Using a macro probe lens, Ariel Waldman filmed microbial mats in the desert valleys of Antarctica Ariel Waldman Ariel Waldman is standing all alone on a planet that looks a lot like Mars. At her feet are rock shards and barren soil. Overhead are jagged mountains streaked with dusty ice. The sky is a hazy…
Now imagine this mantis shrimp in a spacesuit, with a taste for weaponry Shutterstock/Samy Kassem The fourth novel in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s much fêted Children of Time series is nearly with us. And Children of Strife is terrific. Before we get to it in detail, let me say that I will do my best to avoid…
Lee Sedol faced AlphaGo in 2016 AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon/Alamy The first time that AlphaGo revealed its full power, it prompted a visceral reaction. Lee Sedol, the world’s greatest player of the ancient Chinese board game Go, had grown visibly agitated at the artificial intelligence’s prowess. The hushed crowd in downtown Seoul, South Korea, could barely…
AlphaGo’s victory braodcast on TV Im Hun-jung/Yonhap/AP Photo via Getty Images In March 2016, Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence system AlphaGo shocked the world. In a stunning five-match series of Go, the ancient Chinese board game, the AI beat the world’s best player, Lee Sedol – a moment that was televised in front of millions and…
Live action video game LANDER 23 Punchdrunk Controls jam, data streams go haywire, smoke pours from every vent. Your Lander 23 spaceship has crashed in hostile territory. You must explore a treacherous world, refuel and return home. Radiation levels are high, time is short and something lurks outside… If this sounds like a review of…
Were these the first people to reach space? Heritage Image Partnership Ltd /Alamy If you were to take off from Earth on a clear day – the kind you want for a launch – you’d see the sky change colours before your eyes. It would shine a bright blue outside your window, becoming deeper as…
NASA gave the Didymos system a nudge Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins APL/NASA Humanity has shifted an asteroid’s orbit around the sun for the first time. This was achieved by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in 2022, but the effect has only now been measured. DART’s target was a small asteroid called Dimorphos, which orbits…
The Gulf Stream ocean current carries warm water from the Gulf of Mexico up the US east coast NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A gradual northward shift in the Gulf Stream has provided more evidence that the system of currents that keeps Europe warm is weakening. What’s more, modelling suggests that any abrupt shift…
Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is a prime target in the hunt for life elsewhere in our solar system NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute A new method to recognise the chemical properties of living things could help us detect alien life even if it functions differently from life on Earth. When searching for alien life, scientists usually…
Keeping you sharp may be an unexpected, but welcome, side effect of vaccines Jozef Polc / Alamy There is growing evidence that ongoing inflammation in various parts of the body might trigger Alzheimer’s disease. It will take many years for the science to be settled, but what is clear is that persistent inflammation has many…
