The weather-modifying equipment used by Rain Enhancement Technologies in Utah Rain Enhancement Technologies States like Utah in the western US have been suffering from a record snow drought, raising fears of wildfires and low flow in the crucial Colorado river. But a start-up that releases negatively charged aerosols that can be carried up into clouds…
Playing a complex guitar solo ought to be impossible. To elicit the desired torrent of notes, the fingers of one hand must move nimbly around the fretboard, while the other hand plucks the strings, in a dexterous combination of speed and strength. Anyone who has watched an expert player and then picked up a guitar…
Illustration of dark craters near the moon’s south pole Science Photo Library / Alamy Scientists want to build a laser inside one of the moon’s coldest craters that could help lunar landers and rovers navigate accurately. Ultrastable lasers are vital for timing and navigation systems that require extreme precision. They work by bouncing a beam…
One of the study’s participants asleep during the experiment Mia Lux Your brain could be gently coaxed into working on complex problems while you sleep, making you better able to tackle them the next day. Neuroscientists and psychologists are increasingly using sounds, touch, movement and, particularly, smells to influence the content of people’s dreams. This…
Imagine we had somehow filmed the whole history of the universe and you could play the movie in reverse. It would start off much as things stand today: a vast and elegant web of galaxies and nebulae. But as the tape rewinds, everything begins to shrink until it reaches an evanescent pinprick of energy –…
Psychedelics may enable the brain to form new connections wildpixel/Getty Images A single dose of the psychedelic drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT) had a rapid and sustained effect on depressive symptoms in a small trial. DMT – a fast-acting and extremely potent psychedelic found in numerous plants across the world – is subject to the strictest international…
Some atoms seem to be particularly stable because of their numbers of protons and neutrons Shutterstock/ktsdesign A special set of numbers has formed the backbone of nuclear physics research for decades, and now we finally know how it arises from the quantum mix of nuclear particles and forces. Nearly 80 years ago, physicist Maria Goeppert…
The human chin is an evolutionary oddity Westend61/Getty Images Humans are the only primates with a chin, leaving biologists to wonder why we acquired this unique feature. According to a new analysis of head anatomy in apes, it probably didn’t evolve for a specific reason of its own but instead emerged as a side effect…
Moving too quickly in medicine can be disastrous. The previous century is littered with examples, from the scandal of thalidomide – a morning sickness drug that had never been tested on pregnant animals – to the embrace of low-fat diets, based on scanty evidence. But there’s also danger in moving too slowly, and the body…
Heat normally flows from hot to cold klyaksun/Shutterstock A forgotten cup of coffee will gradually cool down as its heat flows into the cooler surrounding air, but in the quantum realm, it appears this experience can be turned on its head. As a result, we may need to update the second law of thermodynamics, a…
