A discovery six years ago took the condensed-matter physics world by storm: Ultra-thin carbon stacked in two slightly askew layers became a superconductor, and changing the twist angle between layers could toggle their electrical properties. The landmark 2018 paper describing “magic-angle…
Category: 7. SciTech
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Can Your Acne Predict How Well You’ll Age? » ScienceABC
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According to a 2016 study by researchers at King’s College London, those who had acne when they were younger also had longer telomeres and a change in certain cellular pathways related to age. This is a correlation, and the precise…
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Why Is Our Fascination With Japanese Tea Ceremonies So Persistent? » ScienceABC
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The Japanese tea ceremony endures due to Zen influence, simplicity, and cultural preservation, simultaneously offering mindfulness and honoring tradition.
Guests sit on tatami mats, dressed in elegant kimonos. A tea master, wearing…
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Professor tailored AI tutor to physics course. Engagement doubled. — Harvard Gazette
Think of a typical college physics course: brisk notetaking, homework struggles, studying for tough exams. Now imagine access to a tutor who answers questions at any hour, never tires, and never judges. Might you learn more? Maybe even twice as much?
That’s the unexpected takeaway from a…
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Did lawmakers know role of fossil fuels in climate change during Clean Air Act era? — Harvard Gazette
How much was known at mid-20th century about the dangers of human-caused climate change? A lot more than the most Americans think.
With a new paper in the Ecology Law Quarterly, Naomi Oreskes and a team of science historians detail more than a century of research connecting carbon dioxide…
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When A Car Brakes, Where Does The Energy Go? » ScienceABC
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When you apply your car’s brakes, the kinetic energy of the car is mostly converted to heat due to friction. However, in newer hybrid/electric cars, some of this energy is stored to be used again.
Imagine cruising down the street in…
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How Can Soil Solarization Protect Plants? » ScienceABC
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Soil solarization helps kill pathogens that infect plants—such as worms, fungi, and bacteria—using heat. Farmers who use this method insulate the soil with a layer of plastic wrap during the hottest time of the year to heat the soil….
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Physicists ease path to entanglement for quantum sensing — Harvard Gazette
Nothing in science can be achieved or understood without measurement. Today, thanks to advances in quantum sensing, scientists can measure things that were once impossible to even imagine: vibrations of atoms, properties of individual photons, fluctuations associated with gravitational…
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How Do Living Bridges Grow? » ScienceABC
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Living bridges, like those found in the state of Meghalaya in India, are grown by manipulating the roots of a plant called Ficus elastica. This is possible because the plant grows on other trees and produces aerial roots that can then…
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Should kids play Wordle? — Harvard Gazette
A series of random questions answered by Harvard experts.
Millions of people play Wordle, the popular online game in which players must guess a five-letter word in six tries. We asked researcher Nadine Gaab, associate professor of education at the Harvard Graduate…
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