Personally, I don't think there's intelligent life on other planets. Why should other planets be any different from this one?

— Bob Monkhouse

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Updated: 5 hours 18 min ago

Cocaine seems to hijack brain pathways that prioritise food and water

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 3:00pm
Cocaine and morphine hijacked neural responses in the brains of mice, which resulted in them consuming less food and water
Categories: Astronomy

Fossil snake discovered in India may have been the largest ever

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 12:00pm
The vertebrae of Vasuki indicus, a snake that lived 47 million years ago, suggest it could have been as long as 15 metres
Categories: Astronomy

Jupiter's moon Io has been a volcanic inferno for billions of years

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 10:00am
Measurements of sulphur isotopes in Io’s atmosphere show that the moon may have been volcanically active for its entire lifetime
Categories: Astronomy

Quantum-proof encryption may not actually stop quantum hackers

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 6:31am
Cryptographers are scrambling to understand an algorithm that could undermine the mathematics behind next-generation encryption methods, which are intended to protect against quantum computers
Categories: Astronomy

Particles move in beautiful patterns when they have ‘spatial memory’

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 6:00am
A mathematical model of a particle that remembers its past so that it never travels the same path twice produces stunningly complex patterns
Categories: Astronomy

Ancient Maya burned their dead rulers to mark a new dynasty

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 8:01pm
In the foundations of a Maya temple, researchers found the charred bones of royal individuals – possibly evidence of a fiery ritual to mark the end of one dynasty and the beginning of another
Categories: Astronomy

What is cloud seeding and did it cause the floods in Dubai?

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 5:02pm
Cloud seeding almost certainly did not play a significant role in the flooding on the Arabian peninsula this week – but the heavy rains may have been exacerbated by climate change
Categories: Astronomy

Ancient marine reptile found on UK beach may be the largest ever

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 3:00pm
The jawbone of an ichthyosaur uncovered in south-west England has been identified as a new species, and researchers estimate that the whole animal was 20 to 25 metres long
Categories: Astronomy

Ancient humans lived inside a lava tube in the Arabian desert

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 3:00pm
Underground tunnels created by lava flows provided humans with shelter for thousands of years beneath the hot desert landscape of Saudi Arabia
Categories: Astronomy

Does the future of boxing lie in humans versus robots? Possibly

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 2:00pm
Feedback pores over new research that suggests "robot-human boxing" would reduce brain injuries by reducing the number of live opponents involved
Categories: Astronomy

Why we need to change the way we think about exhaustion

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 2:00pm
One in five adults worldwide is living with fatigue. The general advice is to “do more” - but this isn’t the only solution to our exhaustion epidemic, says Amy Arthur
Categories: Astronomy

A Body Made of Glass review: A very personal history of hypochondria

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 2:00pm
Millions of people experience symptoms many doctors dismiss as imaginary, but why? Caroline Crampton's moving first-person account is very revealing
Categories: Astronomy

How to see the Lyrid meteor shower and when is the peak?

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 2:00pm
Caused by debris from a comet thought to originate in the Oort Cloud, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks this year on 22 April and is best viewed from the northern hemisphere, says Abigail Beall
Categories: Astronomy

Old-fashioned pessimism might actually help us fight climate change

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 2:00pm
Negative thinking is unpopular but it could drive more realistic efforts to limit harm from global warming
Categories: Astronomy

Skin-deep wounds can damage gut health in mice

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 1:00pm
We know there is some connection between skin and gut health, but many assumed the gut was the one calling the shots. A new study suggests that the influence can go the other way
Categories: Astronomy

Intel reveals world's biggest 'brain-inspired' neuromorphic computer

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 12:00pm
A computer intended to mimic the way the brain processes and stores data could potentially improve the efficiency and capabilities of artificial intelligence models
Categories: Astronomy

Turning plants blue with gene editing could make robot weeding easier

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 12:00pm
Weeding robots can sometimes struggle to tell weeds from crops, but genetically modifying the plants we want to keep to make them brightly coloured would make the job easier, suggest a group of researchers
Categories: Astronomy

A new understanding of tinnitus and deafness could help reverse both

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 12:00pm
Investigations of the paradoxical link between tinnitus and hearing loss have revealed a hidden form of deafness, paving the way to possible new treatments
Categories: Astronomy

A cicada double brood is coming – it's less rare than you think

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 10:53am
Up to 17 US states could be peppered with more than a trillion cicadas this spring, and though it has been a while since these two specific broods emerged at once, double broods are not that rare
Categories: Astronomy

Dusting farms with waste concrete could boost yields and lock up CO2

Wed, 04/17/2024 - 8:41am
Ground-up concrete can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a similar way to ground-up rocks, according to a field study in Ireland
Categories: Astronomy