Laser weapons are almost ready for the battlefield
Mar 7th 2020WHEN MARTIANS descend on England in H.G. Wells’s novel “The War of the Worlds”, published in 1898, they incinerate…
Digital twins of hearts could help diagnose and treat cardiac disease
IF YOU TRAVEL on a modern airliner, the chances are that each of the jet engines powering it will have a virtual copy residing…
As delivery drones multiply, they may need to protect themselves
Feb 29th 2020INTERNET SHOPPING makes buying things easier, but has also led to the rise of a new kind of thief: the porch pirate….
An Australian legend may be the world’s oldest datable story
Feb 29th 2020ORAL MYTHOLOGY has tremendous staying power. The Klamath, a group of Native Americans who live in Oregon, tell tales…
The exploration of the Moon and Mars continues apace
Feb 29th 2020THIS WEEK has seen the publication of results collected by probes to two heavenly bodies: Chang’e 4, a Chinese…
How to decide in advance who will pass advanced military training
Feb 29th 2020IT GOES WITHOUT saying that to be a marine you have to be tough, both physically and mentally. But which is more…
COP25, the UN climate talks in Madrid, ends in a sad splutter
THE TAGLINE for this year’s United Nations climate talks, known as COP25, held in Madrid, was “Tiempo de actuar”: time for…
Mapping cells to build a complete atlas of the human body
BODIES ARE made of cells. Lots of them. An average adult human contains about 37.2trn cells, 100 times as many as the number of…
The COP25 meeting on the climate yields little
ANNUAL UN CLIMATE summits are never moments of unbridled optimism, but this year’s, held in Madrid and dubbed COP25, was particularly…