Next time you complain about ageing reruns on TV, spare a thought for astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope. They suspect they’ve just seen something from 13.2 billion years ago. NASA has reported the sighting of what appears as a tiny dim object, but is actually a galaxy of blue stars about one-hundredth the […]
Newly published test scores suggest most school students are falling short of proficiency in science study, with a high proportion failing to reach even a basic level. The figures, which cover tests in 2009, come from the National Assessment of Educational Assessment Progress, which is also known by the catchier brand name “The Nation’s Report […]
The big news coming out of the comic book world yesterday has been the apparent shut-down of Wizard Magazine and ToyFare Magazine, both long-standing print publications that revolutionized the reporting of all things nerdy for the last 20 years.ย Wizard World, started in 1991 by Gareb Shamus, was at one time the voice of the […]
Cloning sheep was scientifically impressive, but not that visually impressive. Cloning mice had research value, but created footage that was a little freaky at best. But using cloning to get an elephant to give birth to a woolly mammoth? Now that’s science you can see. This isn’t the plot of another Jurassic Park sequel, but […]
Computers play chess? So what. Shogi? Whatever. Jeopardy!? Now we’re talking. And while my opening line might seem sarcastic, it really isn’t. That’s because Jeopardy!, while easily dismissed as TV froth, is a genuine challenge to computers. That’s because of the way the show works: for those not familiar, the game involves host Alex Trebek […]
Actor David Tennant is to marry actress Georgia Moffett. That news is fairly straightforward, albeit devastating for several single women I know. But the type of viewer who gets confused between actors and the televisual roles they play should just give up now. You see, the pair met during the filming of the 2008 Doctor […]
Apple has become the second company in the world worth more than $300 billion. Meanwhile, less formal estimates put Facebook at $50 billion. It was only last May that Apple overtook Microsoft, with a market capitalization of $221 billion. That figure represents a company’s current stock price, multiplied by the number of stocks in the […]
It feels as if everyone has told bankers where to get off in the past couple of years. That’s certainly the case with a letter written by Cambridge University, though this time it’s not a criticism of irresponsible lending and investment. Instead Britain’s banks have been told to go whistle after demanding that a student’s […]
A group of British elementary school pupils, some aged just eight, have become the youngest science writers to have a paper accepted by a peer reviewed journal. They discovered that bumblebees are able to use a combination of color and spatial patterns to recognize flowers that will provide nourishment. The project was organized by University […]
If you’ve got a weakness for gambling, you might try to explain your vice away by saying “I’m only human.” But it turns out that chancing your luck is something other species do. According to researchers from the University of Kentucky, pigeons also like to gamble, even when the odds are against them. Professor Thomas […]