News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
From the beginning of the universe to the present day, time is one of the few things we regard as regular and unchanging. Time works by measuring periods between the past, present and future. But that’s a simple, albeit vague answer to an incredibly complex topic. Time is all around us and is the basis … Read more
There’s still lots to explore and learn about the effects that space travel has on the body – and it seems those effects include some neuron rewiring that goes on in the brain. Researchers studying the brains of 12 cosmonauts found what they describe as “significant microstructural changes” in the white matter that manages … Read more
For centuries, people have dreamed of being driven at speed across the vast oceans of space by winds of light. As whimsical as the idea sounds, nudging reflective sails slowly towards the speed of light using nothing more than the punch of photons might be our only plausible shot at reaching another star inside of … Read more
Most of us have at least one moment in our lives when we wish we’d made a different choice. It’s easy to recognize what went wrong in hindsight, but key factors that could have made all the difference at the time are often easily missed as we experience them. Understanding those pivot points becomes … Read more
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
In his theory of general relativity, Einstein predicted something called time dilation: the notion that two clocks under two different gravitational pulls will always tick at different speeds. The effect has been observed in many experiments since, but now scientists have recorded it at the smallest scale seen so far. The result was achieved using … Read more
We’ve just taken another step closer to time crystals that can be used for practical applications. New experimental work has yielded a room-temperature time crystal in a system that is not isolated from its ambient surroundings. This, the researchers say, paves the way for chip-scale time crystals that can be used in real-world settings, … Read more
Quantum mechanics – the behavior of the Universe at the smallest of scales – continues to surprise us, with scientists now having been able to successfully create a quantum object called a domain wall in laboratory settings. For the first time, these walls can now be generated in the lab on demand, occurring when … Read more
As surges of COVID-19 cases driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant recede, parts of the United States, Canada, and Europe are moving swiftly to lift constraints on a pandemic-fatigued public. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have abolished nearly all COVID-19–related restrictions in recent weeks, and the United Kingdom announced it would do the same this … Read more
Starting Wednesday (Feb. 16), aspiring space tourists can once again book a trip to the final frontier with Virgin Galactic. The company announced Tuesday (Feb. 15) that it will temporarily reopen its waiting list for customers ahead of providing commercial service. The seat deposit is $150,000, and the total ticket price is $450,000. As of … Read more