In Botanical TimeChristopher WoodsChelsea Green, $40.00 On a talus-strewn slope in eastern California’s mountains, a gnarled tree twists toward the sky. It is Methuselah, a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) and one of the world’s oldest trees. At over 4,800 years old, Methuselah germinated several hundred years before Imhotep began constructing ancient Egypt’s first…
If the cards shown here are rearranged to form four new poker hands of five cards each, what is the lowest possible winning or tying hand? When two hands are of the same type, such as a pair or a flush, first check the cards involved in the pattern. The higher rank wins—for instance, KKKK10…
The hunt for more natural sunscreens is on Amparo Garcia/Shutterstock Sunscreens enhanced with lignin, a component of wood, can have sun protection factors (SPFs) that exceed 180. They also seem to last longer and penetrate less into the skin than existing products, potentially making them safer. Sunscreens are an important defence against skin cancer, but,…
Artist’s interpretation of the universe in its first moments ALFRED PASIEKA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Alamy Stock Photo The first second of the universe was, without a doubt, the most eventful in all of history. The universe started small. Infinitely small, in fact, if you subscribe to big bang cosmology, which most cosmologists do. In the first second…
An illustration of a failed supernova forming a black hole NASA, ESA, and P. Jeffries (STScI) A massive star in a nearby galaxy that reached the end of its life appears to have vanished rather than blown up, forming a black hole in what astronomers think is a rare way. The most common black holes…
A protest at the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, on 17 January Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/Alamy With US President Donald Trump continuing to demand that Greenland be placed under his country’s control, European nations are pursuing a range of responses, from stepping up their military presence on the Danish-owned territory to imposing economic sanctions on the US….
These are our selections for the worst fumbles of the 21st century: ideas that were great, but got twisted or misused and didn’t deliver on their original promise. Bitcoin For years, it was a constant refrain in the tech world: “Put it on the blockchain.” Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that was invented in 2008 and went…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. You’re listening to our weekly science news roundup. First up, earlier this month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a new rule signaling a major change to the way it accounts for the impact of certain air pollutants on human health….
New Scientist’s guide to the 21 best ideas of the 21st century | New Scientist Close Close
Increasing activity in a deep-brain region can boost the immune system’s response to vaccines—and people can be trained to do it themselves using the power of brain scans and positive thinking, according to a new study published on Monday in Nature Medicine. The findings could help explain the so-called placebo effect. Researchers trained 34 participants…
