Posts

Archimedes 287 B.C. - 212 B.C. Often considered the greatest ancient mathematician, he is credited with discovering several geometric principles, including the volume and surface area of a sphere and the approximate value of pi. In a quirky text called The Sand-Reckoner, Archimedes proved that the amount of sand in the world is not infinite, counter to prevailing wisdom. The author of more than 30 classic plays and 100 sonnets, he pioneered new literary forms, helped to standardize grammar, and invented dozens of words and sayings....

A future ‘quantum internet’ could find use long before it reaches technological maturity, a team of physicists predicts. Such a network, which exploits the unique effects of quantum physics, would be fundamentally different to the classical Internet we use today, and research groups worldwide are already working on its early stages of development. The first stages promise virtually unbreakable privacy and security in communications; a more mature network could include a range of applications for science and beyond that aren’t possible with classical systems, including quantum sensors that can detect gravitational waves....

Last week news broke that astronomer Geoff Marcy had sexually harassed students, according to a Title IX investigation by his institution, the University of California, Berkeley. Last month the Association of American Universities reported an alarmingly high number of students experiencing sexual assault on college campuses. Last year a study found that a majority of graduate students and postdocs doing fieldwork in anthropology and archaeology reported being harassed. As a professional astronomer, I have seen this behavior push women out of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)....

The well-known and always well-dressed game show host Jeff Nicholas has approached Jordan and five of his mathematically inclined friends–Ariana, Bob, Caroline, David and Ellen–with a contest proposition. Jordan and the five are the leading lights of the omniheurist club, a group of outstanding puzzle solvers. “Our contest is live,” Jeff explains. “I will blindfold your friends, then put a hat on each of them bearing a number between 1 and 10 (more than one person may have the same number) and lead them into a televised game room....

In what may be the week’s most unsurprising news, scientists have officially announced that this past July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. According to data released yesterday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a program of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, last month edged out July 2016, the previous record-holder, for the title. Last month was 0.04 degree Celsius, or about 0.07 degree Fahrenheit, warmer than July 2016....

The mountains northwest of Oslo are some of Europe’s highest, and they are covered with snow throughout the year. Norwegians call them the Jotunheimen, meaning the home of the jötnar—the giants of Norse mythology. But years of warm weather have now melted much of that snow and ice, revealing a mountain pass that mere mortals traversed for more than 1,000 years—and then abandoned about 500 years ago. Archaeologists working along the ancient, high-altitude route have discovered hundreds of artifacts that indicate people used it to cross a mountain ridge from the late Roman Iron Age and through the medieval period....

When NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) slams into the tiny asteroid Dimorphos, it will be our first attempt to demonstrate our ability to deflect dangerous incoming asteroids. For decades, scientists around the world have been scanning the sky, searching for potentially hazardous asteroids in the vicinity of Earth. And as astronomers discover near-Earth asteroids in ever greater numbers, attention is now turning toward how we might protect Earth should an asteroid on a collision course be discovered....

Nothing pulls at the heartstrings quite like a starving polar bear. A wrenching video published on National Geographic’s website made that clear after going viral in December. Shot by documentary filmmaker Paul Nicklen, the clip follows an emaciated bear struggling its way across the barren landscape (Climatewire, Dec. 15, 2017). While scientists were quick to caution that the causes of the animal’s condition remain unknown—disease, injury or any number of other factors could potentially have spelled its demise—experts are worried that starving polar bears may soon become a more common sight as the sea ice they rely on for hunting grounds continues to melt away....

Safety in numbers has pretty much ruled in the animal kingdom. But now researchers are discovering that artificially intelligent robots can change animals’ natural instinct to live as a group, prompting them to form new patterns of behavior. Take the typical three-centimeter- (1.2-inch-) long American cockroach, Periplaneta americana. It tends to live in groups with fellow cockroaches in the darkest shelters available. But could new robotic interlopers alter their age-old way of life?...

SALT LAKE CITY—As deep as scientists peer into human history and prehistory, they have found evidence of violence. That was the bad news from 17 researchers in anthropology and other fields at “The Evolution of Human Aggression: Lessons for Today’s Conflicts” conference, held at the University of Utah at the end of February. The good news is that much can be done to reduce lethal conflict in the world today. As participant Frans B....

On January 15 the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano erupted in the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga, generating ashfall and a tsunami that affected 84 percent of the country’s population. A few days later, amid heat and humidity, scores of people all over Tonga came out to clean up debris and ash, even sweeping airport runways clean so aircraft carrying disaster relief could land. Barely two weeks later the Tonga prime minister announced nationwide lockdown after the country recorded its first cases of community transmission of COVID-19....

Ozone Recovery, Warmer Antarctica The Antarctic ozone hole that forms every spring has kept that continent’s interior cold even as the rest of the world has warmed over the past few decades [see “A Push from Above”; SciAm, August 2002]. Thanks to the global ban on chlorofluorocarbons, stratospheric ozone levels there are slowly recovering. A repaired hole, however, could speed Antarctic ice melting and change weather patterns, according to a computer model by Judith Perlwitz of the University of Colorado at Boulder and her colleagues....

Americans spent $14.8 billion in 2007 on herbal supplements and other natural health products, even though numerous recent studies have shown that ginkgo, echinacea, St. John’s wort and others are relatively ineffective against many of the ills they have claimed to help. A recent investigation by the Government Accountability Office, part of which employed undercover senior citizens, has revealed how loose regulations and questionable sales tactics are more persuasive than science, potentially putting consumers’ health at risk....

An outbreak of anthrax that has killed more than 2,000 reindeer and sickened 13 people in Siberia has been linked to 75-year-old anthrax spores released by melting permafrost. It’s an event of the sort many scientists have warned about: Warming temperatures reviving dormant diseases, perhaps even pathogens long-thought extinct. There are, however, ways to protect both livestock and humans from an anthrax infection, and the current outbreak is likely to end quickly, said George Stewart, a medical bacteriologist at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine....

AUGUST 1960 STRAIGHT UP—“Active research on vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft is in progress both here and abroad. In this country the program has been a three-way collaboration among the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a number of aircraft manufacturers and the armed forces. The requirements of commercial passenger traffic are not the only, nor even the major, impetus behind the investigations. The Army, Navy and Air Force are interested in a variety of aircraft that could operate in forward areas without the need for prepared landing strips....

Sunlight can provide more than enough energy to meet our needs—in theory. In practice, the skies are sometimes covered with clouds—and whether fair or overcast, the sun daily disappears behind the horizon. To get around these limitations, scientists have worked for years on new ways of converting sunlight into chemical energy, artificial forms of photosynthesis that would store solar energy in liquid or gaseous form—a “solar fuel.” For years, they have sought a chemical catalyst that can perform this complex feat of chemical processing....

In the middle of 2005 the W. M. Keck observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii completed an upgrade of one of its giant twin telescopes. By automatically correcting for atmospheric turbulence, the instrument could now produce images as sharp as those from the Hubble Space Telescope. Shrinivas Kulkarni of the California Institute of Technology urged young Caltech researchers—myself among them—to apply for observing time. Once the rest of the astronomy community realized how terrific the telescopes were, he warned us, securing a slot would become very competitive....

EDMONTON, Alberta—Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda is one of the largest expanses of montane rainforest in East Africa. It is also one of the most endangered: poaching, forest fires, mining and human settlements are all threatening to tear apart this key water catchment in one of the continent’s most densely populated countries. Last year, a group of ecologists at the University of East Anglia (U.E.A.) began a radical experiment: offering cash payments to communities who help conserve it....

Your friend suggests that you use a lotion infused with peppermint essential oil to help combat your nausea. Your coworker insists that he has never slept so well since starting to sprinkle a little lavender oil on his pillow at night. Last year alone consumers in the United States spent $1 billion on essential oil products and is expected to exceed $11 billion by the year 2022. But what does the research say?...

A mysterious mummy’s artificial eyes—placed to help her see in the afterlife—would have shown her quite a lot over the past 2,700 years. Researchers examining the mummy at the British Museum thought the remains were male after x-ray images from the 1960s revealed dense packing in its crotch area. But a potentially matching trio of beautifully detailed nesting wood coffins, acquired with the mummy as a set, bore hieroglyphics describing a female homemaker named Nestawedjat....