When it comes to quantum technologies, computing has dominated headlines around the world. Computers that exploit the laws of quantum mechanics are significantly faster for several classes of problem than even the most powerful supercomputers.But behind the scenes other quantum technologies are emerging with the potential to revolutionize other areas of science. One of these technologies is quantum imaging, using the quantum properties of photons to enhance images.Now Lihong Wang and colleagues ...read more

Coffee is among the most consumed beverage in the world — up there with water and tea — and it contains over one hundred different substances, including fats, minerals and vitamins. But the fundamental star element in coffee is caffeine: a drug that scientists categorize as a “central nervous system stimulant,” and the most widely consumed psychoactive substance on the planet. Caffeine is the reason why coffee is touted for its effects on energy, focus, memory and fighting off that creep ...read more

Some 250 million years ago, ocean water covered what is now called Flowerdalen (“Flower’s valley”) in modern-day Norway. Life in these waters was different than it had been just 252 million years ago, when the End-Permian Mass Extinction had eliminated 90 percent of marine species from the planet. What remained were plucky opportunists, including a type of sea-dwelling lizard called an ichthyosaur, which had evolved flippers from land-dwelling feet.When they died, their remains attracted s ...read more

When it comes to sunlight’s impact on the skin, people usually think of ultraviolet (UV) light, the invisible light that causes sunburn. However, sunlight also includes the visible light spectrum that the naked eye can see, that is, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet light. What Does Blue Light Mean?Blue light is short in wavelength and high in energy. Aside from the sun, it can also come from artificial sources like electronic devices and indoor lighting. “Blue light is wha ...read more

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and with it comes tales of mischievous leprechauns and the pots of gold that they guard at the end of rainbows.You may already know that there is no “end” of a rainbow — science tells us that their arch shape is simply an illusion. In reality, while those of us on the ground can only see the light reflected by raindrops above the horizon, viewers in aircraft can sometimes see a rainbow’s full, 360-degree circle.But that doesn’t mean the m ...read more

The Greek historian Herodotus reported over 2,000 years ago on a misguided forbidden experiment in which two children were prevented from hearing human speech so that a king could discover the true, unlearned language of human beings.Scientists now know that human language requires social learning and interaction with other people, a property shared with multiple animal languages. But why should humans and other animals need to learn a language instead of being born with this knowledge, like ...read more

The Han Chinese court welcomed Western trade for one of the first times in its history around 2,000 years ago. What its courtiers couldn't have imagined was that they were laying the foundations for one of the oldest, largest and longest-lasting systems of trade in the world.That said, the ancient Silk Road system endured the formation and the fall of countless cultures and civilizations throughout its 1,600-year existence, emerging from almost every experience bigger and better than before.So, ...read more

This article was originally published on March 14, 2021.March 14 is Pi Day — so what’s with that? A holiday to celebrate a number (and eat lots of pie)? Well, yes, but pi is not just any number. There is much more to the pi day meaning than that.Why Is Pi Day Celebrated on March 14?Pi is simply (well, it’s not really simple, but bear with me) the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. If you take a circle —  any circle — and divide its circumference by its diameter, y ...read more

This article was originally published on May 19, 2021.Decades after his death, Albert Einstein's legacy carries on. He is often regarded as the father of modern physics in light of his revolutionary ideas that have shaped our understanding of the universe. The prolific scientist's rise to celebrity status, however, didn't happen overnight. Unlike many other famous scientists of his time, Einstein lacked a flawless education record and wasn’t well connected in the scientific community. He perfe ...read more

Our growing knowledge of physical laws has allowed us to rewind the tape on the universe, tracing its evolution back to within a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. Here, however, when the sum total of matter and energy coalesces in a ball of infinite density and temperature, the equations of general relativity break down.As a theory, “the Big Bang leaves out the bang,” physicist Brian Green writes in The Fabric of the Cosmos. Whatever happened in that instant, let alone before that mom ...read more