Should wall sits be part of your workout routine? LeoPatrizi/Getty Images I never thought much about my blood pressure, but recently my doctor suggested I start monitoring it more closely due to some of the medications I take. While it is still well within the normal range, it has slowly crept up, making me wonder…
Layoffs at the FDA, USDA and CDC could erode the U.S. food safety system. Experts aren’t so worried about milk or chicken today; they’re concerned about the future.
Large numbers of trees have died in the Harz mountains, Germany, due to extreme weather and bark beetles Rob Cousins/Alamy A sudden and dramatic decline in the amount of carbon being soaked up by European forests is causing alarm among scientists, with fears that the sharp downturn could undermine efforts to curb global warming. For…
New Doubts about Milky Way–Andromeda Collision, Explanation of 2023 Marine Heat Wave and Worms That Build Towers The Milky Way’s big crash with Andromeda might not be a sure thing. Plus, we discuss an overheated ocean, a giant planet circling a tiny star and worms that build living towers. By Rachel Feltman, Naeem Amarsy &…
Many people have strong beliefs about whether abortion should be legal Michael Bihmayer/Imago/Alamy Does God exist? Should we legalise all drugs? Are the Harry Potter books any good? Your position on these thorny questions and more can now be predicted by an artificial intelligence model that was trained on the beliefs of more than 40,000…
What is a flower, if you can’t smell? Clearviewimages RF/Alamy The latest generation of artificial intelligence models seem to have a human-level understanding of the world, but it turns out that their lack of sensory information – and a body – places limits on how well they can comprehend concepts like a flower or humour….
Quantum computers can simulate the behaviour of high-energy particles Google Quantum AI, designed by Sayo Studio Quantum computers are beginning to become powerful tools for studying some of the most fundamental forces in the universe – and some of the trickiest to understand. Two experiments have used them to pave a new way forward for…
We are starting to understand why the bacteria behind tuberculosis is so good at infecting people Adobe Stock/Ryan Wills When we look back over the history of infectious diseases, it’s the explosive pandemics that grab our attention. Cholera and plague terrify us with their swift destruction of cities and the paralysis they cause across whole…
Everything in the forest is the forest Clare Hewitt An average mature oak tree grows hundreds of thousands of leaves each year. When those leaves fall, their nutrients return to the soil to nourish the tree that grew them, as well as other living things in the forest. “They essentially eat themselves every year,” says…
Is this the future, in a world where the seas are rising? DEEP R&D Ltd The Sama-Bajau are an Indigenous seaborne people from South-East Asia, sometimes called Sea Nomads. For thousands of years they lived a coastal subsistence lifestyle, foraging underwater without diving equipment and holding their breath for extreme durations. But multiple crises threatened…
