The skin is by far the body’s largest organ. Depending on your height and body mass, it covers an area of about 1.5 to 2 square meters and weighs between 3.5 and 10 kg – about 15 percent of your total body mass. Think of it as a kind of intelligent armor. It helps you … Read more
Saturn and its rings as imaged by the Cassini spacecraft in 2016 NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Saturn’s rings may be much older than previously thought and may have formed around the same time as the planet, according to a modeling study. But not all astronomers are convinced, and a researcher who was part of a team … Read more
A reconstruction of the oldest known gorgonopsian Henry Sutherland Sharpe The oldest known saber-toothed animal hunted large prey 270 million years ago – and its newly discovered remains could help us unravel how early mammalian relatives became warm-blooded. The first land-based predators typically hunted relatively small prey. But things changed about 273 million years ago, … Read more
A humpback whale breaks in Zack Metcalfe Human musicians must practice for thousands of hours to perfect their performance skills, and the same can be true for humpback whales. It is widely believed that male humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing to attract mates, but zoologists have recently realized that they also sing at high latitudes feeding … Read more
Happy now? Assuming you’re reading this issue straight away, it’s the post-Christmas hiatus: that weird in-between time between Christmas and New Year’s when nobody’s quite sure what to do with themselves (unless they’re avid shoppers, in which case the January sale has you covered ). Anyway, Feedback recently learned something new about Christmas. This excerpt … Read more
Tree planting projects help tackle the climate crisis, but they can also affect water supplies Costfoto/NurPhoto/Getty Images The major environmental, social and economic crises facing the world today – involving biodiversity, climate change, health, food and water – are inextricably linked, and tackling them together has many benefits. However, focusing on one problem alone can … Read more
Molecular testing can be used to assess beverage quality Evgenii Parilov/Alamy Beverage manufacturers and consumers may soon have a small, portable kit, not much bigger than a covid test, to check the quality and safety of alcoholic beverages. The device is described as an “artificial tongue” because it can detect additives, toxins and the sweetness … Read more
This thin disc of diamond is also very flexible Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08218-x A new way to make ultra-thin diamond wafers using sticky tape could help produce diamond-based electronics that could one day be a useful alternative to silicon-based designs. Diamond has unusual electronic properties: it is both a good insulator and allows electrons of certain … Read more
TikTok is a video sharing social media platform Anatolii Babii / Alamy A US law banning the popular video-sharing app TikTok is due to come into force at the start of 2025 – but the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok’s legal challenge to this. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has hinted he may … Read more
OpenAI announced a breakthrough achievement for its new o3 AI model Rokas Tenys / Alamy OpenAI’s new o3 artificial intelligence model has achieved a groundbreaking high score on a prestigious AI reasoning test called the ARC Challenge, inspiring some AI fans to speculate that o3 has achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI). But while ARC Challenge … Read more