Science

Some teachers consider finger counting a signal that youngsters are struggling with math, while others associate its use as advanced numerical knowledge. Now, new research is the first to show that children’s performance in arithmetic can show a “huge” improvement through the teaching of a finger-counting method. Swiss and French teams…

A cheap new test using origami paper sensors can help detect infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, much earlier and easier than current methods, say scientists. The innovative method identifies biomarkers in wastewater, enabling rapid tracking of diseases using the camera in a mobile phone—and costs only a buck for each use….

Spanish technical archaeologists have identified ancient irrigation ducts in desert regions around the world using AI. The AI was trained to pour through old spy satellite photos taken during the Cold War and look for evidence of underground aqueducts that carried water from highlands or mountains down into baking plains. Unlike…

With the flick of a light, researchers have found a way to rearrange life’s basic tapestry, bending DNA strands back on themselves to reveal the material nature of the genome. Scientists have long debated the physics of chromosomes—structures at the deepest interior of a cell that are made of long DNA…

Cars and planes could soon be built from the world’s strongest batteries, thanks to a ground-breaking innovation from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Researchers detailed the advance of so-called massless energy storage—and a structural battery that could cut the weight of a laptop by 50%, make mobile phones as thin…

Reprinted with permission from World at Large, an independent news outlet covering conflict, travel, science, conservation, and health and fitness. As July and August come around after a hard, half-year of work, the thought may arise that you need a vacation. A team of scientists has proposed that this is actually true—and…

One of our closest and largest neighbors, the Triangulum Galaxy, was recently imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, proving it’s still useful in the face of the James Webb Telescope’s incredible infrared resolution. Located within the triangle-shaped constellation Triangulum and about half the size of our Milky Way, this galaxy called…