Category: Science & Tech

The pounding is a neurological reflex as well as due to a physical effect. When we are startled by a sound, the reflex can be activated within 150 ms, which is faster than acting due to conscious thought. This is because the sound travels from the cochlea through the brainstem to the amygdala, which treats...

Failure is part and parcel of research but many scientists consider discussing it in a scientific forum to be taboo. Laboratories are littered with unfinished experiments and inconclusive facts and theories that failed to stand the test of study. However, when science is being communicated — whether to funding bodies, professional journals or audiences —...

The particle physics rulebook, called the Standard Model, predicts the properties of most subatomic particles with such precision that those few properties found to differ in experiments have frustrated physicists. This is why they’re keenly looking for cracks in the Model — parts where it can be updated — that could cover the anomalous findings...

It takes a moment for the eyes to adjust. A faint spark appears in the darkness; then another, brighter one. Soon, stars, planets and entire constellations emerge. Before long, a whole galaxy stretches across the sky, visible to the naked eye. In Chile’s Atacama Desert, the night sky feels infinite. Considered the driest place on...

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, an approach that modifies a patient’s own immune cells to hunt down cancer, has transformed treatment for blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma. But the same strategy has struggled when applied to solid tumours such as kidney or ovarian cancer. One of the biggest obstacles is antigen heterogeneity....