Science

The CMS detector at the Large Hadron ColliderSciTech Image/James King-Holmes/Alamy Stock Photo A possible crack in the standard model of particle physics seems to be shrinking, as new data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) contradicts a previous puzzling result that had physicists excited about the possibility of new, exotic physics – but some mysteries remain. “The standard model survives for the moment,” Josh Bendavid at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told a packed seminar room at CERN, the particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, on 17 September. He was presenting new data on the mass of the W boson, a fundamental particle that is crucial for processes like nuclear decay and setting the mass of the Higgs boson. Questions about the ...

The second International Conference on Indigenous-led Research and Education will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal on September 29 and 30, 2024. With its focus on climate change and other key issues in sustainable development and Indigenous rights, the event builds on the success of the first international conference, organized by the same group and held in Kathmandu in September 2023. Members of the Tsumba Indigenous community from Tsum Valley in Gorkha district of Nepal in a meeting with CIPRED personnel. Photo credit: CIPRED By presenting Indigenous-led research through methodologies including stories and case studies, the assembly will highlight their lived experiences and community programs. A major theme of this event will be traditional foods and economies. Presenters will discuss...

In a basement beneath City St George’s, University of London, senior leaders from NATO watch as four research teams from the UK, US, Netherlands and Austria, showcase their AI-controlled, autonomous drones. The groups are competing against each other as part of the NATO-funded SAPIENCE programme, designed to accelerate progress with this emerging technology, particularly in a world where drones on the battlefield are changing warfare, as demonstrated in Ukraine. “We are still trying to understand what are the impacts of drones,” says Claudio Palestini, head of NATO’s Science for Peace and Security programme. “We have regular contact with Ukraine where we understand what they are doing with technology,” he says. “NATO is adapting to this new way of fighting, we are ...

Ekkehard Peik is a clock-maker. But instead of spending his days looking at tiny cogs and springs through a magnifying glass, the tools of his trade are powerful lasers, wires and, occasionally, radioactive atoms. Peik, director of the German metrology institute (PTB), is one of a handful of physicists who have spent the best part of three decades trying to make the most accurate timepiece in the universe. Since the 1950s, researchers have been constructing atomic clocks, the very best of which are now so accurate they only lose a second in around 31 billion years. But these are about to be replaced by a new model: the nuclear clock. This promises to outperform its atomic counterparts both in terms of precision and accuracy. A nuclear clock would, in principle, only d...

During the summer of 2022, I was part of a 16-member crew doing trail maintenance in California’s Trinity Alps. The job required us to live in tents and work outside. For several days, smoke from three different forest fires in the region had been burning our throats and giving us headaches, despite the masks we wore. Finally, one morning our supervisor stood in front of us, holding back tears because the forest he loved was burning so intensely. “You have to go; it’s not safe,” he said. Two years later, in 2024, the Park Fire blazed across acres of forest three hours south of where my crew had been evacuated, belching smoke into areas miles away from the burn site. Over 400,000 acres of forest burned and over 600 structures have been destroyed by the fire, according to CalFire. ...