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Strange new materials that act as "mirrors in time" are proving to be a testing ground for some of the most exotic ideas in physics, finds Jacklin Kwan FOR an [...]

Onts in Florida perform life-saving surgery on their peers, scientists have discovered. They are only the second animal in the world known to do this, along with humans. The researchers [...]

The earliest direct evidence of photosynthesis has been discovered in fossils dating back to 1.75 billion years ago. Scientists collected fossils from Australia, Canada and the Democratic Republic of Congo [...]

An unusual species of bamboo is about to flower for the first time in over 100 years, which could enable researchers to find out more about its mysterious regeneration process. [...]

OCTOPUSES can adapt to changes in temperature by tweaking their genetic code to alter the proteins that are made in their nerve cells. Previous work has shown that cephalopods, such [...]

THE ultrathin and strong material graphene is the most magnetoresistant material ever tested. Its unparalleled ability to increase or decrease its electrical resistance in response to a magnetic field could [...]

RECEIVING a transplant of stem cells from umbilical cord blood has caused a mixed-race woman to go into remission for HIV for the first time. The woman, known as the [...]

RADIOACTIVE meteorites may have helped create key chemicals for life a few million years after the solar system was formed. Exactly how these amino acids could be created in meteorites has remained a mystery, but now Yoko Kebukawa at Yokohama National University in Japan and her team have shown that some could have been synthesised by chemical reactions driven by gamma rays. [Extracted from the article]

If the original bombarding asteroids were just 10 per cent water, the lower limit for C-type meteorites, they would have deposited enough of it to create a global ocean (illustrated above), say the researchers. Solar system THE space rocks that bombarded Mars during the early days of the inner solar system may have carried enough water to create a 300-metre-deep ocean there. [Extracted from the article]

That added up to a total of 50 grams of oxygen in total - which would be about 100 minutes' worth of breathable oxygen for a single astronaut ( I Science Advances i , doi.org/gqqzpr). NASA's attempt to produce oxygen on Mars managed to generate about 100 minutes' worth of breathable oxygen in 2021. [Extracted from the article]

A recent physics paper suggests that black holes could potentially be used as a source of energy. The study proposes two methods for extracting energy from black holes based on their rotational and gravitational properties. In one scenario, scientists would charge the black hole by injecting it with electrically charged particles until it reached a point where the electromagnetic repulsion was greater than the gravitational pull. The researchers estimate that this process could have an efficiency of 25%, making it significantly more efficient than an atomic bomb. [Extracted from the article]

A thought experiment reveals that black holes should annihilate nearby quantum superpositions, as Jacklin Kwan finds out.

Costly adaptations help stave off effects of wildfires, storms, and hot weather.

Supercomputing and accelerator centers struggle with surging gas and electricity prices.