Ancient asteroid may have carried life to Earth The chemical analysis of granular samples collected from the surface of Ruygu — an asteroid several billions of years old — revealed the presence of amino acids within the rocky terrain, which researchers believe may be responsible for the foundation of the development of life on Earth […]
A quasicrystal is a solid structure in which there is long-range incommensurate translational order and a long-range orientational order with a point group. Translated, this simply means that a quasicrystal is ordered but not periodic and, still, it can fill space completely. In two dimensions, the fivefold symmetry of a pentagon is an example of […]
Humanity is the unlikely result of 4 billion years of evolution. From self-replicating molecules in Archean seas, to eyeless fish in the Cambrian deep, to mammals scurrying from dinosaurs in the dark, and then, finally, improbably, ourselves – evolution shaped us. Organisms reproduced imperfectly. Mistakes made when copying genes sometimes made them better fit to […]
Witchcraft involves the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, those accused of witchcraft were usually women who were believed to have attacked their own community and often to be in communion with evil beings. Witchcraft powers were acquired by inheritance or initiation […]
DNA can store more than just genetic code A team of researchers added seven synthetic nucleobases to DNA’s current four-letter code, thereby expanding the innate ability of the double helix to store a variety of information, findings in the journal Nano Letters reveal. The study suggests this method may be a solution to sustainable data […]
Some metals, alloys and transition-element salts exhibit a form of magnetism called antiferromagnetism. This occurs below a certain temperature, named after Louis Néel, when an ordered array of atomic magnetic moments spontaneously forms in which alternate moments have opposite directions. There is therefore no net resultant magnetic moment in the absence of an applied field […]
Contemporary philosophy of science was, at least during its first decades (those of the glorious Vienna Circle), a kingdom of radically empiricist and positivist intellectuals: scientific knowledge had to be obtained and tested mainly through experiment, and everything that could not be robustly grounded on experimental observations was just dangerous speculation and metaphysics. The connections […]
Human activities impact significantly on the environment we live. The human society has been experiencing extreme weather conditions frequently that indicate a systematic climate shift. Almost every place in the world has set records of extreme temperatures. This trend of extreme weather has been warned by scientists to be possibly a result of excessive human […]
Brainwave data offers clues on moment of death Data captured at the time of death of an 87-year-old epilepsy patient indicated that the human brain may be designed to coordinate the transition to death, activating brainwaves most commonly associated with memory flashbacks. “[A]lthough our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave […]
Deep below the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, we find the LSC (Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc – Canfranc Underground Laboratory), where the NEXT experiment is taking place. Its goal is one of the remaining holy grails of particle physics: the proof that the neutrino is its own antiparticle, a result with profound meaning not only […]