In this search for the origin of one of the world’s most common genetic diseases, emerging research in evolutionary medicine raises new questions about our history, development, and future as a species.
Scientists have built a quantum computer in a diamond, the first of its kind to include protection against “decoherence” — noise that prevents the computer from functioning properly. The demonstration shows the viability of solid-state quantum computers, which – unlike earlier gas- and liquid-state systems – may represent the future of quantum computing because they…
Dating features on the Moon and Mars is guesswork. Scott Anderson is building a tool to change that.
The braincase of a skull may well be, as advertised, a strongly built and cleverly engineered structure, but listening to all that incessant banging coming from the direction of the crab apple tree in the garden, one has to wonder: is it really strong enough to keep a woodpecker from having the most terrible headache?…
From Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog: Global warming is real. Temperatures are changing, climate is changing, and most importantly, arctic ice is changing, melting. It is absolutely critical we understand this process better so that we can better understand the implications, and some of the most formidable tools in our possession are Earth-observing satellites. Their keen…
In the book Theoretical Morphology, George McGhee examines why living things look the way they do. He explores the space of the potential shapes of organisms, or their morphology, and compares that to what we find in Nature, finding that the actual morphologies are often a subset of those potential shapes, due to chance and…
Sometimes, particles can pass through walls. Though it sounds like science fiction, the phenomenon is well documented and even understood under the bizarre rules that govern the microscopic world called quantum mechanics. Now, scientists have measured the timing of this passing-through-walls trick more accurately than ever before, and report their results in a recent issue…