Cancer causes tiny deposits of calcium in breasts. Specialists detect it as a shift in the wavelength of light as it passes through the body tissue. It was a jubilant moment in medical science when Dr Jeynes and his team realised that the computer codes developed to study the formation of stars and planets could…
It was Eors Szathmary who likened language to an amoeba, and the human brain to the habitat in which it can thrive. The Hungarian scientist’s explanation for his choice of simile is that “a surprisingly large part of our brain can sustain language”. The idea first appeared in a paper that he published some ten…
The theme of radiation is at the core of the comic strip dynamics. Marvel comics’ Incredible Hulk, a green-skinned monster, was born when a scientist accidentally irradiated himself while handling his own “gamma bomb”. The X-Men’s awesome powers come from the radiation of their parents’ reproductive system. And Spiderman is the product of a teenage…