Ecology

An underwater drone navigates without GPS thanks to an atomic clock: the experiment succeeded for the first time

An underwater drone navigates without GPS thanks to an atomic clock: the experiment succeeded for the first time

The Excalibur underwater drone. Credit: Royal Navy For the first time a underwater drone unmanned he navigated relying not on external satellite signals but on a internal atomic clockcapable of keeping time with a precision comparable to that of the best metrology laboratories. The experimentation involves the Royal Navythe British company MSubs And Inflectiona company working on quantum technologies based ...

Love padlocks attached to bridges: where they are placed, why and how the custom was born

Love padlocks attached to bridges: where they are placed, why and how the custom was born

The padlock has been around since ancient times symbol of promise and dedicationand in Italy the custom of attaching them to bridges, fences, gates, monuments or public buildings as a promise of eternal love became famous after the film “I want you”, released in 2007. But already in the 1930s the TOItalian military cadets they attached the lock of their ...

The oldest ice ever found on Earth has been discovered in Antarctica: it is 6 million years old

The oldest ice ever found on Earth has been discovered in Antarctica: it is 6 million years old

Drilling in Antarctica. Credit: Julia Marks Peterson, COLDEX A team of US researchers has extracted in East Antarcticain the Allan Hills regionthe oldest ice core ever found on Earth. Has well 6 million years and the tiny air bubbles that he trapped during the transformation from snow to ice reveal the composition that had the atmosphere during the called era ...

Campi Flegrei, the new alert scheme comes into force: what phase 2 of the yellow alert means

Campi Flegrei, the new alert scheme comes into force: what phase 2 of the yellow alert means

The map of the national emergency planning zones in the Phlegraean area. Credit: Civil Protection To the Phlegraean Fields the new alert scheme has officially come into force, with the Civil Protection department confirming the adoption of the phase 2 of the yellow alert (attention level) for volcanic risk. Even in the presence of the variation of some parameters, therefore, ...

The history of the collapsed Torre dei Conti in Rome: what is the medieval building symbol of the Counts of Segni

The history of the collapsed Torre dei Conti in Rome: what is the medieval building symbol of the Counts of Segni

A postcard of Rome depicting the Torre dei Conti. Credit: Italian Touring Club There Tower of the Counts returned to the center of attention after the building partially collapsed during some restoration and static consolidation works, causing the death of a 66-year-old worker, Octay Stroici. The causes of the accident, which occurred on November 3 with a first collapse around ...

Why we love popping bubble wrap bubbles so much: the principle of fidget toys

Why we love popping bubble wrap bubbles so much: the principle of fidget toys

Let’s be honest: finding yourself in your hands a sheet of bubble wrap and resisting the temptation to burst a few bubbles is a truly difficult task. And, once started, it is impossible to stop: one bubble leads to another until the sheet is completely flattened. A premise must be made: no scientific study still investigated why bursting bubble wrap ...

Riddle of the boxes and balls: here's the solution

Riddle of the boxes and balls: here’s the solution

In the’Riddle of the boxes and ballsthe situation is this: there are three boxes, one containing only white balls, one containing only black balls, while the third is mixed, containing both colors (in the video attached to the article, the balls are blue and green, but it can be done with any color). Each box has a label indicating the ...

Bradyseism at the Campi Flegrei stable at 20 mm/month, earthquakes decreasing: the new INGV bulletin

Bradyseism at the Campi Flegrei stable at 20 mm/month, earthquakes decreasing: the new INGV bulletin

Slight decrease in seismic activity at Campi Flegrei in the last week of monitoring (27 October – 2 November 2025). The INGV Vesuvian Observatory recorded 149 earthquakes (compared to 178 the previous week), with a maximum magnitude of 2.1lower than last week’s 2.8. However, the bradyseism: the ground lifting speed is confirmed at the preliminary average value of approximately 20 ...