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2Y7R9XY Ehningen, Germany. 01st Oct, 2024. A model of a suspension of the quantum chip of a Quantum System Two quantum computer is on display at the opening of the first quantum data center of the computer company IBM. Credit: Marijan Murat/dpa/Alamy Live News

Technology

How to finally get a grasp on quantum computing

If your New Year’s resolution is to understand quantum computing this year, take a cue from a 9-year-old podcaster talking to some of the biggest minds in the field, says quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

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Why non-human culture should change how we see nature

Life

Why non-human culture should change how we see nature

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AI is promising to revolutionise how we diagnose mental illness

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Humans

The hunt for where the last Neanderthals lived

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Mathematics

Why it’s easy to be misunderstood when talking about probability

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Why connecting with nature shouldn't mean disconnecting from science

Life

Why connecting with nature shouldn't mean disconnecting from science

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Making autism into a partisan issue can only be harmful

Mind

Making autism into a partisan issue can only be harmful

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This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a rare cosmic phenomenon called an Einstein ring. What at first appears to be a single, strangely shaped galaxy is actually two galaxies that are separated by a large distance. The closer foreground galaxy sits at the center of the image, while the more distant background galaxy appears to be wrapped around the closer galaxy, forming a ring.?? Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent (or ???lensed???) about a massive intermediate (or ???lensing???) object. This is possible because spacetime, the fabric of the Universe itself, is bent by mass, and therefore light travelling through space and time is bent as well. This effect is much too subtle to be observed on a local level, but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales, such as when the light from one galaxy is bent around another galaxy or galaxy cluster. When the lensed object and the lensing object line up just so, the result is the distinctive Einstein ring shape, which appears as a full circle (as seen here) or a partial circle of light around the lensing object, depending on the precision of the alignment. Objects like these are the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see. The lensing galaxy at the center of this Einstein ring is an elliptical galaxy, as can be seen from the galaxy???s bright core and smooth, featureless body. This galaxy belongs to a galaxy cluster named SMACSJ0028.2-7537. The lensed galaxy wrapped around the elliptical galaxy is a spiral galaxy. Even though its image has been warped as its light travelled around the galaxy in its path, individual star clusters and gas structures are clearly visible. The Webb data used in this image were taken as part of the Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey (programme 5594), which is led by Guillaume Mahler at University of

Space

I'm calling it – 2026 is going to be the year of the galaxy

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Space

The first quantum fluctuations set into motion a huge cosmic mystery

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Woman athlete trail runner running and climbing mountain cliff during her training.

Mind

The 3 things you should do this New Year to foster a positive mindset

Olivia Remes, a mental health researcher at the University of Cambridge, says these are the three things everyone should do this New Year to cultivate a more positive mindset

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2026 is set to be an even bigger year for weight-loss drugs

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Life

Could James and the Giant Peach inspire the future of food?

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Space

Why I'm going to reap the mental health benefits of stargazing in 2026

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Gene-edited babies are the future – but these CRISPR start-ups aren’t

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