Tag: Physics
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Scientists find evidence of ‘original Brexit’
Around 450,000 years ago, cascades of icy waterfalls caused Britain to break away from Europe. Scientists have dubbed it the “original Brexit”. Has Britain benefited from its island status?
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Quantum computers: technology’s next frontier
IBM has announced plans to build the world’s first commercially available quantum computer. The technology could completely change how the world works. Would it be a good thing?
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Two tourists to fly around the Moon in 2018
A private rocket company has announced that two private citizens have bought a flight around the Moon next year. Tickets cost $250,000. A waste of money, or a pioneering trip of a lifetime?
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Seven ‘beautiful’ Earth-sized planets found
NASA has discovered a solar system 39 light years away with a record seven exoplanets. It is more evidence that the universe is teeming with Earth-like worlds. How should it make us feel?
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Cosmos may be expanding faster than we think
We know that the universe is expanding and accelerating — but recently physicists have begun to disagree about the speed. Now some say that they could be missing a major piece of the puzzle.
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Winston Churchill: alien life is out there
A newly-found article shows the man who led Britain to victory in the second world war arguing life may exist on other planets. Most scientists agree. So what are the chances they are right?
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Earth’s magnetic poles could be about to flip
Scientists are ‘abuzz’ with the discovery that the Earth’s magnetic field is rapidly getting weaker. This could be a sign that the poles are going to switch — and north would become south.
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Last man on the Moon: ‘It’s our destiny’
The last person to set foot on the Moon, Eugene Cernan, has died. He said the experience 44 years ago changed him deeply and forever. What can we earthlings learn from him today?
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2016 in review: tech CEOs reach for the stars
From colonising Mars to factories in space, Silicon Valley billionaires are looking up. (Literally.) And yet NASA’s future is unclear. Who should lead the space race in the 21st century?
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ExoMars ready to resume search for alien life
European ministers will decide this week whether to invest £350m in a project to put a rover on Mars. ExoMars will search for life on the red planet — so what if life is actually discovered?
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‘Impossible’ EmDrive could prove Newton wrong
It is the most fabled law of physics: ‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ But now NASA says that an invention, once mocked by scientists, could prove Newton wrong.
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Leap in the dark: Europe puts its clocks back
Millions of people spent an extra hour in bed after the clocks changed on Sunday. But 100 years after British Summer Time was invented, a growing chorus is calling for the practice to end.
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Europe’s first Mars mission prepares to land
With luck, the ExoMars spacecrafts will start looking for life on Mars today. The mission is set to take decades and cost £1.16bn. Can such a risky project justify such huge expense?
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Praise and anger at Nobel science prizes
Over their 115-year history, the Nobel prizes have acquired an unrivalled prestige. Yet as the three science prizes are awarded, some are questioning whether the system is fit for purpose.
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Daring. Crazy. Visionary. A colony on Mars
A billionaire inventor has announced detailed plans to establish a colony on Mars. The risk of death will be ‘high’. But for our species to survive, he says, we must become ‘interplanetary’.