Science

Twenty years ago this October, two physicists at the University of Manchester, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, published a groundbreaking paper on the “electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films”. Their work described the extraordinary electronic properties of graphene, a crystalline form of carbon equivalent to a single layer of graphite, just one atom thick.

Around that time, I started my doctorate at the University of Surrey. Our team specialised in the electronic properties of carbon. Carbon nanotubes were the latest craze, which I was happily following. One day, my professor encouraged a group of us to travel to London to attend a talk by a well-known science communicator from the University of Manchester. This was Andre Geim.

Countless parents across the country recently dropped their kids off at college for the first time. This transition can stir a whirlwind of feelings: the heartache of parting, sadness over a permanently changed family dynamic, the uncertainty of what lies ahead – but also the pride of seeing your child move toward independence. Some might describe the goodbye as bittersweet, or say that they’re feeling mixed emotions.

In that scenario, what would you do if I asked you to rate how you felt on a scale from 1-9, with 1 being the most negative and 9 the most positive? This question seems silly given the circumstances – how should you rate this blend of bad and good? Yet, this scale is what psychology researchers often use to survey feelings in scientific studies, treating emotions as either positive or negative, but never both.

Former President Donald Trump said he opposed green energy Tuesday because hydrogen cars "explode."

During a speech in Savannah, Georgia, Trump lashed out at the green energy industry.

The fabled Nazca lines, a series of massive incisions on the desert floor depicting animals, plants, imaginary beings and geometric figures, have fascinated scientists ever since they were first discovered around a century ago.

Best viewed from the air, the lines situated some 220 miles (350 kilometers) south of Lima are one of Peru's top tourist attractions.

The world's oceans are close to becoming too acidic to properly sustain marine life or help stabilise the climate, a new report said on Monday.

The report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) details nine factors that are crucial for regulating the planet's ability to sustain life.

Scientists in New Zealand said Tuesday they have discovered a new species of "ghost shark", a type of fish that prowls the Pacific Ocean floor hunting prey more than a mile down.

The Australasian Narrow-nosed Spookfish was found living in the deep waters of Australia and New Zealand, according to scientists from Wellington-based National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

The South American jungle, spanning nine countries, is seen as crucial to the fight against climate change due to its ability to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Deforestation, mainly for mining and agricultural purposes, has led to the loss of 12.5 percent of the Amazon's plant cover from 1985 to 2023, according to RAISG, a collective of researchers and NGOs.

Earth is going to have its very own mini-moon from September 29 until November 25. The regular Moon’s new, temporary friend is 2024 PT₅, an asteroid captured from the Arjuna asteroid group (called the “Arjunas”).

Our new mini-moon is approximately 10 meters in diameter and will be captured by Earth’s gravity for 57 days. It’s small and faint, so it won’t be visible by the eye or with small telescopes, but will be visible to larger telescopes.

A rare, nearly complete fossil of an extinct North American porcupine helped me and my colleagues solve a decades-long debate about how the modern North American porcupine evolved from its ancestors.

Published in Current Biology, our paper argues that North American porcupine ancestors may well date back 10 million years, but they wouldn’t be recognizable until about 8 million years later.

India's one-horned Asian rhino population has almost tripled in the past four decades thanks to conservation and anti-poaching efforts, according to government figures.

Data released on Sunday -- World Rhino Day -- said the number of the animals, known for their single horn and thick, armour-like skin, had surged from 1,500 four decades ago to more than 4,000 now.

Former President Donald Trump blamed COVID-19 on "dust" that "flew in from China."

In an interview that aired on Sunday, Heritage Foundation-funded journalist Sharyl Attkisson asked Trump about how well he handled the pandemic.

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Two new drugs, the first capable of slowing down the debilitating progression of Alzheimer's disease, have become embroiled in one of the biggest medical controversies in recent years.

For their defenders, the drugs lecanemab and donanemab represent the first real chance to fight the disease after decades of research -- for detractors, they are another disappointment after a long line of costly failures.