What is Disease X? Don’t panic! Disease X doesn’t exist yet – but it might one day. Disease X is the label that the World Health Organization uses to refer to some currently unknown infectious condition that is capable of...
The screwworm larva has tusk-like mandibles protruding from its mouthScott Camazine/Alamy Countries across the Americas have spent billions trying to control the New World screwworm since the flesh-eating parasite devastated cattle in the US in the 1950s. But a recent...
Researchers trained an artificial intelligence model to gauge people’s ages from their brain scanslaboratory/Alamy The abundance of 13 proteins in your blood seems to be a strong indicator of how rapidly your brain is ageing. This suggests that blood tests...
Google says its new quantum chip is its most powerful yetGoogle Quantum AI Google has unveiled a new quantum computer and is once more claiming to have pulled ahead in the race to show that these exotic machines can beat...
In the 1970s, in a grave in a Bronze Age cemetery in Shahr-i Sokhta, Iran, an incredible object was unearthed next to a human skull: the oldest complete board game ever discovered. Around 4500 years old, it consists of a...
Santa Claus alone is not enough for a happy ChristmasTristan Fewings/Getty Images for Hamleys He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, but Santa’s festive surveillance seemingly does nothing to improve children’s behaviour. Instead, it may be that wider Christmas...
It’s harder than it looksInna Kot/Getty Images What is the largest sofa that you can squeeze around the corner of a hallway? A horseshoe-shaped piece of furniture known as Gerver’s sofa has officially taken the crown, solving a mathematical question...
December 9, 20243 min read6 Wild Things We Learned about Earth in 2024It’s been a fascinating year in earth science—from mysterious “dark oxygen” to an “unidentified seismic object,” here are some incredible things we’ve learned about our planet in 2024By...
Imagine a dystopian not-too-distant future, in which we each inhabit our own AI-driven digital filter bubble, crafted for us alone and designed to serve corporate interests. This future resembles 1998’s The Truman Show where the eponymous protagonist, played by Jim...
Across the past century science has reached an understanding of the cosmos that is as profound as it is precise.Einstein’s general theory of relativity provides a framework that describes the structure of spacetime at the largest observable scales—as well as...
