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Wild Paper Claims Psychopathy May Not Be a Mental Disorder, But Something Else

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For more than half a century, the kinds of antisocial personality traits we think of as psychopathic – such as a lack of remorse, aggression, and disregard for the wellbeing of others – have been associated with mental illness.   The line between broken and useful traits can be hazy in biology, leaving open the … Read more

Wild New Paper Says ‘Quantum Gravity’ Could Emerge From a Holographic Universe

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In the last decades of his life, Albert Einstein hoped to unite his description of gravity with existing models of electromagnetism under a single master theory. It’s a quest that continues to vex theoretical physicists to this day. Two of our best models of reality – Einstein’s general theory of relativity and the laws of … Read more

Wormholes Could Help Solve an Infamous Black Hole Paradox, Says Fun New Paper

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What happens to information after it has passed beyond the event horizon of a black hole? There have been suggestions that the geometry of wormholes might help us solve this vexing problem – but the math has been tricky, to say the least.   In a new paper, an international team of physicists has found … Read more

Eating More Bugs Could Help The Environment Even More Than We Thought

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Insects have been touted as a food of the future, not least because of the sustainability benefits. An excellent protein source, they take up significantly fewer resources to produce when compared to traditional farming. Give your farm of mealworms around 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of food and you’ll get a kilogram of edible protein; with beef, … Read more

Metamaterials: Kirigami pattern creates light yet strong paper structures

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A chequerboard pattern based on kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting, enables thin and light structures to support much heavier loads Technology 1 March 2022 By Alex Wilkins A metamaterial inspired by kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting, can support nearly 3000 times its own weight. Metamaterials have structures not found in nature, … Read more

Potato farmers conquer a devastating worm—with paper made from bananas | Science

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Potato cyst nematodes are a clever pest. These microscopic worms wriggle through the soil, homing in the roots of young potato plants and cutting harvests by up to 70%. They are challenging to get rid of, too: The eggs are protected inside the mother’s body, which toughens after death into a cyst that can survive … Read more

It Turns Out Species Can Go Extinct Twice… And The Second Time Is For Keeps

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Species can actually go extinct more than once. In a biological sense, species become extinct when the last animal of a species stops breathing. But they can also become extinct a second time, researchers say.   When a species disappears from our collective memory and cultural knowledge, it becomes extinct in a different way. That second … Read more

Wild New Paper Suggests Earth’s Tectonic Activity Has an Unseen Source

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Earth is far from a solid mass of rock. The outer layer of our planet – known as the lithosphere – is made up of more than 20 tectonic plates; as these gargantuan slates glide about the face of the planet, we get the movement of continents, and interaction at the boundaries, not least of which is … Read more

This Medieval Italian Man Replaced His Amputated Hand With a Knife

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In 2018, archaeologists described a truly fascinating puzzle. It looks like this medieval Italian man went through life with a knife attached to his arm, in place of his amputated hand.   The skeleton in question was found in a Longobard necropolis in the north of Italy, dating back to around the 6th to 8th centuries … Read more