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Humans

We’ve only just confirmed that Homo habilis really existed

Their species name is well known, but until recently we’ve understood very little for certain about Homo habilis. Columnist Michael Marshall reveals what new fossils are telling us about the hominins that have been considered the first humans

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Mathematics

The secret to guessing more accurately with maths

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Space

Why Yuri Gagarin wasn’t the first in space – and who beat him to it

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Dark Matter Core Defies Explanation NASA ID: GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001774 NASA image release March 2, 2012 This composite image shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters. The natural-color image of the galaxies was taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. Superimposed on the image are "false-colored" maps showing the concentration of starlight, hot gas, and dark matter in the cluster. Starlight from galaxies, derived from observations by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, is colored orange. The green-tinted regions show hot gas, as detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The gas is evidence that a collision took place. The blue-colored areas pinpoint the location of most of the mass in the cluster, which is dominated by dark matter. Dark matter is an invisible substance that makes up most of the universe's mass. The dark-matter map was derived from the Hubble Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations, by detecting how light from distant objects is distorted by the cluster galaxies, an effect called gravitational lensing. The blend of blue and green in the center of the image reveals that a clump of dark matter resides near most of the hot gas, where very few galaxies are found. This finding confirms previous observations of a dark-matter core in the cluster. The result could present a challenge to basic theories of dark matter, which predict that galaxies should be anchored to dark matter, even during the shock of a collision. Abell 520 resides 2.4 billion light-years away. To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/dark-matter-cor... Credit: NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee (University of California, Davis), and A. Mahdavi (San Francisco State University)

Space

Why cosmology seems to be caught in a vibe shift

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Person looking up at starry night at Spiral Jetty, USA. Provider: Alamy Stock Photo Source: www.alamy.com Copyright: Celestine Dagli/Alamy

Physics

Would aliens do physics, or is science a human invention?

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Health

Can magnesium supplements improve sleep, energy and concentration?

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Technology

Could a niche 80s technology be the key to better quantum computers?

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Technology

Why I have changed my mind about AI and you should too

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pretty colored woman in casual clothes, lying on a yellow colored wall with her eyes closed, resting

Health

Why the sleep industry has got us worrying about the wrong things

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Health

The surprising vaccine side effects that can improve long-term health

People often focus on the bad side effects of vaccines, but they can have some great side effects too, says columnist Michael Le Page. They don’t just protect us from contagious diseases but can also lower the risk of dementia and heart attacks

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Mind

Why our brains tune things out and how to overcome it when you need to

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Health

Ultra-processed foods could be making you age faster

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Life

Weird and wonderful fungi should be so much more than sci-fi villains

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Technology

Why it's high time we stopped anthropomorphising ants

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