The herpesvirus can manipulate our DNA with far more precision than previously thought. The virus condenses and changes the shape of our genetic material to hijack the host genes needed for replication, researchers report June 19 in Nature Communications. The study is the first to leverage new, cutting-edge visualization tools to understand how this process…
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. In 2016 a group of activists who called themselves water protectors—led by members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe—set up camp on the windswept plains of North Dakota. Their protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline quickly grew into one of the largest Indigenous-led movements in…
Restoring levels of specific gut microbes might help treat fertility issues in people with PCOS Science Photo Library / Alamy Stock Photo Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have lower levels of a gut microbe, which appears to raise the risk of pregnancy complications. PCOS is the most common hormonal condition in women of reproductive…
London is a phone-theft hotspot Jeff Blackler/Shutterstock Even if you have never had your smartphone stolen, you probably know someone who has. In London, 80,000 phones were stolen last year alone. And as victims of phone theft know, while the loss of a pricey gadget can sting, the dreary administrative slog in replacing a device…
Zhang Bin/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images Over the past decade, quantum computing has grown into a billion-dollar industry. Everyone seems to be investing in it, from tech giants, such as IBM and Google, to the US military. But Ignacio Cirac at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany, a pioneer of the…
Hugh Schulte/Millennium Images, UK For some of us, the phrase “mindset” might bring to mind the unscientific platitudes that you find in certain kinds of self-help books. A growing body of research, though, is showing that our mindset can powerfully shape our lives, thanks to its impact on our perception, motivation and behaviour. This story…
Are dogs conscious, with thoughts and feelings of their own? What about pigeons? Honeybees? Earthworms? Jellyfish? How you answer will probably reflect the human tendency to ascribe consciousness to familiar and so-called “higher” animals, while doubting that it extends to “simpler” ones, such as invertebrates. In fact, we can never be certain if another being…
There is always a “look of indignation” on students’ faces when they first learn about quantum superposition, says physicist Marcelo Gleiser. He has taught quantum mechanics, the theory governing the microcosmic world of atoms and particles, for decades, and his students’ consternation inevitably emerges right on cue: when he reaches the part about quantum objects…
Metaphysics has something of an iffy reputation. “I think a lot of people think it’s a complete waste of time,” says philosopher Stephen Mumford at the University of Durham, UK, author of Metaphysics: A very short introduction. “They think it’s all just arguing over pointless questions, like, classically, how many angels could dance on the…
“It is difficult to count objects that are moving around” Connect Images – Curated/Shutterstock Whether it’s enemy tanks in battle, animals in the wild or cutlery in a busy canteen, it is difficult to count objects that are moving around. Luckily, there is a technique that can estimate how many there are of something without…
