Science

Robert Boyle (Image: Wikipedia) Picture the scene the quote paints. A man who cannot see is offered a guide. It is not a wise elder or a great expert, just a dog, or a small child. And yet he takes the help gladly, because he knows he needs it. He does not let pride get…

A Soviet spacecraft designed to land on Venus in 1972 finally completed its journey more than half a century later, though not in the way its builders intended. Kosmos 482, part of the Soviet Union’s ambitious Venera programme, was supposed to explore the Solar System’s hottest planet. Instead, a rocket malfunction left the spacecraft trapped…

The journey is almost over for NASA’s next major space observatory, though its most important work has yet to begin. After years of design, assembly and testing, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, where teams will spend the coming weeks preparing the spacecraft for launch….

For decades, forests have occupied a central place in discussions about climate change. Trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, convert it into organic matter and store part of that carbon in their trunks, branches and roots. The process seems straightforward enough. More photosynthesis should mean more growth, and more growth should mean more carbon…

For decades, wind power has relied on a familiar formula: enormous towers, vast concrete foundations and specialised heavy-lift equipment capable of transporting and assembling components that can weigh hundreds of tonnes. While effective, these requirements have limited where wind turbines can be deployed and increased both costs and environmental impacts. Now, a new generation of…

When Rebecca Young was just 11 years old, she noticed how difficult winter could be for people sleeping rough on the streets of Glasgow. Wanting to make a difference, the schoolgirl came up with an idea for a portable heated blanket that could keep people warm without needing access to electricity. Her invention, which folds…

In the world of theoretical physics, some ideas solve a problem. Others reshape an entire field. Jainendra K. Jain’s theory of composite fermions belongs firmly in the second category.Born in rural Rajasthan and now the Erwin W. Müller Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University, Jain has spent much of his career tackling questions that…

When Alan Tholkes was just 17 years old, a car accident changed his life forever, leaving him paralysed with a spinal cord injury. Rather than letting the setback define him, the Minnesota native spent decades turning his personal struggles into innovations aimed at helping others with mobility challenges. Over the next 40 years, he designed…

Stanley Milgram (Image source: Wikipedia) Most of us like to think we would never harm an innocent person just because someone told us to. We trust our own conscience to stop us. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist who studied this question, discovered something far more uncomfortable. Again and again, ordinary, decent people went along with orders…

Quote of the day by Rosalind Franklin (Image source: Britannica) Many people think of science as something distant and a little intimidating. A world of labs, equations and experts that has nothing to do with ordinary life. Rosalind Franklin, one of the most important scientists of the twentieth century, firmly disagreed. To her, science was…