wildfires Author: Aaron Bell, Researcher, PhD Candidate, Biology, University of Saskatchewan With the summer solstice and first official day of summer on June 21, hot and dry conditions have already given rise to a very active fire season across Canada. The smoke from these fires has drifted great distances, disrupting activities and causing a nuisance […]
According to a recent study , humans have displaced a significant volume of water from the ground and relocated it, resulting in an Earth shift of approximately 80 centimetres (31.5 inches) eastward solely between 1993 and 2010. According to prior climate models, researchers had initially estimated that humans extracted around 2,150 gigatons of groundwater between […]
It is a warning that keeps repeating once and again: the behavior of artificial intelligence will soon be indistinguishable from that of human beings. A frightening and inevitable moment that is drawing ever closer. A recent paper available on arXiv [/footnote] Daniel Jannai, Amos Meron, Barak Lenz, Yoav Levine, Yoav Shoham (2023) Human or not? […]
New theory of how Earth formed Scientists have found evidence that the Earth was created from a rapid landslide in less than 5 million years rather than a gradual series of celestial collisions, revising the longstanding theory of how Earth-like planets form in the galaxy. “With this new planet formation mechanism, the chance of having […]
nuclear star cluster This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the heart of M74 (or NGC 628), otherwise known as the Phantom Galaxy. Webb’s sharp vision has revealed delicate filaments of gas and dust in the grandiose spiral arms which wind outwards from the centre of this image. A lack of gas […]
Cancers are the second leading cause of death in the world, after cardiovascular diseases. Their seriousness lies in their diversity – some can be effectively treated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, while others respond poorly or not at all. Improving the treatment of these diseases is therefore a major challenge. For several years, the development […]
Energy • Materials • Nanotechnology • Physics
Researchers have made significant progress in understanding the fundamental microscopic mechanisms that can be used to customize materials for heat insulation. This breakthrough represents a significant step forward in the continuous endeavour to understand heat transport, improve energy efficiency and promote sustainability. Heat transport plays a vital role in numerous scientific and industrial fields, including […]
Mental illness is associated with accelerated ageing, namely with shorter life span and ageing-related diseases such as diabetes or cardiovascular problems, with worse effects observed in men than women (the average lifespan for men having suffered from mental illness is 10 years shorter than for peers without those issues, for women the difference is seven […]
Brain changes in astronauts Astronauts on space missions lasting six months or more have enlarged cerebral ventricles in the brain, according to a study of 30 astronauts. Researchers found that most ventricle expansion occurs during the first six months in space, but slows down after a year, and the astronauts’ brains fully recovered after three […]
Some materials have special universal properties protected against perturbations. Such properties are theoretically described by topology, a branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of geometrical objects that are unchanged by continuous deformations. So-called topological insulators are electronic materials that have a bulk band gap like an ordinary insulator but have conducting states on their […]