Biological evolution, the changes in living organisms over time, is often considered an elusive and long process that cannot be observed during a human lifespan. But is that really the case? And is there evidence that we can see it happening right before our eyes?
Explainer: what is a neutron star?
Neutron stars, with a solid crust (and even oceans and an atmosphere!) are the densest solid object we can observe, reaching a few times the density of an atomic nucleus at their core. A sample of neutron star material the size of a grain of sand would weigh roughly the same as the largest ship ever to sail the seas – more than 500,000 tonnes.
Explainer: what is mass?
Explainer: can you be addicted to food?
Taking a hot bath after exercise improves performance in the heat
How to clean up space debris – using game theory
A piece of debris just 10cm in diameter could cause an entire spacecraft to disintegrate and it is estimated that there are more than 29,000 objects larger than 10cm in Earth’s orbit. This poses a major risk to the spacecraft to-ing and fro-ing from the International Space Station, not to mention the hundreds of satellites that are now essential to daily lives.
Did ‘dark matter’ or a star called Nemesis kill the dinosaurs?
The dinosaur extinction 66m years ago was most likely caused by a comet or big asteroid hitting the Earth. But given that asteroids don’t actually hit our planet very often, could this really be the whole story? Many scientists are now asking whether some sort of cosmological event could have boosted the number of comets at the time, making such a collision more likely.
How we discovered that the Earth’s inner core is older than previously thought
Water, water, everywhere – where to drink in the solar system
Science fiction movies about aliens threatening the Earth routinely ascribe them the motive of coming here to steal our resources, most often our water. This is ill thought-out, as water is actually extremely common. Any civilisation coming to our solar system in need of water (either to drink or to make rocket fuel) would be foolish to plunge all the way inwards to the Earth, from where they’d have to haul their booty back against the pull of the sun’s gravity.
Explainer: what are fundamental particles?
It is often claimed that the Ancient Greeks were the first to identify objects that have no size, yet are able to build up the world around us through their interactions. And as we are able to observe the world in tinier and tinier detail through microscopes of increasing power, it is natural to wonder what these objects are made of.
Is glass a solid or a liquid?
We want to build tiny backpacks for bees – here’s why
An exciting attempt to help honey bees has come about thanks to an unlikely intellectual marriage. One of us is an ecologist who wants to keep an eye on individual bees over their entire two to three-mile range and monitor their behaviour. The other is an expert in micro-electronics. Together, we want to develop miniature bee “backpacks” that will power tracking devices by harvesting the energy honey bees generate while flying and visiting flowers.
Can Christmas tree lights really play havoc with your Wi-Fi?
Explainer: why is the night sky black?
Explainer: why is it so hard to lose weight?
Why wine raises tricky problems for tackling excess drinking
Is it time to cut down? East Dunbartonshire, a local authority just north of Glasgow in Scotland, is launching a simple initiative to encourage people to drink less. One hundred licensed premises have agreed to ensure that they offer wine in small 125ml glasses alongside their medium (175ml) and large (250ml) measures, taking us back to the days when this quantity was the standard measure that was on sale.
Einstein’s folly: how the search for a unified theory stumped him to his dying day
Fact or fiction: can we die from a broken heart?
Dying of a broken heart is more than a myth. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (also known as broken heart syndrome) is a condition first recognised by Japanese researchers more than 20 years ago, and it has gained a great deal of attention in Western countries in the past ten years.
Explainer: what are E numbers and should you avoid them in your diet
Six things you can do with coffee – after you’ve finished drinking it
Many of us depend on coffee to fuel our early morning meetings, mid-afternoon slumps or all-night study sessions. These days, the words “coffee” and “fuel” are half-jokingly synonymous. More than 9m tonnes of the bean are produced annually around the world and, once we brew it, an awful lot of waste is created. The vast majority ends up in landfill.