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Humans

The hunt for where the last Neanderthals lived

Clues from studies of ancient plants and animals have helped archaeologists pin down where the last Neanderthals found refuge, says columnist Michael Marshall

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Mathematics

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

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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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LIAOCHENG, CHINA - FEBRUARY 18: (CHINA OUT) People take photos with the glass sculpture of a Chinese cabbage installed at a square on February 18, 2016 in Liaocheng, Shandong Province of China. The glass sculpture is 9-meters tall and 5-meters wide. The Chinese cabbage is called

Life

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

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A large group of babies crawling in nappies or diapers

Health

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

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2G41YN6 USA. Christopher Lee in a scene from (C)New Line Cinema film: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002). PLOT: While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard. Director: Peter Jackson (Extended) Ref: LMK110-J7187-170621 Supplied by LMKMEDIA. Editorial Only. Landmark Media is not the copyright owner of these Film or TV stills but provides a service only for recognised Media outlets. pictures@lmkmedia.com

Technology

How not to misread science fiction

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An X-ray skull with coloured brain and neurons

Mind

What I’ll be doing to help detox my brain in the new year

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Technology

Quantum computers turned out to be more useful than expected in 2025

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Space

Cosmology’s Great Debate began a century ago – and is still going

Our understanding of the true nature of the cosmos relies on measurements of its expansion, but cosmologists have been arguing back and forth about it for more than 100 years

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Technology

This year we were drowning in a sea of slick, nonsensical AI slop

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Space

Comets were on fire this year – for better or worse

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Health

How I learned to keep my brain in better repair this year

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Humans

2025 was chock full of exciting discoveries in human evolution

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