Are dogs conscious, with thoughts and feelings of their own? What about pigeons? Honeybees? Earthworms? Jellyfish? How you answer will probably reflect the human tendency to ascribe consciousness to familiar and so-called “higher” animals, while doubting that it extends to “simpler” ones, such as invertebrates. In fact, we can never be certain if another being…
Groups of killer whales exhibit strong social behaviour Shutterstock/Tory Kallman Orcas off the west coast of North America are grooming each other with kelp, in a rare sighting of marine mammals manufacturing and using tools. For several years, scientists have been keenly observing 80 endangered killer whales in the segment of the Pacific Ocean between…
Illustration of TRAPPIST-1, a red-dwarf star with at least seven orbiting planets Mark Garlick/Alamy The search for atmospheres around the TRAPPIST-1 star system, one of the most promising locations for life elsewhere in the galaxy, might be even more difficult than astronomers first thought because of short-lived radiation blasts from the star. TRAPPIST-1, first discovered…
Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News Watch: Killer whales use kelp to ‘massage’ each other Orcas in the North Pacific have been seen “massaging” each other – rubbing pieces of kelp between their bodies. Using drones, researchers filmed the animals selecting and biting off the kelp, then placing the tube-shaped piece of seaweed onto the…
How do you intuitively know that you can walk on a footpath and swim in a lake? Researchers from the University of Amsterdam have discovered unique brain activations that reflect how we can move our bodies through an environment. The study not only sheds new light on how the human brain works, but also shows…
Randomness is incredibly useful. People often draw straws, throw dice or flip coins to make fair choices. Random numbers can enable auditors to make completely unbiased selections. Randomness is also key in security; if a password or code is an unguessable string of numbers, it’s harder to crack. Many of our cryptographic systems today use…
Penn-led researchers have turned a deadly fungus into a potent cancer-fighting compound. After isolating a new class of molecules from Aspergillus flavus, a toxic crop fungus linked to deaths in the excavations of ancient tombs, the researchers modified the chemicals and tested them against leukemia cells. The result? A promising cancer-killing compound that rivals FDA-approved…
The Milky Way, above Uluru in Australia Stefan Liebermann/mauritius images GmbH/Alamy Because I’m based in the northern hemisphere, my suggestions of what to look for in the skies can sometimes be skewed towards what we can see from that half of the planet. So, in this month’s column I’ll focus on a feature of our…
The Trifid (upper-right) and Lagoon (centre) Nebulae as viewed with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory A pink-and-blue feast of stellar nurseries and a dense cluster of our neighbouring galaxies appear in the first glimpses of space from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is set to transform our understanding of…
Ione Wells South America correspondent Georgina Rannard Science correspondent NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory The first image revealed by the Vera Rubin telescope shows the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae in stunning detail A powerful new telescope in Chile has released its first images, showing off its unprecedented ability to peer into the dark depths of…
