The French mathematician Hugo Duminil-Copin, who won the Fields Medal — mathematics’ Nobel — in 2022 for his work on phase transitions in statistical physics, said in a video call of the French Mathematical Society on October 8 that years of his research agenda had been “wiped out” thanks to a tumult of mathematical proofs and...
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October 15, 2026October 15, 2026Science & Tech
Jonathan, the giant tortoise, is 198 years old. Here is his secret
Jonathan is an Aldabra giant tortoise who lives at the residence of the governor of St Helena. He is 194 years old, the oldest living land animal on Earth today: the upper limit of the life expectancy for Aldabra tortoises is 93.68 years, making him some 100 years older than the typical upper lifespan limit...
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October 14, 2026October 14, 2026Science & Tech
Mining project threatens future of rare Jeypore ground gecko
In the crevices of boulders and beneath the rustle of leaf litter in the hills of the Eastern Ghats in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh lives a tiny population of the strikingly-patterned Jeypore ground gecko, which was presumed extinct for 130 years until it was rediscovered in 2010 by an Indian scientist. Just four individuals of...
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October 14, 2026October 14, 2026Science & Tech
Old doubts linger, yet new Microsoft quantum chip raises the stakes
In February, the Microsoft Quantum research group announced a new kind of computer processor called Majorana 1. According to the tech giant, the processor contained the world’s first topological qubits, built with a new material it called a ‘topoconductor’. Majorana 1 contained eight qubits, with Microsoft Quantum saying it would in future hold a million....
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October 14, 2026October 14, 2026Environment, Science & Tech
Building bridges for India’s wildlife
A male western Hoolock gibbon hangs from the lower branches of a tree in the Hoollangapar Gibbon Sanctuary. | Photo Credit: Krunal Desai (CC BY-SA) The Hoolock gibbon is India’s only ape other than us humans. Found in Northeast India, mostly to the south of the Brahmaputra river, the western and eastern hoolock gibbon populations...
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October 13, 2026October 13, 2026Science & Tech
What are type I and type II errors?
A: The null hypothesis is a cornerstone of scientific experiments. It is the hypothesis that an experiment tests. For example, if a hospital is testing a new drug, the null hypothesis will be that the drug has no effect. In this scenario, scientists are vulnerable to making two kinds of mistakes. One, the type I...
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October 13, 2026October 13, 2026Science & Tech
Why are the whites of human eyes white?
A: The tough outer covering of the eyeball is called the sclera. In humans, the sclerae (in both eyes) are white. This allows someone standing a distance away to easily say which way a person is looking. Scientists are not sure why human sclerae are white. Chimpanzees may have white, brown or darker sclerae. Bonobos...
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October 13, 2026October 13, 2026Science & Tech
Top AI researchers demand action to prevent models going ‘rogue’
More than 200 artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity researchers have called for immediate action to prevent further cases of AI models going rogue and posing a risk to critical infrastructure. The letter signed by luminaries in the field including Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton and Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio, called for models relating to cybersecurity...
