Ecology

Why wavy lines appear in photos of PC screens and what is the moiré effect

Why wavy lines appear in photos of PC screens and what is the moiré effect

The arrows and yellow curved lines indicate the obvious moiré effect present in the image. By pointing our smartphone camera at the computer or television screen, they will almost inevitably appear strange streaks or waves in the captured image. But why does this happen? For a very specific phenomenon, known as moiré effect. And no, it is not due to ...

High school students are not as anxious as psychiatric patients of the 1950s: we explain Twenge's study

High school students are not as anxious as psychiatric patients of the 1950s: we explain Twenge’s study

In recent days, the news has been circulating on social media and various information sites that today’s high school students have levels of anxiety comparable to those of patients admitted to mental asylums in the 1950s. This statement, however, is incorrect: it derives from an excessive simplification of a study published by the psychologist J.M. Twengea meta-analysis from which it ...

Salaries in Italy are stable compared to 1990 net of inflation: OECD and Istat data

Salaries in Italy are stable compared to 1990 net of inflation: OECD and Istat data

Those who work in Italy today earn, in real terms, less than they did in 1990. It is not a sensation, and it does not depend only on the inflation of recent years. This is data certified by the OECD, confirmed by Istat and reiterated by the Bank of Italy: Italian wages have been stagnant for over thirty yearsin a ...

Slingshot carousel, the cable breaks in Seville: the explanation

Slingshot carousel, the cable breaks in Seville: the explanation

We’ve all asked ourselves that question at least once in front of videos of a slingshot ride: “Ok, what if a cable breaks?” Yes, because you all know it: two people closed in a spherical capsule, shot tens of meters into the air, and almost always that moment, viral on TikTok and Instagram, in which they seem to faint for ...

5 Italian words whose accent we most often get wrong: among these are edile and persuade

5 Italian words whose accent we most often get wrong: among these are edile and persuade

It is said Friuli or Friuli? Aedile or èdile? Some words generate real doubts unrelated to grammar or spelling. This is the case oftonic accentthat is, the syllable on which the intonation of the voice falls when we pronounce a word. Unlike thegraphic accentwhich in Italian is written only in some cases, the tonic accent is almost always implicit. This ...

Chernobyl, what happened in the last 40 years and what the situation is today

Chernobyl, what happened in the last 40 years and what the situation is today

TO 40 years from the disaster of Chernobylthe most serious nuclear accident in history never ceases to be talked about. Since the creation of New Safe Confinement to the animal species that have transformed the exclusion zone into an enormous nature reserve, this unique territory in the world is still able to pose challenges and questions four decades later. But ...

Where do CAPTCHA images come from?

Where do CAPTCHA images come from?

CAPTCHA examples. Credit: Google. «Select all images with a bus». Who knows how many times you have had to pass an online security check, the so-called CAPTCHAand having to select all the boxes containing a bus, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, or a bicycle. Have you ever wondered Where do these photographs come from and why are they submitted to us? ...