A double potential energy well with quantum wave functions on a ladder of different energy levelsN. E. Frattini et al. A 135-year-old chemistry law is getting a quantum makeover. An experiment with a single quantum bit, or a qubit, has...
NASA’s Valkyrie robot, ready to be inhabited through virtual realityJames Woodford I am standing before one of the most advanced robots in the world and am awestruck and disoriented by its humanoid form. Part Transformer, part Star Wars stormtrooper and...
In June of 2021 Aaron James experienced a terrible accident while working as an electrical lineman. The 46-year-old military veteran and Arkansas resident lost much of the left side of his face—including his left eye—to severely disfiguring electrical burns that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzTU_4Zh4nc A rare and boisterous encounter between a young wombat and a spiny echidna has been caught on camera, to the delight of Australian conservationists. The exuberant behaviour captured by a camera trap is a sign that a gamble to...
Ekkehard Peik is a clock-maker. But instead of spending his days looking at tiny cogs and springs through a magnifying glass, the tools of his trade are powerful lasers, wires and, occasionally, radioactive atoms. Peik, director of the German metrology institute...
An eel escapes via a fish’s gillsHasegawa et al./Current Biology Japanese eels try to wriggle back out of the stomachs of fish that have swallowed them whole – and now we know how they sometimes succeed. A few years ago,...
Signs of chronic fatigue syndrome could be in someone’s bloodShutterstock/PeopleImages.com – Yuri A Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) could one day be diagnosed via a blood test, after researchers detected 116 biomarkers that seem to occur in people with the condition....
Physicists seem to be obsessed with cats. James Clerk Maxwell, the father of electrodynamics, studied falling felines to investigate how they turned as they fell. Many physics teachers have used a cat’s fur and a hard rubber rod to explain...
The athletics stadium at the Paris Olympics last monthdpa picture alliance/Alamy TestedRose EvelethNPR and CBC The Olympics are over. But I am still thinking about the displays of strength, skill, teamwork – and joy. Decathlete Markus Rooth skipping as he realised he...
The comet Neowise and the Milky Way galaxyAdventure_Photo/Getty Images One of my favourite memories of July 2020 is standing outside on a clear summer evening looking at a beautiful comet, known as C/2020 F3, or Neowise, through a shaky pair...
