Category: Technology

Some insects have detachable penises, others produce sperm that is 20 times the size of their own body. Others have evolved with special equipment to help them tear rivals off potential mates. Insects can be creepy, promiscuous or murderous – but they are rarely dull. The stag beetle male – Europe’s largest beetle has huge […]

Startup Nation Central, Ignite the Spark, and the Israel Export Institute have introduced the Israel Energy Tech Landscape Map 2024. This map, launched in Tel Aviv, highlights over 160 leading companies within Israel’s energy tech sector, out of a total of more than 300 firms. For more stories from The Media Line go to themedialine.org […]

Your spacecraft is spiralling out of control, and you will hit planet Arakis unless you fire up the thermal after-boosters. Which of the two buttons below would help you fire up the boosters on time? Would you be more likely to survive if the cockpit designer had installed the button on the left or the […]

Perfume making dates back at least 3,000 years – to the time of Tapputi-belat-ekalle, who is considered the first chemist in history. What we know about her comes from inscriptions on fragments of clay tablets dating back to the Middle Assyrian period (1400–1000BC). The inscriptions tell us that Tapputi was in charge of “overseeing the […]

Moods and emotions play an important role in our day-to-day life. They even influence how we experience things – for instance, whether we start the day feeling hopeful and energised or grumpy and lethargic. This can affect whether we interpret events in a positive or negative light. In people with bipolar disorder, however, mood can […]

In George R.R. Martin’s fantastical land of Westeros in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the spectacle of dragons breathing fire captivates his audience through a blend of myth and fantasy. For me at least, there’s also scientific curiosity. The images of dragons unleashing torrents of flames on the new series of House […]

The neurotransmitter dopamine is commonly known for its role in brain networks regulating pleasure and reward. But many people with disorders that affect the dopamine system, such as Parkinson’s disease or schizophrenia, also struggle with social abilities. These include recognising or understanding the emotions and mental states of others, something scientists call the “theory of […]

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are disrupting many aspects of modern life, and the news industry is no exception. In a year with a record-breaking number of elections worldwide, there has been considerable soul searching about the potential effect of so-called “deepfakes”, and other synthetic content, on democracies. There have also been further disruptions to […]

People often underestimate tiny beings. But microscopic algal cells not only evolved to thrive in one of the most extreme habitats on Earth – glaciers – but are also shaping them. With a team of scientists from the UK and Canada, we traced the evolution of purple algae back hundreds of millions of years and […]

Time magazine has dubbed 2024 a “super election year”. An astonishing 4 billion people are eligible to vote in countries across the world this year. Many are on the African continent, where presidential, parliamentary and general elections have already been held or are set for the latter half of the year. Artificial intelligence (AI) will […]