Science

The saying goes that money can’t buy you love. But can it buy you time? This is what US billionaire Bryan Johnson is hoping to find out.

The 45-year-old reportedly spends millions each year in an attempt to reverse aging and regain his 18-year-old body (presumably sans acne). To achieve this, Johnson sticks to a rigid diet and exercise regime, takes multiple supplements, and has frequent tests to analyse the function of his organs. He’s also tried some novel procedures to rejuvenate his body, such as injecting himself with his 17-year-old son’s blood plasma.

Think about being in a conversation with your best friend or partner. How often do you finish each other’s words and sentences? How do you know what they are going to say before they have said it? We like to think it is romantic intuition, but it’s just down to how the human brain works.

In any communication, we generate myriad predictions regarding what we are about to hear. It’s just like when we play the game hangman, where we try to predict the target word based on a few letters. To begin with – when we only have one or two letters to go on – the pool of potential candidate words is massive. The more letters we guess correctly, the more the pool of candidate words narrows down, until our brain clicks and we find the right word.

Climate change has impacted the Middle East and North Africa where summer is already very hot. Many in Iraq, Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia still labour in the heat.

- A tool of the trade in Syria -

US surgeons who transplanted a genetically-modified pig kidney into a brain dead patient said Wednesday it was still working well after a record 32 days -- a significant step in the quest to close the organ donation gap.

The latest experimental procedure is part of a growing field of research aimed at advancing cross-species transplants, using bodies that have been donated for science.

Oetzi, the "iceman" mummy of the Alps, had darker skin than previously thought and was likely bald or almost bald when he died, the study by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said.

He also likely stemmed from a relatively isolated group with little contact with other Europeans, and had ancestors who arrived directly from Anatolia.

The space industry has changed dramatically since the Apollo program put men on the moon in the late 1960s.

Today, over 50 years later, private companies are sending tourists to the edge of space and building lunar landers. NASA is bringing together 27 countries to peacefully explore the Moon and beyond, and it is using the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back in time. Private companies are playing a much larger role in space than they ever have before, though NASA and other government interests continue to drive scientific advances.

Many people love the refreshing effervescence of a soda, champagne, beer or sparkling water. When you take a sip, the gas bubbles in the beverage burst, and the released gas tickles your nose. But have you ever wondered how carbonation actually works?

I’m a professor who teaches classes in chemistry and fermentation and a carbonated beverage enthusiast and home brewer myself. While the basic process of carbonation is relatively simple, a variety of factors – from temperature to surface tension – can affect the taste and quality of beverages.

Pedro de la Cruz stands beside his stranded boat and supplicates his God, lifting his arms and praying anxiously for rain to replenish Lake Titicaca, the massive body of water at a breath-sapping altitude in the Andes on the border between Bolivia and Peru.

"Dear God, make more rain come," the 74-year-old says, invoking Pachamama, Mother Earth for Indigenous people of the region. "Help us, please, we are parched here.... Make the rain showers come... Father in heaven, have pity."

Scientists and health officials in Maui County, Hawaii on Monday urged residents to stay away from the island's western coast if possible to avoid exposure to potential toxins that may have been released following the wildfire that killed at least 96 people and destroyed the historic town of Lahaina.

Officials have not determined exactly what toxins were released as last Tuesday's fire tore through the island and exposed an estimated 86% of Maui's 2,719 structures to the flames, but officials have taken note that a wide array of buildings and objects were burned by the fast-moving wildfire.