Adrià Voltà The ball rolls across the floor because it was kicked, just as Earth orbits the sun because it is tugged by gravity. The connection between cause and effect is fundamental to how we understand the world – or at least, it is for the world we see, governed by classical physics. Notoriously, everything…
22 hours ago Mark SavageMusic correspondent Getty Images Jimmy Cliff’s hits included Many Rivers To Cross, Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, has died at the age of 81. A star since the 1960s, he…
Seafloor covered with manganese nodules Science History Images/Alamy A process to extract metals from their ore with hydrogen could make deep-sea mining for valuable materials more sustainable than mining on land, a new study claims. Swathes of the ocean floor are littered with nodules the size of tennis balls. These polymetallic nodules are comprised largely…
The swimming machinery of sperm has ancient origins Christoph Burgstedt/Alamy The evolutionary origin of sperm can be traced back to a single-celled ancestor of all living animals. Almost all animals reproduce by having a single-celled stage of their life cycle, involving two types of sex cells, or gametes. Eggs are larger cells containing genetic material…
Climate campaigners march on the sidelines of the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty Images Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, we should be seeing a massive ratcheting up of climate action. Instead, the past four years have seen almost no progress – including at the latest COP summit, which failed…
COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago (centre) with his advisers and UN climate secretary Simon Stiell (left) Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP via Getty Images The United Nations COP30 climate summit in Brazil was flooded by torrential rainfall, stormed by protesters and partially burned down by an electrical fire. The final session was briefly suspended due…
These “killer koalas”, or marsupial lions, are a highlight of the show Apple TV Back in 1999, the BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs series spawned a new format: wildlife “documentaries” featuring long-extinct animals. I’m a big fan of this genre, and Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, made by BBC Studios for Apple TV, is taking it to…
An unknown number of pupils have been abducted by armed men from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, marking the second school kidnapping in less than a week. The latest attack targeted St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger state, where authorities had already ordered the temporary closure of all boarding schools due to rising security…
On September 19, 1982, Carnegie Mellon University computer science research assistant professor Scott Fahlman posted a message to the university’s bulletin board software that would later come to shape how people communicate online. His proposal: use 🙂 and 🙁 as markers to distinguish jokes from serious comments. While Fahlman describes himself as “the inventor ……
A pilot has died after an Indian fighter jet crashed while performing a display at an airshow in Dubai, officials have said. The Indian Air Force said in a statement: “IAF deeply regrets the loss of life and stands firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief. “A court of inquiry is being…