Author: Markus
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Weekly Science Picks
Another week, another collection of weekly science picks! Those of us over here in Northern Europe have been enjoying snowy weather this past few days, with more expected on the way. At the same time, many of us have been keeping a concerned eye on the recent events in Australia – the bush fires being…
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Unknown Corals of the Deep
Corals are some of the most beautiful things to be found under the sea, blossoming in clusters like gardens off tropical coasts worldwide. Easily the grandest display is to be found in Australia with the Great Barrier Reef, and it seems that the reef may contain even more diversity than was once thought. The latest…
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The Oldest Fossils in the World
Life has existed on planet Earth for a long time. Precisely how long, however, is a question which many are still searching for an answer to. The most recently discovered piece in that puzzle may put us another step closer to finally answering that. Discovered in Pilbara, Western Australia, are what are quite probably the…
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The Higgs: An Unexpected Boson
The interesting thing about research is that the most interesting results are always the ones which are unexpected. This is particularly true out in the frontiers of physics where, frequently, no one really knows quite what to expect. While news reporters were swift to leap to the conclusion that the Higgs boson had been discovered…
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Weekly Science Picks
By now, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re reading this, it means the world didn’t end on Friday. Which is rather a good thing, because a lot of interesting things have been happening recently! Even though I’ve been busy as can be, writing papers and trying to finish off a thesis there…
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Weekly Science Picks
Ah, the weekend! Time to kick back, relax, and look back over everything that’s happened over the past few days. And I’m rather happy to say that some quite interesting things have happened, including the Leonid meteor shower which peaked on Friday night (though if you step outside after dark and watch the sky, you…
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Great danger for the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is easily among the world’s great natural wonders. A world heritage site since 1981, it’s known everywhere as a showcase for the beauty which Earth’s oceans are capable of producing. The world’s largest system of coral reefs, it’s actually composed of over 2900 smaller reefs, stretching along Australia’s coastline for 2600…
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Breaking plates
What do Australia and India have in common? The answer is that they both share one of Earth’s tectonic plates – the drifting eggshell-like pieces of Earth’s crust, on which all of our planet’s continents sit. However, the Indo-Australian Plate is a slightly unusual one, and the two countries may not share it for much…
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Weekly Science Picks
Doesn’t time fly? I don’t know about anyone else, but my week has absolutely flown past. As I take a moment to relax and consider picking a few favourite topics from this week’s news, I realise that perhaps this is because it’s been an exciting week, full of interesting discoveries and unusual events. In fact,…
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Snappy meals for a hungry plant
I’m a big fan of carnivorous plants. Seriously, they’re plants which eat animals, placing them oddly higher up the food chain than other plants – That always fascinated me. But a recent study on one Australian sundew has shown it to be even more fascinating than was previously thought. This sundew, with the rather poetic…
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For sale: One world class infrared telescope
The world’s largest and most productive dedicated infrared observatory just went on the market in an unprecedented attempt to try and prevent it from being shut down and dismantled. In a bold move, the directors of the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT), based on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, have just released a prospectus detailing the…
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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away
Feast your eyes on this image… The tiny object in that inset may not look like much. A blurry smudge of red pixels. Not nearly as dramatic as the stunning bouquet of galaxies all around it. But in astronomy, not everything is quite so straightforward. That small red smudge is probably the most exciting thing…
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Weekly Science Picks
It’s been an interesting week for science news, and I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to give this week’s science picks! This made me spend a little while sipping contemplatively on a cup of vanilla iced coffee and wondering where to even start… The articles I’ve selected are, of course, slanted towards my own…
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The Mathematics of War
Scientists often exercise a certain detachment when doing their work. I’ve often seem friends and colleagues get “lost in the numbers” and forget precisely what it is they’re looking at and what those numbers actually mean. However, in some cases this may not be a bad thing. For instance, in the analysis of conflict data. Putting…