Here’s a game for you. In 1948, Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, devised. He was attempting to model English as a random process. Pick out a random book from your shelf, open it, point to a random area on the page, and write down the first two letters you see. Let’s pretend they’re…
Even though physicists’ best models predict antimatter should have arisen in equal proportion to the regular matter at the big bang, antimatter appears to be the stuff of science fiction. Researchers do, however, consistently make antimatter particles in their tests, and they have a theory for why it isn’t seen in nature: when antimatter and…
A journey that began over a century ago with the invention of the first electron microscope has progressed once again.A group of physicists has gotten even closer to the ultimate limit of how many objects can be amplified, according to experts. The world record for the greatest resolution attained using a microscope was previously held…
When a male African savanna elephant curls his ears and waves them at the same time, he’s ready to battle. When a woman folds her ears and complements the move with an ear flap, she’s sending a strong message. Elephants, on the other hand, are showing a loving, affiliative welcome that is part of their…
Unfathomable amounts of plastic garbage have been created by humans, posing a hazard to ecosystems and even human health. The goal of recent research published in the journal Environmental Advances was to find out how microplastics accumulated in the salt marshes of southern New England, which are vegetation-filled wetlands that mark the land-sea transition. “…
Bees are fantastic, and they play a crucial part in ensuring that humans have enough food to eat. However, you’ve most likely heard that these brilliant insects are in danger. Pesticides make these buzzers foolish, if not killing them, and urban growth means bees have to go farther to forage. People have jumped on the…
Six bystanders observe a woman experience a panic attack in a poorly lit Brooklyn classroom. She knelt over a metal folding chair, gasping for oxygen as her eyes dart around the circle of onlookers, imploring urgently for one of them to assist her. Then one does; she sits the agitated woman down and instructs her…
When flying between two cities, aircraft may not necessarily take the same path. Instead of traveling between New York and Seattle on the same, constant route, each voyage must follow a flight plan that takes it over particular waypoints. While you may believe that the plane’s captain makes the decisions, this is the job of…
The Coxcatlan Cave in Mexico’s Valley of Tehuacan has housed tens of thousands of years of human history through the millennia. Records of the early domestication of maize and the start of agriculture have been preserved in layers of dust, rocks, charcoal, and decaying plants. But under them, all lies something even more surprising: what…
Enceladus was expected to be a frozen planet, a frozen lump of solid ice orbiting Saturn indefinitely. However, between 2004 and 2017, the Cassini spacecraft visited the system and discovered an active moon that was virtually bursting at the seams with water, hydrogen, and methane: three chemicals that would go hand in hand with life…