Nuclear fusion, a reaction in which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier one, is the process that powers the Sun and the stars, capable of releasing enormous quantities of energy. But then, if it works so well in nature, why can’t we reproduce it on Earth too? Nuclear fusion is clean, safe, practically inexhaustible. To get it ...
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer; via Wikimedia Commons We all know her face, even without having studied it: slightly turned to the left, her gaze turned towards the observer, the colorful turban on her head and a fleshy pearl hanging from her ear and her mouth open, something not common in Dutch paintings. This is an element that ...
Image generated with AI. If you are passionate about music, and musical media in particular, you may have heard the story that the CDs were 74 minutes long to contain Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. For decades it was believed that the Compact discor CD, would last for 74 minutes Why Norio Ohgapresident of Sony and classical music enthusiast, wanted the Ninth ...
MotoGP helmets must guarantee maximum protection and stability. Credit: Box Repsol, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons When a driver takes to the track, every gesture is calculated down to the millimetre. But there is one element that must always work, with no margin for error: the helmet. Beneath the graphics and sponsorships, a true engineering masterpiece is hidden. Today ...
Can AI chatbots really replace a psychologist? Short answer: no, it’s not a good idea to replace your psychologist with AI. He lacks real empathy, does not pick up on non-verbal cues and does not have the sensitivity necessary to ask the right questions. However, it can act as apsychological first aid” when you don’t have immediate access to a ...
Often, when a new earthquake occurs in the Campi Flegrei, I don’t find out about it from the seismographs, but from people.“Earthquake.”“Andrei, that was cool.”“Now yes, never felt so strong.”Well, when they tell me that, I immediately take action to understand what it was about.I check the INGV data, compare the locations, look at the depth, and as usual I ...
Six different galaxy clusters captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The clusters were observed in a study of the behavior of dark matter. Credit: ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons There dark matter represents one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics. Although invisibleexercise severity in the Universe, but it does not emit or absorb light. The evolution ...
The October 25th we celebrate the World Pasta Daya food loved all over the world, and for some time it has been discussed whether this specialty, today associated with our culture and the Mediterranean diet, was invented in Italy or in Asia. From the sources at our disposal, we know that pasta was born in China at least 4,000 years ...
The Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D allowed Filippo Ganna to set the new Hour record. Credit: CICLI PINARELLO SRL In 2022, Filippo Ganna wrote a new page of “Hour record” in Grenchen, Switzerland, cycling for 56,792 kilometers in sixty minutes exactly. It’s one of cycling’s purest and most raw tests: an hour of covering as much ground as possible, alone, ...
Artist’s impression of the exoplanet GJ 251 c. Credit: University of California Irvine An exoplanet candidate with at least 4 times the mass of the Earthprobably rocky like ours, potentially capable of hosting liquid water on its surface and – so as not to miss anything – very close to the Solar System in astronomical terms (“just” 18 light years): ...