Science
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Big ideas hit prime time in His Dark Materials
Are dust and dæmons fiction or fact? A new book about consciousness argues that the ideas behind Philip Pullman’s books and new TV series maybe closer to reality than you might think.
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After deaths, Trump set to ban vape flavours
Is vaping good for society? While the US reacts to a recent spate of deaths, Britain is adamant that vaping saves lives and helps wean people off the far more dangerous addiction to tobacco.
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‘Garden of Eden’ discovered in Botswana
Are we all Africans? New research suggests that all humans alive today are descended from people living in southern Africa, 200,000 years ago. But are they right? And does it matter?
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Scientists claim to have reversed time
Is time travel really possible? For centuries, humans have dreamed of leaping into the deep past or distant future. Will we ever do it? The answer lies in one of Einstein’s strangest theories.
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The Polish village where only girls are born
If Earth was populated entirely by women, would it be a better place? After no boys are born for nearly 10 years, the Polish village of Miejsce Odrzanskie is providing a unique case study.
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‘Woolly mammoths could walk the Earth again’
Scientists in Japan have made a “significant step” towards bringing the ancient species back from the dead, using the DNA of a frozen mammoth. But is it the right thing to do?
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Ants — not humans — rule world, says study
Could it be that ants are more powerful than humans? With their mega-cities, transport networks, ventilation, childcare systems and waste collection, they put us to shame, says a new book.
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Gentle giants of joy, anger, grief and love
Are elephants as emotional as humans? Six died trying to save a young calf from a waterfall in Thailand. Research on elephants is full of examples of the animals behaving empathetically.
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Baby in a bag: artificial womb project launches
Is it a dream come true or a science-fiction nightmare? Scientists in the Netherlands have been given €2.9m to build a prototype artificial womb. They say it could save millions of lives.
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New robot ‘on the path to self-awareness’
Will robots ever be self-aware? Scientists at Colombia University have built a machine that learns about itself in the same way as a baby. Could it become more intelligent than a human?
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‘Almost three billion will go hungry by 2050’
Can we feed everyone? Tomorrow is World Food Day. We already make enough for 10 billion people, and yet one in nine humans does not have enough food. How did that happen?
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‘No human is limited,’ says marathon champion
Was it tainted by technology? Eliud Kipchoge has entered the pantheon of the greats alongside Roger Bannister who ran a four-minute mile, 65 years ago. A triumph for sport — or for science?
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Humpback whale ‘swallows’ sea lion whole
Is nature competitive or co-operative? A rare image of a sea lion flailing in the jaws of a humpback whale is not what it appears to be — challenging our ideas about survival of the fittest.
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Everything we know about maths could be wrong
Is maths best described as an art or a science? A top academic fears that modern theorems are riddled with errors. Computers could fix them. But if they did, would the result still be maths?
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Humanity could one day live without sleep
What if we never needed sleep? Scientists have discovered a genetic mutation that lets its carriers live happily on only a few hours’ sleep, and it could be spreading through the population.