Chair of Scientific Culture of the University of the Basque Country

Science

Science

[:es]To explain away dark matter, gravity would have to be really weird, cosmologists say[:]

[:es]Dark matter, the invisible stuff whose gravity is thought to hold galaxies together, may be the least satisfying concept in physics. But if you want to get rid of it, a new study finds, you’ll need to replace it with something even more bizarre: a force of gravity that, at some distances, pulls massive objects…
Science

[:es]Seas are rising faster than ever[:]

[:es]Ask climate scientists how fast the world’s oceans are creeping upward, and many will say 3.2 millimeters per year—a figure enshrined in the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, from 2014. But the number, based on satellite measurements taken since the early 1990s, is a long-term average. In fact, the global rate varied so…
Science

[:es]Microbes’ mystery DNA helps defeat viruses—and has genome-editing potential[:]

[:es]Seven years ago, an understanding of nature inspired a revolutionary new technology, when researchers turned a defense system used by bacteria to thwart viruses into the gene-editing tool now known as CRISPR. But for another emerging gene editor the understanding has lagged the applications. For several years, researchers have been adapting retrons—mysterious complexes of DNA,…
Science

[:es]Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug candidate takes a beating from FDA advisers[:]

[:es]If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants to approve the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in 17 years, it will have to do so against the overwhelming recommendation of the experts it turned to for advice on the matter. An independent advisory panel convened by the agency today to review data on…
Science

[:es]The Maya built the Western Hemisphere’s first water filtration system[:]

[:es]The Maya city of Tikal is famous for its soaring palaces and temples. But something far more humble kept Tikal functioning: its water filtration system, the earliest known of its kind. Researchers recently discovered a volcanic mineral that captures microbes and heavy metals in one of Tikal’s largest reservoirs. Because the material is not found…
Science

[:es]Europe is locking down a second time. But what is its long-term plan?[:]

[:es]Most countries are reacting without a long-term plan, simply trying to avoid the worst. Officials differ about the best way to bring the numbers down again, and how low a level they should strive for. And no one knows what comes next. Short of vaccines to save the day, countries may face an exhausting series…
Science

[:es]United Kingdom lights up its unusual fusion reactor[:]

[:es]The United Kingdom’s revamped fusion reactor, known as the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade, powered up for the first time yesterday after a 7-year build. The £55 million device will be a testbed for technologies critical to all future fusion reactors, and may provide a stepping stone to a new design of energy-producing facility.[:]
Science

[:es]The universe teems with weird black holes, gravitational-wave hunters find[:]

[:es]Less than 5 years ago, physicists rocked the scientific world when they first spotted gravitational waves—fleeting ripples in space and time—set off when two gargantuan black holes billions of light-years away swirled into each other. Since then, scientists have detected a scad of similar events, mostly reported event by event. Today, however, researchers with a…
Science

[:es]Dogs and cats became family—and got their shot at heaven—after World War II[:]

[:es]In 1896, a grieving woman showed up at the office of her Manhattan veterinarian with an unusual request: Her dog had just died, and she wanted to give it a proper burial. The sympathetic doc offered a spot in his apple orchard north of the city. Word caught on, and soon the vet was besieged…