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Yearly Archives: 2020
Control ions for quantum computing and sensing via on-chip fiber optics
Walk into a quantum lab where scientists trap ions, and you'll find benchtops full of mirrors and lenses, all focusing lasers to hit an...
Building blocks of language evolved 30-40 million years ago
The capacity for language is built upon our ability to understand combinations of words and the relationships between them, but the evolutionary history of...
Smile, wave: Some exoplanets may be able to see us, too
Three decades after Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan suggested that Voyager 1 snap Earth's picture from billions of miles away—resulting in the iconic Pale Blue...
A new way of looking at the Earth’s interior
Current understanding is that the chemical composition of the Earth's mantle is relatively homogeneous. But experiments conducted by ETH researchers now show that this...
Current Chernobyl-level radiation harmful to bees: study
Bumblebees exposed to levels of radiation found within the Chernobyl exclusion zone suffered a "significant" drop in reproduction, in new research published Wednesday that...
Scientists record broad spectra with close to one hundred thousand colors in almost complete...
Our eyes are sensitive to only three spectral color bands (red, green, blue), and people can no longer distinguish colors if it becomes very...
How COVID-19 cough clouds travel in the presence and absence of face masks: study
As the coronavirus has affected more than 30 million people globally, researchers have increasingly focused on the extent to which airborne respiratory droplets carrying...
Oldest securely dated evidence for a river flowing through the Thar Desert, Western India
Using luminescence dating of ancient river sediments, a new study published in Quaternary Science Reviews presents evidence for river activity at Nal Quarry in the central...
Improved model shows gamma rays and gold at merging neutron stars
An international team of astrophysicists under Dutch leadership has demonstrated with an improved model that colliding neutron stars can emit gamma rays. Old models...
A flexible color-changing film inspired by chameleon skin
Chameleons can famously change their colors to camouflage themselves, communicate and regulate their temperature. Scientists have tried to replicate these color-changing properties for stealth...
Lily the barn owl reveals how birds fly in gusty winds
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the Royal Veterinary College have discovered how birds are able to fly in gusty conditions—findings that could...
