An experimental twist on the Schrödinger’s cat paradox could overturn cherished assumptions in metaphysics Credit: Scientific American Space & Physics October 2020 Advertisement Quantum researchers seem to have more theories than they know what to do with. Of the handful of options, take, for example, the many-worlds view, which posits that when a quantum observation […]
Cave geckos exemplify evolution at its most fantastic. Some have bloodred eyes and sport bright yellow bands down their dark body. Others are Popsicle blue or bear camouflagelike patterns of fiery orange and brown. Many species of these lizards are only found over a tiny range, such as a single limestone hill in China. More […]
Public trust of the scientific community in the United States is as strong as ever, according to a new poll just released today by the Pew Research Center, confirming polling results dating back to the 1970s. Thirty-eight percent of those polled in Pew’s survey in the U.S. say that they have a lot of trust […]
“We are now engaged in another deadly episode in the historic battle of man versus microbe. These battles have shaped the course of human evolution and of history. We have seen the face of our adversary, in this case a tiny virus.” I spoke these words in testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on September […]
General chemistry has a terrible reputation on most college campuses. It’s seen as a killer—a place where dreams of careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) go to die. Now the data have spoken, and their message is clear: the bad rep is justified. And the numbers are especially bleak for students who are […]
The sincerest expression of love is to learn the characteristics of the object of our affection as they are, without reservations or prejudice. By this definition, the pursuit of scientific knowledge is the ultimate act of loving nature in its full splendor. Scientific inquiry can only enhance the awe we feel when witnessing reality in […]
Most people tend to think of Venus as completely uninhabitable, given that its surface temperature hovers around 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius), which doesn’t seem very inviting. But I have long championed the idea that life could exist in the thick cloud decks that shroud the planet. In my 1997 book Venus Revealed, I […]
“Given that hundreds of thousands of dinosaur bones have been dug up, is there any evidence that dinosaurs got cancer there?” David Evans, senior curator of Paleontology at the Royal Museum of Ontario in Toronto, at a recent museum fundraising event. “There had been a few studies that had kind of suggested based on […]
When Luciana Leite arrived in the Pantanal on 2 September, she thought she would be celebrating her wedding anniversary. Instead, the biologist and her husband spent their eight-day planned holiday aiding volunteers and firefighters struggling to extinguish the burning landscape. A common destination for ecotourists, the Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland, home to […]
Two years ago, planetary scientists reported the discovery of a large saltwater lake under the ice at Mars’s south pole, a finding that was met with excitement and some scepticism. Now, researchers say they’ve confirmed the presence of that lake—and found three more. The discovery, reported on 28 September in Nature Astronomy, was made using radar […]