Many of us are familiar with the anxiety and dread that can consume us ahead of speaking or performing in public. Throats run dry, sweat drips profusely, and it can feel like everyone hears your quickly thumping heart. But scientists wondered: Is the anxiety driving the heart to beat faster or could an increased heart rate cause anxiety? A new study published today...
Thirty thousand years ago, Europe was a land of open steppes with herds of grazing mammoth and other megafauna—and a strikingly uniform human culture. Its inhabitants, whom archaeologists call the Gravettians, dwelled in caves or in shelters built of mammoth bones. They carved palm-size sculptures from mammoth tusk, depicting mammoths, cave lions, and stylized female figurines with...
Researchers in Japan have demonstrated, for the first time in a fusion reactor, a type of fuel that is plentiful and doesn’t produce damaging particles. Although the reactions were nowhere close to achieving net energy and required even higher temperatures than standard fusion fuel, the result is a proof of principle for private fusion startup TAE Technologies, which argues that its...