ScIence

Dust Determined The Early Rise of Human Civilisations More Than You’d Suspect

The spread of humans out of Africa through the Middle East may have been helped along by a very ordinary substance: dust. More specifically, the silty sediment known as loess seems to have played a crucial role in making the Southern Levant, on the east coast of the Mediterranean, such a fertile and hospitable corridor of land for our ancestors to travel through. Without this region developi

IBM Just Committed to Having a Functioning 1,000 Qubit Quantum Computer by 2023

We're still a long way from realising the full potential of quantum computing, but scientists are making progress all the time – and as a sign of what might be coming, IBM now says it expects to have a 1,000 qubit machine up and running by 2023. Qubits are the quantum equivalents of classical computing bits, able to be set not just as a 1 or a 0, but as a superposition state that can represen

This Year’s Atlantic Hurricane Season Is So Bad We Ran Out of Names Two Storms Ago

Here's how active this year's Atlantic hurricane season has been: When Tropical Storm Wilfred formed on September 18, the National Hurricane Center exhausted its list of storm names for only the second time since naming began in 1950. Within hours, two more storm had formed – now known as Alpha and Beta. Even more surprising is that we reached the 23rd tropical storm of the year, Beta, mor

“It’s a spaceship!” New Jersey UFO in viral videos turns out to be your basic Goodyear blimp

As it turns out, the “unidentified flying object” hovering over the Garden State was quite identifiable, and common – it was a simple Goodyear blimp. Widely-shared videos that purportedly depict a “spaceship” or UFO flying through New Jersey skies on Monday seemed to confirm that 2020 is shaping up to be quite the apocalyptic year. But as it turns out, the “unidentified flying ob

15 Of The Most Breathtaking Astronomy Photographs Of The Year 2020 Have Just Been Revealed

Is there anything more breathtaking and surreal than outer space? Often, I feel like there absolutely isn't. Maybe it's because of all the celestial masterpieces stars, galaxies, and planets paint, effortlessly sweeping us off our feet? Or maybe we feel this way about space because it's something we can't touch, tame, or change? Or perhaps, it's because of that nostalgic feeling you get when it's

Physicist Says Parallel Universes Definitely Exist and We May Soon Explore Them

Are we living in a multiverse? Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll expressed that clues in the small-scale structure of the universe point to the existence of numerous parallel worlds. The shocking comments were made on the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast last year. Carroll says that the fact that tiny particles like electrons and photons don’t have one set location in the universe is ev

It Could Be Decades Before Emissions Cuts Slow Global Warming, Scientists Warn

Slashing greenhouse gas emissions would probably not yield visible results until mid-century, researchers have said, cautioning that humanity must manage its expectations in the fight against global warming. Even under optimistic scenarios in which carbon pollution falls sharply, climate change will continue for decades, they reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. "We need

Hundreds of Years of Tree Rings Reveal a Grim Anomaly That Began in The 20th Century

Look carefully, and tree rings can reveal quite a lot – including changes in the soil moisture that the trees are growing in. Now, scientists have collected 600 years of this data to better understand recent climate change, including a weather anomaly that was first noticeable in the middle of the 20th century. The new records make up the latest edition of the South American Drought Atlas (

For The First Time, Scientists Find a Way to Make Targeted Edits to Mitochondrial DNA

Most cells in your body come with two genetic libraries; one in the nucleus, and the other inside structures called mitochondria - also known as the 'powerhouses of the cell'. Until now, we've only had a way to make changes to one. A combined effort by several research teams in the US has led to a process that could one day allow us to modify the instructions making up the cell's 'other' g

Scientists Detect Earth’s Atmosphere ‘Ringing’ Like a Bell

Just as the Moon tugs at our planet's seas, contributing to oceanic tidal waves, it also pulls at our atmosphere along with the Sun, creating waves in the sky. A new study now demonstrates how some types of 'sky waves' resonate around Earth, much like how sound waves resonate inside a bell. In the water, waves are produced by passing energy. Energy moving through our skies - from things li