Science

Every quantum engineer spends their career at war with the same opponent. A qubit holds its delicate state for only so long before energy bleeds away into its surroundings and the information…

The biological clock most of us picture runs on a 24-hour loop: proteins build up through the day, break down overnight, and the cycle sets the rhythm of sleep, hunger and hormones. For decades, that…

For years, the people trying to grow milk proteins inside plants have run into the same wall. A cow makes casein by the bucket because its mammary cells are built to package the stuff. A plant cell…

Quantum computers have a fragility problem. The quantum states that give them their power are easily disturbed, and a stray bit of noise can scramble a calculation before it finishes. One of the most…

An elephant standing still, its ears spread, sometimes seems to be listening to nothing at all. It isn't. It is listening to the ground. Elephants communicate across distances that would defeat…

The place where most of Earth's surface is made lies kilometres underwater, in near-total darkness, along a seam that winds around the planet like the stitching on a baseball. Mid-ocean ridges are…

Set a bowling ball spinning in the middle of a trampoline and, in Einstein's universe, it does more than sag the surface — it twists it, winding the fabric around like a spoon in honey. General…