Hitesh Tewari, Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin The internet is unique in that it has no central control, administration or authority. It has given everyone with access to it a platform to express their views and exchange ideas with others instantaneously. But in recent years, internet […]
Oldest human skull outside Africa identified as 210,000 years old
Anthony Sinclair, Professor of Archaeological Theory and Method, University of Liverpool A 210,000-year-old human skull could provide new evidence that our species left Africa much earlier than previously thought. A new study published in Nature of two fossils found in Greece in the 1970s shows that one of them is the oldest Homo sapiens […]
Moon landings footage would have been impossible to fake – a film expert explains
Howard Berry, Head of Post-Production and Programme Leader for MA Film and Television Production, University of Hertfordshire It’s been half a century since the magnificent Apollo 11 moon landing, yet many people still don’t believe it actually happened. Conspiracy theories about the event dating back to the 1970s are in fact more popular than ever. […]
Total solar eclipses reveal the dark and stormy side of the sun we never see
Huw Morgan, Reader in Physical Sciences, Aberystwyth University In astronomy, we have a common saying: “good luck, and clear skies”. For an eclipse chaser like me, this is especially important. We have two minutes and no second chance – one small cloud can spoil everything. Thousands of tourists turn up to see them, along with […]
Life on Jupiter’s moon Europa? Discovery of table salt on the surface boosts hopes
Chris Arridge, Research Fellow/Lecturer, Lancaster University Europa, a frozen moon around Jupiter, is believed to be one of the most habitable worlds in the solar system. It was first imaged in detail by the Voyager 1 probe in 1979, revealing a surface almost devoid of large craters. This suggested that water regularly floods up from […]
2D spintronics transformed computing – now we’re making it work in three dimensions
Amalio Fernandez-Pacheco, EPSRC Early Career Fellow, Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow Spintronics might not be the sort of word that comes up in everyday discussions, but it has been revolutionising computer technology for years. It’s the branch of physics that involves manipulating the spin of a flow of electrons, which first reached consumers […]
These bacteria eat plastic
Humans produce 300 million tons of new plastic each year – yet, despite our best efforts, less than 10 percent of it ends up being recycled. Is there a better way to deal with all this waste? Morgan Vague describes her research with microbiologist Jay Mellies on bacteria that have evolved the unexpected ability […]
Scientists discover ancient seawater preserved from the last Ice Age
by Louise Lerner, University of Chicago – 24 May 2019 Twenty thousand years ago, in the thick of an Ice Age, Earth looked very different. Because water was locked up in glaciers hundreds of feet thick, which stretched down over Chicago and New York City, the ocean was smaller – shorelines extended hundreds of miles farther […]
WhatsApp hacked and bugs in Intel chips: what you need to know to protect yourself
Robert Merkel, Lecturer in Software Engineering, Monash University – 15 May 2019 It’s been a day of high-profile security incidents. First there was news the popular WhatsApp messenger app was hacked. Updated versions of WhatsApp have been released, which you should install if you’re one of the more than one billion people who use the […]
Cars will change more in the next decade than they have in the past century
From the outside, the large air intakes and front grills that cool our combustion engines will no longer be needed, while wing mirrors will be replaced with cameras and sensors. Windows could be larger to allow passengers to enjoy the view, or to provide privacy. While the look and feel of our cars has changed […]