Category: Science

A nugget of gold on public display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, U.S., November 17, 2012. | Photo Credit: James St. John Sometimes a scientific study comes along that reminds us not all the natural mysteries of this world demand highly specialised knowledge or million-dollar experiments to solve. Instead, they reveal something…

Read More “Could quakes explain why gold nuggets are found in quartz veins?” »

Empires of old are shrouded in mystery and are the subject of intense historical investigation. Given the enormous time scales and the lack of written records, accurate details of most founders of these empires have been lost to the vagaries of oral history. Many of them have been turned into legends, their life stories left…

Read More “Gene of thrones: genomes of rulers reveal how empires rose and fell” »

Climate change is stressing rainforests where the highly sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers need not despair, say companies that are researching other ways to grow cocoa or develop cocoa substitutes. Scientists and entrepreneurs are working on ways to make more cocoa that stretch well beyond the tropics, from Northern California to Israel. California…

Read More “Will chocolate’s future hinge on success of growing cocoa in the lab?” »

Cities around the world, but especially in Asia, are growing upwards faster than they are spreading outwards, a new study published in Nature Cities has found. In an increasingly urban and urbanising world, taller buildings can accommodate more people in less space but they can also negatively affect existing infrastructure, the local environment, and even…

Read More “Asian cities are growing upwards more than outwards, satellite data show” »