THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they don’t read regularly (up from 42 percent in 2015) and almost one in four young people aged 16 to 24 say they’ve never…
It’s the last flight of the day and the plane is pretty empty. So you’re thinking, maaaybe you’ll just move up a few rows, where there’s a nice window seat with a view that’s not obstructed by the wing. Not so fast, buster. The flight attendant says that’s a no-go. You have to stay in…
Planting forests while growing protein-rich food seems like a win-win, so are there any potential drawbacks? Lynne Boddy, professor of fungal ecology at Cardiff University, believes that mycoforestry “absolutely” has the potential to produce significant food crops while sequestering carbon. However, she advocates for “huge care” in doing so. “To my mind, whenever we inoculate…
In 2022, the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere happens on December 21. While not as dramatic as 2020’s conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the longest night of the year is a significant turning point. Astronomical winter begins, and the days gradually get longer again. Curious why this happens? WIRED spoke with Tansu Daylan, a former Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite…
Slayman, the first pig kidney recipient, was eligible for a human kidney but would have likely waited six to seven years to get one because of his rare blood type. Pisano and the two pig heart patients didn’t qualify for a human organ because of other medical issues. Looney was running out of options. Her…
Editors of the environmental chemistry journal Chemosphere have posted an eye-catching correction to a study reporting that toxic flame retardants from electronics wind up in some household products made of black plastic, including kitchen utensils. The study sparked a flurry of media reports a few weeks ago that urgently implored people to ditch their kitchen…
In September, a man from Montana was sentenced to six months in prison after he trafficked a clone of one of the world’s largest sheep species. Court documents allege that Arthur Schubarth trafficked body parts of a near threatened Marco Polo argali sheep into the US from Kyrgyzstan and in 2015 contracted with a lab…
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. It’s not easy to study quantum systems—collections of particles that follow the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, a cornerstone of quantum theory, says it’s impossible to simultaneously measure a particle’s exact position and its speed—pretty important information for understanding what’s going on….
THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Clouds form when water vapor—an invisible gas in the atmosphere—sticks to tiny floating particles, such as dust, and turns into liquid water droplets or ice crystals. In a newly published study, we show that microplastic particles can have the same effects, producing ice…
“You can see an ecosystem change overnight—specifically with hydrilla. You’ll see a normal pond, and then at the end of the growing season, it’s completely full of hydrilla,” said Nicole White, founder of Little Bear Environmental Consulting, which often works with city and state departments to combat invasive species. “Nothing else can survive there. It’s…
