Detail of a QuEra quantum computer based on extremely cold atoms QuEra Algorithms called phantom codes could help quantum computers run complex programs without errors, overcoming a big hurdle for making the technology more broadly useful. Early on, some physicists doubted that quantum computers would ever be useful because they expected these devices to be…
Peanuts are one of the most common food allergens Radharc Images / Alamy The microbiomes in our gut and mouth may determine whether people with a peanut allergy develop a life-threatening reaction. This could help explain why some people with the allergy experience relatively mild reactions, while others develop severe, or even fatal, symptoms. “There’s…
Anthropologist Paula Sheppard argues we need a more nuanced view about falling birthrates Ryan Wills The fall is astonishing. At its height, the global fertility rate hit 5.3 births per woman in 1963, but it has been in near-constant decline ever since. Sixty years on, it is now only around 2.2. In many countries, it…
The Shahed 136 drone was invented by Iran and then copied by the US Pictorial Press/Alamy Iran invented the relatively simple Shahed 136 attack drone, but is now fending off US copies launched against it in combat. Why, when the US military has expensive, cutting-edge and hi-tech weapons, is it making flimsy drones powered by…
Michael Pollan sets out to explore the mysteries of consciousness in his new book, A World Appears ADDICTIVE STOCK CREATIVES / Alam What is consciousness? It is one of the most perplexing questions in science. You would expect our intimacy with it to give us a leg up in understanding how it works, but this…
A new science fiction novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky is out this month Roberto Ricciuti / Getty Images March is lining up to be packed with treats for science fiction fans. For starters, we get to return to the universe of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series, this time in the company of a huge mantis…
Crisis in cosmology: If we’ve got dark energy wrong, what could it be? | New Scientist Close Close Source link
Deborah Ferguson (UT Austin), Bhavesh Khamesra (Georgia Tech), and Karan Jani (Vanderbilt University)/LIGO Space-time is being driven apart. Every second that passes, the universe expands faster and faster. What is propelling this dramatic acceleration is an enigma, though – one scientists have known about, and searched for, for decades. Still, we are no closer to…
If you imagine the story of the universe as a film endlessly in post-production, cosmologists would be its obsessive editors, constantly tweaking the narrative. The version they are working with is an astonishing cinematic achievement: it starts with a bang, space-time erupting out of nothing, before unfurling majestically with the formation of stars and then…
DAVID PARKER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Last year, cosmologists working on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) reported hints that the mysterious dark energy thought to be driving the expansion of the universe may be weakening over time. If these startling findings prove correct, then dark energy cannot be a cosmological constant – a fixed term in…
