Germanium is already used in standard computer chips matejmo/Getty Images A superconductor made from germanium, a material commonly used to build computer chips, could one day create better and more reliable quantum computers. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with no resistance, which is useful if you are making any sort of electrical device. They also…
October 28, 2025 1 min read Hurricane Melissa Images Reveal a Monster Storm for the Record Books These images of Hurricane Melissa show the Category 5 storm in all its power By Andrea Thompson & Jeanna Bryner edited by Clara Moskowitz Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…
Struggling to concentrate? Maybe your brain is having a wash Jenny Evans/Getty Images We all know it can be hard to concentrate when you are sleep-deprived, but why does this happen? It may be because your brain is trying to refresh itself, causing momentary lapses in attention. During sleep, the brain carries out a rinse…
October 29, 2025 3 min read This Overlooked Bird Flu Strain Might Be the Next Pandemic Risk Experiments suggests H9N2 has adapted to human cells, but cases of person-to-person transmission haven’t been reported yet By Rachel Fieldhouse & Nature magazine Ralf Hirschberger/AFP/Getty A bird flu virus that has often been ignored because it mostly causes…
Mesenchymal stem cells labeled with fluorescence molecules Vshivkova/Shutterstock People who received an infusion of stem cells shortly after a heart attack were less likely to develop heart failure than those treated with standard care, according to the largest such trial to date. The finding provides some of the strongest evidence yet that stem cells can…
October 28, 2025 3 min read Spooky Web Patterns May Help Spiders Sense Prey Researchers simulated the effects that different web decorations had on vibrations, adding fresh insight to a decades-old debate about the function of these structures By Andrea Tamayo edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Spiders such as this Argiope bruennichi sometimes adorn webs…
Tim Berners-Lee in a rack of the CERN computer centre Brice, Maximilien/CERN Tim Berners-Lee has a map of everything on the internet. It can fit on a single page and consists of around 100 blocks connected by dozens of arrows. There are blocks for things like blogs, podcasts and group messages, but also more abstract…
When Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica on October 28, it showed just how devastatingly powerful a Category 5 hurricane can be—and then some. It will be weeks before experts can truly assess just how badly Hurricane Melissa ravaged Jamaica and nearby islands. But scientists are already confident that climate change contributed to the storm’s horrifying…
It is hard to believe, but Segue 1, a very faint dwarf galaxy, is at the centre of this image CDS, Strasbourg, France/CDS/Aladin A nearby galaxy once thought to be dominated by dark matter seems to have a surprise supermassive black hole at its centre. Segue 1 is barely a galaxy, with only about 1000…
October 28, 2025 4 min read Here’s How a Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missile Works Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed his nation conducted a successful flight of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. Here’s how that missile might work By Dan Vergano edited by Lee Billings Russian president Vladimir Putin (left) speaks with Valery Gerasimov of the Russian Armed…
