Science

Scientists’ ideas for travelling to the stars range from the the wholly improbable to the hugely expensive and very difficult, says Ed Regis

Some animals – and even machines – may turn out to be conscious. Must we wait for scientific certainty before sharing our rights, asks The Moral Circle

US President Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in government agencies in order to build a “merit-based” society. But psychological research shows that such initiatives can create fairer outcomes, if employed correctly

This startling mechanism for promoting depolymerization relies on an additive that many plastics already contain: a pigment called carbon black that gives plastic its black color. Through a process called photothermal conversion, intense light is focused on plastic containing the pigment to jumpstart the degradation. The lab's method has since been tried out on such post-consumer waste as PVC pipes, black construction pipes, trash bags, credit cards, even those ubiquitous yellow rubber duckies. It works on all of them.

Scientists have made an advancement in the field of electrocatalysis. Their latest research sheds light on how catalysts can stay in unanticipated forms during the process of nitrate reduction. The study offers new insights that could pave the way for more efficient catalyst design.

Researchers have used electron spin resonance technology to observe the state and movement of the charge inside Ruddlesden-Popper tin -based perovskite solar cells, an emerging technology for next-generation solar cells. They have discovered a mechanism that improves the performance of these cells compared with conventional three-dimensional tin-based perovskite solar cells. Their findings signal a great leap forward in the development of high-efficiency, long-lasting solar cells.

This novel finding regarding the nonreciprocal diffraction of acoustic waves could open doors for next-generation communication devices.

This novel finding regarding the nonreciprocal diffraction of acoustic waves could open doors for next-generation communication devices.

Researchers found for the first time evidence that even microquasars containing a low-mass star are efficient particle accelerators, which leads to a significant impact on the interpretation of the abundance of gamma rays in the universe.

Phosphorus is a critical raw material that should be recycled more efficiently. There is also a need for more environmentally friendly production methods for organic phosphorus compounds. A recently published review article examines the potential of green chemistry to contribute to these goals in the production and use of multifunctional phosphorus compounds, phosphonates.

By applying techniques from explainable artificial intelligence, engineers can improve users' confidence in forecasts generated by artificial intelligence models. This approach was recently tested on wind power generation.

Researchers present a solution to the challenging problem of recycling poly-cotton textile waste. The process starts with fully removing all cotton from the fabric using superconcentrated hydrochloric acid at room temperature. The cotton is converted into glucose, which can be used as a feedstock for biobased products such as renewable plastics. The remaining polyester fibers can be reprocessed using available polyester recycling methods.

The universe is getting more disordered, entropy is growing -- this is the second law of thermodynamics. But according to quantum theory, entropy should actually stay the same. Scientists took a closer look and resolved this apparent contradiction.

The universe is getting more disordered, entropy is growing -- this is the second law of thermodynamics. But according to quantum theory, entropy should actually stay the same. Scientists took a closer look and resolved this apparent contradiction.

The universe is getting more disordered, entropy is growing -- this is the second law of thermodynamics. But according to quantum theory, entropy should actually stay the same. Scientists took a closer look and resolved this apparent contradiction.

The narrow, deep holes required for one type of flash memory are made twice as fast with the right recipe, which includes a plasma made from hydrogen fluoride.

The narrow, deep holes required for one type of flash memory are made twice as fast with the right recipe, which includes a plasma made from hydrogen fluoride.

Scientists detected all five nucleobases -- building blocks of DNA and RNA -- in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.

Scientists found that asteroid Bennu contained a set of salty mineral deposits that formed in an exact sequence when a brine evaporated, leaving clues about the type of water that flowed billions of years ago.

In today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “others,” we see a familiar theme: Mo being guilty of exactly what he’s accusing others of. In fact, I think the theme of the whole strip can be condensed to one word: hyprocrisy.