Science
Complex Birdsongs Help Biologists Piece Together The Evolution Of Lifelong Learning
Bonjour! Ni hao! Merhaba! If you move to a new country as an adult, you have to work much harder to get past that initial “hello” in the local language than if you’d moved as a child. Why does it take so much effort to learn a new language later in life? Our human ability …
Analysis Of Global Cancer Data Shines Light On Alternative Gene “Switches” In Tumours
Novel genomics and computational methods reveal how gene “switches” impact survival rates of cancer patients, paving the way to targeted cancer treatments Scientists from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have discovered that many human cancers exhibit widespread alterations in gene activation, where the same gene uses different …
Futurology: How A Group Of Visionaries Looked Beyond The Possible A Century Ago And Predicted Today’s World
From shamanic ritual to horoscopes, humans have always tried to predict the future. Today, trusting predictions and prophecies has become part of daily life. From the weather forecast to the time the sat-nav says we will reach our destination, our lives are built around futuristic fictions. Of course, while we may sometimes feel betrayed by …
What Will A Future Energy Market Look Like?
The recent years have been witness to various developments in the energy sector. With this, has it ever occurred to you what will be the state of the energy industry in the future? Multinational consultancy firm Arup discusses this matter in their recent paper, “Energy systems: A view from 2035 What will a future energy …
Top 10 Emerging Technologies Of 2019
The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently released a report detailing the ten “world-changing technologies that are poised to rattle the status quo.” Let’s see for ourselves what these technologies have to offer. 1. Bioplastics for a Circular Economy Some developments in the bioplastics industry allow lignin, a component of wood, to be broken down into …
Physicists Design An Experiment To Pin Down The Origin Of The Elements
Nearly all of the oxygen in our universe is forged in the bellies of massive stars like our sun. As these stars contract and burn, they set off thermonuclear reactions within their cores, where nuclei of carbon and helium can collide and fuse in a rare though essential nuclear reaction that generates much of the …
These Are The Meta-Trends Shaping The Future (At Breakneck Speed)
Life is pretty different now than it was 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago. It’s sort of exciting, and sort of scary. And hold onto your hat, because it’s going to keep changing—even faster than it already has been. The good news is, maybe there won’t be too many big surprises, because the …
Ghost Particles: How Galaxies Helped Us Weigh The Lightest Neutrino – And Why It Matters
Even when you close your eyes at night, 100 billion neutrinos produced in the sun will pass through them – travelling close to the speed of light, but never hitting anything. Neutrinos are extremely elusive and only weakly interact with matter around them: nature’s true ghosts. Until very recently, these tiny particles were believed to …
Don’t Ban New Technologies – Experiment With Them Carefully
For many years, Facebook’s internal slogan was “move fast and break things.” And that’s what the company did – along with most other Silicon Valley startups and the venture capitalists who fund them. Their general attitude is one of asking for forgiveness after the fact, rather than for permission in advance. Though this can allow …
Black Holes Are Simpler Than Forests And Science Has Its Limits
Albert Einstein said that the ‘most incomprehensible thing about the Universe is that it is comprehensible’. He was right to be astonished. Human brains evolved to be adaptable, but our underlying neural architecture has barely changed since our ancestors roamed the savannah and coped with the challenges that life on it presented. It’s surely remarkable …