Terahertz (THz) radiation is all around us. For example, this page emits blackbody radiation mainly in the THz region (defined here from 0.3 THz to 30 THz). Because terahertz radiation begins at a wavelength of around one millimeter and proceeds into shorter wavelengths, it is sometimes known as the submillimeter band, and its radiation as […]
Twelve years have passed since the world record for rail speed was set. “Operation V150”, which got its name from the target speed for its testbed trainset, 150 metres per second (540 km/h), occupied from January 2007 to April of the same year a team formed by the french railway operator SNCF, the infrastructure manager […]
Environmental problems and energy resources make it vitally important for the chemical industry to develop more sustainable and less polluting processes. Therefore, using solar energy is one of the most promising alternatives. If we take a look at Nature’s energetic profile, plants are able to use solar energy to convert it into chemical energy and […]
Meteorite likely chief cause of mass extinction The meteorite that struck Earth about 66 million years ago was likely the driving factor behind the extinction of the dinosaurs rather than extreme volcanic activity. Researchers examined deep sediments in the North Atlantic to create global temperature data and found that temperatures around the world at the […]
Symmetry is a unifying principle that governs all aspects of physics. The physical properties of crystalline solids are no different. But, as symmetry is progressively lowered through the 32 crystallographic point groups, novel transport effects emerge. Crystal symmetry dictates also the geometry of a phenomenon that has attracted a lot of attention in recent years […]
Families with members with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are easy prey for scam artists who offer them magical solutions and therapies not backed by science. Many of these pseudotherapies are included in the so-called alternative medicine, a misnomer because they are not medical treatments and do not meet the same criteria required of a medicine: […]
Author: Jose V. Torres-Perez (@Jovitope) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciencies, Queen Mary, University of London (UK). This is the story of primary cilium, a cellular structure discovered at least 122 years ago. It was soon regarded as rudimentary and then forgotten for most researchers. Nonetheless, recent advances proved […]
Parrots appear to altruistically help each other out Researchers filmed one African grey parrot helping another get a reward, an act of altruism they say hasn’t been demonstrated before in birds. “We found that African grey parrots voluntarily and spontaneously help familiar parrots to achieve a goal, without obvious immediate benefit to themselves,” said Desiree […]
Topological insulators are materials with special universal properties, which are 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. Topological insulators are electronic materials that have a bulk band gap like an ordinary insulator but have conducting […]
2020 marks exactly half a century from the publication of one of the most important papers in the crossing of economics, philosophy, and political science (and, taking into account that it barely contained six skimpy pages, probably one of the most influential papers per page ever): Amartya Sen’s “The impossibility of a Paretian liberal”. It […]