Science

Artist’s impression of a group of Homo floresiensis with a freshly killed stegodon (Stegodon florensis insularis) MAURICIO ANTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Severe drought caused by climate change may have led to the decline of Indonesia’s pygmy elephants and the “hobbit”-like humans who hunted them. Until about 50,000 years ago, Homo floresiensis, standing about a metre tall,

Refrigerators and freezers typically get their cooling power from environmentally harmful fluids Mint Images Limited/Alamy A new type of crystal could enable refrigerators and air conditioners to keep us cool without warming the planet. Refrigerators and air conditioners get their cooling power by circulating a liquid through the device, which absorbs heat and causes chilling

Don’t call your favourite AI “doctor” just yet Just_Super/Getty Images Advanced artificial intelligence models score well on professional medical exams but still flunk one of the most crucial physician tasks: talking with patients to gather relevant medical information and deliver an accurate diagnosis. “While large language models show impressive results on multiple-choice tests, their accuracy

It has been just over five years since the beginning of covid-19 The coronavirus behind covid-19 has infected most people in the world, killing around 15 million people and leaving about 400 million individuals with long-term health problems. It also caused the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Despite all this,

African wildcats seem to have been part of the human diet in the Levant 10,000 years ago NSP-RF/Alamy About 10,000 years ago, foxes and wildcats made up a notable part of people’s diets in what is now Western Galilee in Israel. Archaeologists have long attributed the abundance of small carnivore bones in early Levant settlements

Blinking may do more than just keep our eyes healthy gaiamoments/Getty Images Blinking serves a crucial physiological function, by clearing debris from our eyes and keeping them lubricated. But now, scientists have found it may also have a cognitive role. In 1945, Arthur Hall at the University of Sheffield in the UK reported on the

When particles act like waves, they create a circular diffraction pattern after passing through a small aperture E. R. DEGGINGER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A classic quantum experiment that shows how particles can behave like waves has been demonstrated with atoms for the first time, something that was thought to be impossible. The finding could be used

The suggestion that consciousness has its origins in quantum weirdness has long been viewed as a bit, well, weird. Critics argue that ideas of quantum consciousness, the most famous of which posits that moments of experience arise as quantum superpositions in the brain collapse, do little more than merge one mystery with another. Besides, where

Multiple copies of IBM’s quantum Flamingo chip can be connected together IBM IBM is planning to build the largest quantum computer so far, by linking together smaller machines to create one with a recording-breaking number of quantum bits, or qubits. The firm’s first steps on this path in 2025 should see it hit a new

Happy now? Assuming you are reading this issue promptly, it’s the post-Christmas lull: the weird interregnum between Christmas and the New Year when nobody is quite sure what to do with themselves (unless they are keen shoppers, in which case the January sales have you covered). Anyway, Feedback recently learned something new about Christmas. This

Bottlenose dolphins have teeth unlike those of many other mammals Jeff Mondragon/Alamy Stock Photo A study of dolphin jaw anatomy suggests their teeth might act as antennae for sound waves, potentially helping to explain how they hear and use echolocation underwater. “Our findings support the hypothesis that dolphins utilise their teeth as part of an

Some researchers propose counteracting global warming by reflecting more sunlight into space Shutterstock/Pablo Joanidopoulos With the world set to blow past 1.5°C of warming, researchers are increasingly studying possible methods of cooling the planet by modifying the atmosphere or the oceans. More geoengineering research is planned in 2025, such as projects aiming to make clouds

A white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) in the snow AUSLOOS Henry/Hemis/Alamy Days with snow covering the ground are set to become less common across much of the continental US due to climate change. If greenhouse gas emissions continue as usual, by the end of the century, days with deep snow are projected to disappear almost everywhere

Humans use both speech and gestures to convey information Stanford University An artificial intelligence model can make virtual avatars gesture naturally to match spoken words – possibly paving the way for AI-generated newsreaders or influencers that move more realistically as they speak. As humans talk, we gesture to help convey our meaning. But when video

Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 taking off for a test flight Boom Supersonic Commercial supersonic aircraft may soon return for the first time since Concorde was retired in 2003. Several companies are working on designs and NASA is investing millions in developing technology to eradicate the problematic sonic boom such planes generate. However, whether there will be

Google’s Willow quantum chip Google Many researchers believe that the only way to build unambiguously useful quantum computers is to enable them to correct their own errors. A breakthrough in December from researchers at Google Quantum AI charted one path towards making this a practical reality. Their approach, however, may already be in danger of

Oops! Try that again Tetra Images/Alamy An error in a proof underlying a widely used branch of modern mathematics was accidentally discovered by mathematicians while translating old proofs to a computer language. The mistake was swiftly fixed, but mathematicians say that the episode highlights the importance of making maths computer-readable to catch other possible examples.

Obesity rates in the US have begun falling Evgeniya Pavlova/Getty Images For decades, rates of obesity in the US have climbed – but that trend may be changing. The number of adults with obesity dipped ever so slightly in 2023, suggesting the country has reached a turning point in this public health crisis. The rise

Does quantum entanglement hold the key to time? CI Photos/Shutterstock Physicist Richard Feynman once supposedly said: “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” The same could probably be said of time, which seems simple to explain because everyone experiences it, yet we don’t really know what it is or where

Some quantum fields have an infinite amount of entanglement that can be taken Jurik Peter/Shutterstock Entanglement is one of the most valuable resources in the quantum realm – for instance, it is the powerhouse behind quantum encryption – and in theory, it may be possible to extract an infinite amount of it from the universe.