Science

Quote of the day by Michael Faraday (AI-generated image) A young mathematician takes an older scientist’s life’s work and translates it into equations the older man cannot fully follow. Most established figures would bristle. Michael Faraday, one of the most celebrated experimental scientists in history, wrote to the young James Clerk Maxwell in 1857 admitting…

China is building a very different kind of AI story than the one most people see in the West. Instead of focusing mainly on chatbots and artificial general intelligence, it is investing heavily in systems that help cities, factories, logistics networks and public infrastructure adapt in real time, reported Asia Times. China’s AI is about…

California’s seabird crisis is a stark reminder that climate change is no longer a distant environmental issue (Canva) Thousands of seabirds washing up along California’s coastline have become a heartbreaking symbol of a marine ecosystem under extreme stress. Emaciated birds are turning up dead or starving in unusually high numbers, from brown pelicans and common…

Scientists collected samples from 11 caves in Spain and Portugal (Credits: Alberto Martínez Villa) For the first time, scientists have recovered ancient human DNA left behind on cave walls and rock art, opening a new way to study the people who created prehistoric paintings thousands of years ago.The breakthrough was described in a study published…

Contrary to popular belief, China’s massive planted forests are growing faster than natural woodlands, showing accelerated leaf growth and canopy expansion. Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons When we look at satellite images of a changing planet, we often think of industrial expansion or environmental loss. We picture urban concrete spreading across historical valleys, long transport corridors…

Artificial intelligence has created an unexpected problem. Training and running increasingly sophisticated AI models requires enormous computing power, and the data centres housing those systems are consuming electricity at an unprecedented rate. As grids struggle to keep up, technology companies and energy developers are searching for reliable power sources beyond conventional renewables. One of the…

The competition to return humans to the Moon is no longer being spoken about as a distant ambition. According to Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman, it has become a direct contest between the United States and China, with both countries working towards lunar landings within a remarkably similar timeframe. Although official schedules suggest the US is…

A floating solar farm in the Netherlands is turning out to have an effect nobody quite expected; it is giving underwater life a real boost. Bomhofsplas is a large artificial lake near the city of Zwolle, and its surface is now covered with more than seventy thousand solar panels installed by the energy company BayWa…

In 2018, Chinese state media announced one of the most ambitious weather engineering projects ever proposed, an attempt to build a permanent airborne water corridor across the Tibetan plateau. Named Tianhe, meaning sky river, the plan aimed to use tens of thousands of fuel burning cloud seeding chambers scattered across an area roughly the size…

Mangrove forests are usually celebrated for one thing above all else, their ability to lock away planet warming carbon in their tangled roots and waterlogged soil. A new global study suggests that praise has been badly incomplete, and that these same coastal forests are quietly performing another job worth billions of dollars every year, cleaning…