The Conversation

[:es]Researchers recently managed to recreate the voice of 5,300-year-old Ötzi the iceman by recreating his vocal tract. The technology is promising and could be used to digitally produce the voices of other mummified remains. But how does it work and what else could it be used for?[:]

[:es]Following a serendipitous finding by researchers at Swansea University that rubbing a metal surface with a tissue does not necessarily remove the finger mark ridge minutiae, we started to investigate why this might be so – and, importantly, how the finger mark might be revealed. [:]

Amputees often report the phenomenon of “phantom limbs”, where they can still sense the presence of missing fingers, hands, arms, feet or legs, and even feel pain where the amputated parts once were. So far, science has had no explanation for this phenomenon.

New technology is now emerging that could enable CSIs to capture and relay a much more immersive and representative picture of crime scenes, using 3D imaging, panoramic videography, robotics and virtual reality.

For nearly nine decades, science’s favorite explanation for the origin of life has been the “primordial soup”. This is the idea that life began from a series of chemical reactions in a warm pond on Earth’s surface, triggered by an external energy source such as lightning strike or ultraviolet (UV) light. But recent research adds…

An exciting idea being explored is developing submarines to send through space to the moons. Over the next two years, NASA is devoting half a million dollars to researching the prospect of sending such a vehicle to Titan. But there are other studies out there, too – with targets including Jupiter’s Europa and Ganymede, and…

The current selection system could easily miss world-class footballers such as Xavier “Xavi” Hernández Creus, who plays for Qatari club Al Sadd SC, and fellow Spaniard Andres Iniesta, who plays for FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team – both physically small in stature. Yet they both have the outstanding brain abilities that have allowed…

The power of niceness shouldn’t be underestimated. Some studies have shown that having a nice personality can even affect impressions of a person’s physical attractiveness.

The point is that hills make rain – or to be more precise, hills can create the conditions which cause moisture in the air to condense and fall as rain. This insight has whetted the appetite of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Not content with the Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building) and the man-made…