Supercomputers and quantum computers rely on a “brute force” approach to solve problems, performing billions of calculations very quickly until they arrive at the optimal solution. But a new system has the potential to outperform them, using “magic dust” as a beacon to highlight the solution.
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Dickinsonia was a strange, segmented organism that lived 550 million years ago, but just what kind of lifeform it was has been a mystery. A new British study offers substantial evidence that the creature was indeed an animal, and previous beliefs about how it grew have been flipped on their head.
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Exoplanets are a constant source of surprise and wonder, and now astronomers have noticed something strange about a gas giant called WASP-19b. In the upper atmosphere of this “hot Jupiter” sits a layer of titanium oxide, which has flipped the usual atmospheric temperature structure on its head.
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Dinosaurs came in a ridiculous variety of shapes and sizes, but just how they all fit together is still up for debate. The recently-discovered Chilesaurus could help plug a major hole in the history of these ancient reptiles.
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An international team of astronomers has discovered the smallest ever star to date – a tiny red dwarf only slightly larger than the planet Saturn. Known as EBLM J0555-57Ab, it sits roughly 600 light years from Earth, and was found using a technique ordinarily used for hunting exoplanets.
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Peter Parker take note, architects and chemists at the University of Cambridge have come up with an artificial spider silk that is strong, super-stretchy, non-toxic and sustainable, yet is made from a material that is 98 percent water.
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While most stars are content with their place, hypervelocity stars are zipping through the universe fast enough to leave their home galaxy. It’s a mystery how they reached such speeds and where they came from. Now, astronomers from the University of Cambridge believe they’ve found the answers.
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Researchers at Cambridge and the University of Warwick have jumped ahead to the logical endpoint of Moore's Law and shrunk wires down to a string of single atoms. Effectively one dimensional, these “extreme nanowires” are made of tellurium, compressed inside carbon nanotubes to keep them stable.
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Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may seem to be the fad that keeps coming back around every year or so, but a new study finds they may be much bigger than previously thought. A landmark study finds cryptocurrencies are actively used by three times as many people compared to other estimates.
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Kudzu, zebra mussels and Africanized honeybees are some of the more well-known invasive species, but a team of international scientists says those are just the beginning. In a just-released report they warn that a new wave of biological invaders is on its way.
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