Illustration of a nuclear fusion reactor Science Photo Library / Alamy Limitless power from nuclear fusion may be a step closer following the accidental discovery of a new process to supply the isotope lithium-6, which is vital to providing fuel for a sustainable fusion reactor. The least challenging fusion process involves combining two isotopes of…
Illustration of Duonychus tsogtbaatari, a theropod dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period Masato Hattori A new species of dinosaur found at a Mongolian building site has the largest fully preserved claw ever found. The bipedal, herbivorous animal had only two fingers on each hand, which it may have used to grasp branches and pull them towards…
Thunderstorms over Indonesia, seen from the International Space Station NASA Earth Observatory / International Space Station (ISS) An AI weather program running for a single second on a desktop can match the accuracy of traditional forecasts that take hours or days on powerful supercomputers, claim its creators. Weather forecasting has, since the 1950s, relied on…
The first sign something was amiss was the tiredness. Then I started forgetting where I had left my phone or keys, only to find them in the fridge or kitchen cupboard. The breaking point came when I went to make a cup of tea before an important interview, only to return 45 minutes later to…
The world’s oldest Michelin-starred restaurant, Georges Blanc, has lost its third star, according to French media reports. Georges Blanc, the 82-year-old French chef in charge of the restaurant in south-east France, told the AFP news agency that they “weren’t expecting it”. “We’ll make do with the two stars… maybe we’ll be less elitist and a…
The American Physical Society held its Global Physics Summit in California Karmela Padavic-Callaghan This week, 14,000 scientists from across the globe are gathering in California for their largest annual conference, the American Physical Society (APS) Global Summit. Despite widespread firings at US scientific funding agencies and proposed cuts to the federal science budget, they are…
Four Canadians were executed in China on drug-related charges earlier this year, Canadian authorities have confirmed. All of them were dual citizens and their identities have been withheld, Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly said. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada urged Ottawa to “stop making irresponsible remarks”, as pundits feared a further downturn…
A relief from Ashurbanipal’s palace showing him in a chariot British Museum/Auday Hussein It is one of the oldest and greatest stores of knowledge: a vast library of texts amassed by Assyrian King Ashurbanipal, who ruled ancient Mesopotamia about 2700 years ago. But after his death, it was ransacked and burned to the ground. Luckily, the…
From throwing a party to joining improv classes, how far would you go to change yourself? Martin Parr/Magnum Photos Me, But BetterOlga Khazan (John Murray (UK); S&S/Simon Element (US)) Maybe you would like to be more outgoing or organised. Or perhaps you want to worry less, or achieve more. It seems like everyone has something they…
A visual impression of the ultra-high energy neutrino event observed by scientists at the European Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) KM3NeT If you have ever eaten a banana, then you have consumed an active radiation source. They are rich in potassium, a small fraction of which is the naturally occurring radioactive isotope 40K (potassium-40). While…