of a substantial part of the intellectual heritage of mankind. The book I will review in these lines is, from that point of view, one more. One more […]
Authors: Elissa-Marie Cocquyt, speech therapist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Groningen & Adrià Rofes, assistant professor of Neurolinguistics at the University of Groningen. The human brain is one of the most wonderful organs. In general, our brain consists of a left and right part, of which the outermost layer is called the ‘cortex’ […]
Fossils of 2 new mammal species clarify evolution’s path Teeth, ears and jaws of two newly identified mammal species could help scientists understand mammals’ evolution from crocodilians, dinosaurs and lizards. Specimens of Feredocodon chowi, mouse-size members of the family shuotheriids from the Jurassic period, have molars more like reptiles than modern mammals, and the middle […]
Scientists sketch face of 1,500-year-old Chinese emperor DNA analysis, an almost complete skull and open-source software have enabled scientists to reconstruct the face of Emperor Wu, who ruled China’s Northern Zhou dynasty around 1,500 years ago and whose remains were found in 1996. Scientists have extracted more than a million single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or differences in […]
Spontaneously broken symmetries are at the heart of many phenomena of quantum matter and physics more generally. However, determining the exact symmetries that are broken can be challenging due to imperfections such as strain, in particular when multiple electronic orders are competing. This is exemplified by charge order in some kagome systems, where evidence of […]
Computer science • Energy • Mathematics • Mechanical Engineering
Floating offshore wind (FOW) is one of the most rapidly growing forms of green power. As of 2021 though, there were only 113 MW in operation in Europe, although this figure is predicted to triple by the end of 2024, and escalate up to 10 GW by 2030 and 150 GW by 2050. The current […]
Deception is natural. All animals do it as a survival strategy; prey to avoid predators and predators to catch prey. Intraspecies deception, however, occurs mainly in the most intelligent species, for example among cephalopods, corvids and, of course, apes. Studies on the subject have found a direct relationship between the size of the neocortex and […]
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFETs for logic functions. CMOS technology is used for constructing integrated circuit chips, including microprocessors, microcontrollers, memory chips, and other digital logic circuits. After 50 years of continuous transistor size downscaling and […]
Human migration received help from Toba eruption A study on an archaeological site in Ethiopia has added to evidence that indicates the eruption of Mount Toba in Indonesia 74,000 years ago might not have been apocalyptic. The study shows humans adjusted to arid conditions after the eruption in a way that might have aided migration […]