scientists

19th century Nature account of 1841 train delayed by geomagnetic storm got year wrong—due to a typo.

Scientists have a history of trying — and failing — to link biology and quantum mechanics. The real connection between them may be in the math.

Take a second and turn it into trillions of moments. Measure each one. That's how precisely an atomic clock at Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) keeps time—and with record-setting accuracy,…

Scientists project that global land temperatures will be 1.2°C/2.1° F above normal in the coming months due in large part to the current “Super El Niño” that began in June and is expected to last through Northern…

When will Earth run out of oxygen? Scientists have determined the most likely cause of the end of life on Earth, and how long we've got.

Cambridge scientists have shown that girls and boys show differences in what they pay attention to, even at birth. Since these differences are present so early, it is possible they emerge due to prenatal factors.

Phylo cut inference cost 60% while doubling users month-on-month, running Biomni Lab's long-horizon biology agents on open models on Fireworks.

Scientists have found a new form of pollution, one where plastic and pieces of coral become irreversibly intertwined.

No, it’s not aliens, but a phenomenon caused by magnetic activity that astronomers have never before been able to pin on a specific planet.

Scientists discovered that tiny amounts of lead in ancient ink can make writing inside burned papyrus scrolls stand out dramatically in X-ray scans. The technique could help unlock lost Greek and Roman texts preserved…

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a surprisingly simple way to turn polyethylene, the common plastic used in shopping bags and cutting boards, into gasoline and diesel-like fuels. The process…

A new report from Google, Google DeepMind and M.I.T. finds that researchers are using AI—a lot. It’s just not helping as much in the lab

Changing habits may be the hardest engineering challenge of all

No, it’s not aliens, but a phenomenon caused by magnetic activity that astronomers have never before been able to pin on a specific planet.

Historical accounts of the eruption nearly 2,000 years ago provide a precise timeline that allowed recalibration of one of the most versatile dating methods.

Water in the ocean is constantly in motion. Scientists can identify distinct “water masses” in the ocean from different sources, and keep track of them by measuring dissolved salts, human pollutant…

Rock glaciers like Timpanogos in Utah are a jumble of ice and stone. A new method could finally show just how much water these glaciers hold.

“Cryosleep” remains the preserve of science fiction, but researchers are getting closer to restoring brain function after deep freezing

Scientists have a history of trying — and failing — to link biology and quantum mechanics. The real connection between them may be in the math.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has created an open-source website to learn what different organisms eat, and what eats them. The site serves as both a resource for ecological research and an educational tool…

Instant orchestration for your lab. Built for scientists, by scientists.

The infamous Carrington Event of 1859 has long been considered the first extreme space weather event, but there have been reports of minor disturbances to telegraph equipment during geomagnetic storms since the late 1840s. In 2013, scholars discovered an anonymous report published in 1871 in Nature describing how a "very intense magnetic disturbance" disrupted rail travel in Exeter on the southern coast of England in October 1841. If accurate, this would be the earliest such account. However, according to a paper published in the journal Space Weather, that 1841 date is most likely a typo, with the real railway disruption occurring several years later. "Space weather is often discussed as a modern challenge because of our dependence on technologies such as satellites, communications systems and electricity networks," said co-author Jim Wild of Lancaster University. "What this study shows is that society has been experiencing the effects of space weather on technology for almost as long as electrical technologies have existed. The Exeter train delay is a fascinating story because it sits right at the point where emerging technologies first began to encounter the realities of the space environment." The Carrington Event remains the most powerful geomagnetic storm in the scientific record, with strong auroral displays occurring all over the world, causing sparking and even a few fires in telegraph stations. Some of the auroras were so bright that people reported being able to read the newspaper by their light. The telegraph was a relatively new technology at the time, having first emerged in the 1830s, and the geomagnetically induced current—from a likely coronal mass injection from the Sun—knocked out telegraph systems. Some operators found they were still able to transmit and receive messages even after disconnecting the power supply, relying just on the powerful auroral current. Read full article Comments