Why providing the necessary energy to end poverty need not cost the Earth

It is possible to increase access to basic living standards within the current national levels of energy use in India, Brazil and South Africa, research shows.

Providing access to energy – vital for a decent standard of living and ending poverty – can be done in a way that is sustainable for people surviving on low incomes and for the planet, researchers have found. As people’s living standards rise, their energy use usually does too. But a growing demand for better … Read more

‘Quantum computers will soon outperform classical machines’

As a quantum computer can be in many states at the time it enables the calculation of many possibilities at once, says Dr Thomas Monz. Image credit - Flickr/IBM Research, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

European scientists have spent 100 years developing the field of quantum mechanics – a branch of physics dealing with the atomic and subatomic scale – and we need to reap the profits now that quantum computers and other technologies are becoming a reality, according to Dr Thomas Monz from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He … Read more

The forensic architects piecing together the story of war

Researchers used forensic architectural techniques to calculate the ‘height of burst’ of a white phosphorus projectile in Rafah, Gaza, on 11 January 2009.

by Caleb Davies Around the world there are 10 wars are being fought, according to recent figures. That covers humanity’s most deadly clashes, but the figure rises to 49 if you count those state-based conflicts where ‘only’ 1,000 people or fewer have been killed in the past year. The captain’s share of all this fighting happens … Read more

Real-time WhatsApp advice aids surgery in rural Malawi

In remote, rural corners of Malawi, hospitals are often faced with life-and-death decisions. Women in need of emergency caesarean sections, older people with hernias, and children with appendicitis need surgery. But should they be rushed to the operating theatre or transferred to specialists in city hospitals? The answer depends on the patient’s condition, the distance … Read more

Can artificial intelligence help end fake news?

Artificial intelligence can be used to create deep fakes - audio, pictures and videos that make people say and do things they never did. Image credit - PxHere

by Tom Cassauwers Fake news has already fanned the flames of distrust towards media, politics and established institutions around the world. And while new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) might make things even worse, it can also be used to combat misinformation. Want to make yourself sound like Obama? In the past, that might have required physically … Read more

In a picture: ‘Now we know what a black hole looks like’

by Jonathan O’Callaghan The first-ever image of an event horizon – the gravitational boundary of a black hole beyond which light cannot escape – was revealed on 10 April and is the best evidence yet that these phenomena really do exist. It was the result of a global collaboration of hundreds of scientists, using multiple … Read more