Earth Geology needs to reinvent itself as we fight against climate change "We learn geology the morning after the earthquake," the 19th-century essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote . The quote has a pithy resonance as we grapple with the fallout of our inaction on so many fronts, from pandemic prevention to climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Applied to geology itself, it is a case of … News
Humans 160,000-year-old fossil may be the first Denisovan skull we've found A partial skull from China represents the earliest human with a “modern” brain size. It could represent an unknown group of ancient humans, or perhaps one of the enigmatic Denisovans News
Technology A driverless car that went rogue could be a taste of the robo uprising The recent case of a driverless car that tried to escape its handlers might make us laugh, but it also warns us about what could happen when AI is given a "body", writes Annalee Newitz Comment
Life New colony of gentoo penguins discovered on Antarctic Peninsula https://youtu.be/ds6Wb-fmUNo THIS is a newly discovered colony of gentoo penguins on Andersson Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, photographed by Tomás Munita . The animals and their 75 nests were found by researchers from Stony Brook University in New York during a Greenpeace expedition to the frigid region. The team is surveying , and filming , … Regulars
Physics Do we create space-time? A new perspective on the fabric of reality For the first time, it is possible to see the quantum world from multiple points of view at once. This hints at something very strange – that reality only takes shape when we interact with each other Features
Technology These are the games to look out for in 2022 This year sees no shortage of post-apocalyptic games, but light relief is available courtesy of Star Trek and a robot-loving cat, says Jacob Aron Culture
Puzzle #153: Can you work out the code for Tom Tightwad's safe? #153 Tightwad's safe Tom Tightwad keeps his money in a safe, the code for which is a 10-digit number that uses every digit between 0 and 9. Fearful of forgetting the code, Tom wrote it on the front of the safe, but disguised it. He wrote the first five digits along the top of a … Regulars
Humans In the wild, robot vacuum cleaners have no natural predators Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Regulars