A Cornish Rex cat named Stella Tim Flach Cats are distinctive animals: domesticated for centuries, revered and reviled in equal measure throughout history and bred to match our own aesthetic tastes and whims. From a sensational internet fluffball to his own domestic longhair Loki, renowned animal photographer Tim Flach explores the world of cats in…
“At first, Ishiguro’s English boarding school setting seems so familiar…” This year is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Kazuo Ishiguro’s renowned novel Never Let Me Go and I have finally got round to reading it. I can hardly believe that such a haunting story has been sitting on my shelf all that time,…
piranka/Getty Images It is a familiar pattern. A new website or app arrives that is so good you just have to try it. It’s free, so why not? You and millions of others quickly become hooked, using it every day. But then it starts to change. Some of your favourite features can now only be…
Does your phone seem less functional than it once was? It may be due to enshittification HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images EnshittificationCory Doctorow (MCD Books) “Enshittification” is one of those rare new words that so perfectly sums up a prevailing but innominate concept that it feels like it has existed forever, like “shrinkflation” or “greenwash”…
Gamma rays show up in surprisingly high concentrations in the centre of the Milky Way The centre of our galaxy is behaving strangely, and it may be because of dark matter. In 2009, observations from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope revealed a surprisingly high concentration of gamma rays coming from the middle of the Milky…
AIs rely on data centres that use vast amounts of energy Jason Alden/Bloomberg/Getty Being more judicious in which AI models we use for tasks could potentially save 31.9 terawatt-hours of energy this year alone – equivalent to the output of five nuclear reactors. Tiago da Silva Barros at the University of Cote d’Azur in France…
Biofuels are contributing to environmental harm Dave Reede/Alamy It’s obvious, isn’t it. Plants turn sunlight into food – stored energy – so if we turn that food into fuels, we should get sustainable biofuels with zero carbon emissions, right? Wrong, utterly wrong. The growth in biofuels is, in fact, increasing emissions, and also hurting both…
Some schools require students to leave their phones in lockers all day Robin Utrecht/Shutterstock Many people are concerned about the negative consequences of too much screen time, particularly if phone use at school distracts students and affects their learning. But a study suggests banning them from schools makes some students lonelier, at least initially. “If…
Can you undo a spinning top? Shutterstock Imagine spinning a top and then letting it come to rest. Is there a way for you to spin the top again so it ends up in the exact position it started, as if you had never spun it at all? Surprisingly, yes, say mathematicians who have discovered…