[ad_1] Benjamin Franklin knocked himself unconscious electrocuting turkeys in front of dinner guests Pictures from history/Getty Images The Limits of GeniusKatie Spalding (Hachette) HOW is Donald Trump like Isaac Newton? Mathematician and science writer Katie Spalding says that both were stupid enough to stare directly at the sun. The former US president and self-described “very […]
[ad_1] Sunrise over the retreating Stanley glacier John Wendle AFRICAN glaciers are some of the fastest-melting on the planet. On Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania they could be gone by 2040, while those of Mount Kenya and the little-studied Rwenzori mountains that span Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo may vanish this decade. The melting […]
[ad_1] Injuries from making stone tools could have resulted in loss of life and limb for ancient humans Kent State University/American Antiquity/Michelle Bebber Modern flintknappers who practice making stone tools hurt themselves with surprising frequency. But injuries that today require stitches or a trip to the emergency room could have been a death sentence for […]
[ad_1] In just over a year’s time, where I am standing will be pitch black, devoid of human life and – on a bad day – full of human effluent. I am in London’s new super sewer, a monstrous concrete pipe that runs roughly along the course of the river Thames for 25 kilometres. It […]
[ad_1] A coral reef in Palau, one of the regions surveyed for microbial diversity Waterframe/imageBROKER/Shutterstock A two-year expedition across the Pacific Ocean has revealed that the microbes present on coral reefs there may be as varied as the microbiome of the rest of the planet’s ecosystems combined. This could mean we have vastly underestimated the […]
[ad_1] A bee with the sensor attached B. GLEICH, I. SCHMALE, T. NIELSEN, AND J. RAHMER, PHILIPS RESEARCH HAMBURG, GERMANY A tiny sensor can work like a high-tech backpack for bees, tracking their position and temperature as they fly about. The sensor is so small that it could also be injected into a person’s body […]
[ad_1] A FEW years ago, I wrote a feature story that has become, at least in New Scientist circles, the quintessential example of my role as the harbinger of doom. It was about the shocking environmental impact of cheese, especially its colossal methane and carbon hoofprint. The reactions from my colleagues were variations on “I […]
[ad_1] I WAS at university in the early 1990s, when toad licking was the latest drug-related panic. I remember many conversations about it, though I don’t remember anyone actually licking a toad, or indeed any other amphibian. The nearest anyone got to real psychedelic experimentation was an architecture student called Mark, who tried to smoke […]
[ad_1] Artist’s depiction of the Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, which NASA has selected for its Artemis V mission Blue Origin Planned moon missions with large landers may stir up clouds of dust from the lunar surface, which could be dangerous for orbiters or even space stations. Later this decade, NASA hopes to return humans […]
[ad_1] We often don’t appreciate the ocean’s effect on the workings of our planet Natalie Fobes/Getty Images Blue Machine: How the ocean shapes our worldHelen Czerski (Torva) WHEN you stand next to the ocean, it is easy to forget that it is connected to every other bit of blue on the planet. If you were […]