News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Dogs seem to understand the basic way objects should behave, and stare for longer if animated balls violate expectations by rolling away for no obvious reason Life 22 December 2021 By Christa Lesté-Lasserre A dog taking part in the study Rooobert Bayer When 3D animated balls on a computer screen defy certain laws of physics, … Read more
Over the course of just 10 days in February, three missions arrived at Mars. Together, they are creating a clearer picture of our closest planetary neighbour Space 15 December 2021 By Leah Crane The Tianwen-1 mission Xinhua/Alamy OVER the course of just 10 days in February 2021, three missions arrived at Mars. The first was … Read more
By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu and Layal Liverpool Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization SALVATORE DI NOLFI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Latest coronavirus news as of 12pm on 21 December Omicron variant could overwhelm health systems, says WHO chief The head of … Read more
Incredible advances in growing living tissue in the lab took another amazing turn in August when a blob of brain cells grew eye-like structures Technology 15 December 2021 By Clare Wilson Elke Gabriel There was a leap forward in understanding brain development in August, when lumps of neural tissue in a dish were coaxed into … Read more
By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu and Layal Liverpool A Swiss soldier closes the curtain of a booth prior to the administration of a Moderna covid-19 booster jab in Switzerland. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images Latest coronavirus news as of 1pm on … Read more
A flurry of short flights aboard privately funded craft saw space tourism begin with a bang for billionaires in 2021. Perhaps by the end of the decade, mere millionaires will be able to join them Space 15 December 2021 By Leah Crane New Shepard’s first crew and capsule Joe Raedle/Getty Images THIS year, the extraordinarily … Read more
In July, the University of Science and Technology of China announced it had surpassed Google’s claimed quantum supremacy achievement. China’s ambitious quantum computing efforts are all under the oversight of one man, Jian-Wei Pan Technology 15 December 2021 By Matthew Sparkes Xinhua/Alamy GOVERNMENTS and companies around the world are racing to build a useful quantum … Read more
In September, GABA-enriched tomatoes in Japan became the first foods modified by CRISPR gene editing to go on sale to the public Technology 15 December 2021 By Michael Le Page Courtesy of Sanatech Seed They may look ordinary, but in September these tomatoes became the first CRISPR-edited food to go on sale to the public. … Read more
In July, DeepMind announced that its AlphaFold model had worked out how most of the proteins in our bodies fold. Pushmeet Kohli tells New Scientist that there is more to come Technology 15 December 2021 By Matthew Sparkes A 3D model of a fruit fly protein from DeepMind DeepMind IT TOOK decades for scientists to … Read more
If you’re a fan of weird animals and exotic concepts, we’ve got a top 10 list for you. From wombats that poop cubes to hypothetical power plants fueled by black holes, our annual end-of-the-year list includes staff favorites and some of our most popular stories of the year. You won’t find any COVID-19 news here … Read more