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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins
@alexwilkins.bsky.social
880 followers 940 following 71 posts
journalist with New Scientist focusing on physics, space and tech. https://www.alex-wilkins.com/
www.alex-wilkins.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Aug 20
In 1989, it seemed like room-temperature nuclear fusion might be possible, solving the world's energy problems.

But cold fusion, as it was known, was soon dead in the water after failed replications.

Now, a new experiment has resurrected its ghost ☢️

www.newscientist.com/article/2493...
Nuclear fusion gets a boost from a controversial debunked experiment
A 1989 experiment offered the promise of nuclear fusion without the need for high temperatures, but this "cold fusion" was quickly debunked. Now, some of the techniques involved have been resurrected ...
www.newscientist.com
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Reposted by Alex Wilkins
jenlucpiquant.bsky.social
Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · Aug 20
Flower-like origami patterns could inspire folding spacecraft www.newscientist.com/article/2493...
Flower-like origami patterns could inspire folding spacecraft
Engineers have developed a class of origami structures that unfold in one smooth motion to create flower-like shapes, which could have applications in space
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Aug 20
These gorgeous origami shapes - an entirely new family called bloom patterns - could be used to design new, more effective space telescopes or solar panels.

www.newscientist.com/article/2493...
Flower-like origami patterns could inspire folding spacecraft
Engineers have developed a class of origami structures that unfold in one smooth motion to create flower-like shapes, which could have applications in space
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Aug 15
We've all been caught in the annoying perpetual loop of removing and putting on a jacket when the weather is temperamental ⛅

This jacket gets thinner when you sweat and puffs up when your skin is dry, meaning you can wear it come rain or shine.

www.newscientist.com/article/2492...
Jacket that gets thinner when you sweat could help avoid overheating
A material made from bacterial cellulose alters its insulating properties in dry and moist conditions, which could help you stay a comfortable temperature whatever the weather
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Aug 15
A flash of light from cosmic noon, billions of years ago, could be used to illuminate all the shadowy gas in-between us and the early universe 💥

www.newscientist.com/article/2492...
Oldest fast radio burst ever seen sheds light on early star formation
A bright flash of radio waves from 3 billion years after the big bang is illuminating parts of the universe that astronomers can’t normally see
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Aug 13
If you've ever wanted to know how best to play Guess Who? and make your chances of winning around 65% each time, then you should follow this strategy devised by mathematicians.

www.newscientist.com/article/2491...
Mathematicians have worked out the optimal strategy for Guess Who?
The quickest way to win the board game Guess Who? involves asking sneaky questions that involve a logical paradox, according to mathematicians
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Jul 28
Our best hope for alien life, as astronomers reported earlier this year, seems to be fading away.

New observations of K2-18b can't find any strong evidence for the apparent biosignature that got many excited.

www.newscientist.com/article/2489...
Signs of alien life on exoplanet K2-18b have all but vanished
Earlier this year, astronomers reported possible evidence of life on another planet – but new observations from JWST suggest the apparent biosignature isn’t there after all
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Jul 25
You'd expect the first stars to form at the beginning of the universe but surprisingly, astronomers have found a galaxy full of just-born stars much, much later (hundreds of millions of years later)

www.newscientist.com/article/2489...
Peculiar galaxy seems to contain surprisingly pristine stars
Stars uncontaminated by heavier elements are thought to have formed very early in the universe, but a galaxy much later in cosmic history might let us see them for the first time
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Jul 23
There might be ~no limit~ to how hot you can heat a solid beyond its melting point*

*as long as you do it very, very quickly.

www.newscientist.com/article/2489...
Gold can be heated to 14 times its melting point without melting
With fast heating, sheets of gold can shoot past the theoretical maximum temperature a solid can have before it melts – raising questions about what the true limits are
www.newscientist.com
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Reposted by Alex Wilkins
jenlucpiquant.bsky.social
Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · Jul 16
Underwater volcanic brine pools could be home to extreme life forms www.newscientist.com/article/2488...
Underwater volcanic brine pools could be home to extreme life forms
An expedition in the Red Sea found several brine pools that appear to be fed by underwater volcanoes, which may be home to microbes and animals with unique adaptations
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Jul 16
The ground has been moving under our feet for longer than we thought 🌍

Scientists have found evidence of tectonic plate-like activity hundreds of millions of years further back, at 3.5 billion years.

(plus the earliest known reversal of Earth's magnetic core!)

www.newscientist.com/article/2488...
Ancient rocks show earliest evidence of tectonic activity on Earth
The origins of plate tectonics on Earth are hotly debated, but evidence from Australia now shows that parts of the crust moved in relation to each other as early as 3.5 billion years ago
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Jul 10
Weird plants! Ancient Earth! Meteorites!

The strange story of the horsetail plant, and its unique ability to distil water up its stem, could tell us all sorts of fascinating things about what Earth was like billions of years ago

www.newscientist.com/article/2487...
Peculiar plant could help us reconstruct ancient Earth’s climate
Something strange happens to water as it moves through the stems of horsetail plants – and this unique process provides valuable clues for understanding past and present ecosystems
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · May 20
Scientists often have disagreements about how to interpret data and results, but it's quite remarkable just how wide the range of interpretations has become for whether we have found life on K2-18b.
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · May 20
Nikku Madhusudhan, one of the original researchers, said this makes him "slightly more confident" the original detection of the apparent biomolecule dimethyl sulphide was correct.

But other researchers have the opposite view, saying it is a "major change in interpretation within just one month".
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · May 20
Have we found evidence of alien life? The picture is getting much, much murkier.

Last month, astronomers said they'd found "strong evidence" of alien life.

They've now reanalysed the data and found more possible molecules that fit the data.

www.newscientist.com/article/2480...
Astronomers double down on claim of strongest evidence for alien life
Are there aliens living on the exoplanet K2-18b? Some astronomers believe they have evidence for molecules on the planet that must have a biological origin, but others disagree
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · May 7
Training an AI model on the English population's health data is a massive legal and ethical grey area, but researchers have done it anyway.

It *might* one day help doctors predict disease, but it's unclear whether it ever can without breaking the law.

www.newscientist.com/article/2479...
Concerns raised over AI trained on 57 million NHS medical records
The makers of an AI model called Foresight say it could help predict disease or hospitalisation rates, but others have expressed concern about the fact it is trained on millions of health records
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Apr 25
Their online splash was different, which is maybe what you're remembering bsky.app/profile/rowh...
rowhoop.bsky.social
Rowan Hooper @rowhoop.bsky.social · Apr 17
Alien life has NOT just been discovered, contrary to the impression given by some news outlets.
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Apr 17
Sensational claims of life on another planet are just that - claims.

What would we need for those claims to be verified?

More work from independent groups, more data and a real look at non-biological alternatives, which could take years, or forever.

www.newscientist.com/article/2477...
Will we ever have confirmation of life outside our solar system?
The report of possible biosignatures on the exoplanet K2-18b is exciting, but we are a long way from establishing beyond doubt that there is life on such a distant world
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Apr 17
It's important to find whether alternative abiotic processes exist, but they would also need to be capable of producing the right amount of DMS too, or explain how they can deliver it to an atmosphere. Again, for a hypothetical 5 sigma watertight detection.
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Apr 17
True - but another caveat to the caveat. The apparent concentrations of DMS, *if true* (big if), are far greater than the small concentrations found in comets, and would require an insanely high rate of cometary delivery to sustain the levels that might be in K2-18b's atmosphere.
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Reposted by Alex Wilkins
sparkes.bsky.social
Matthew Sparkes @sparkes.bsky.social · Mar 12
Interesting tale here on D-Wave claiming last year that their quantum computers could do things that no classical computer could do. This week that paper passed peer-review. Success, right? No. Two teams of classical computer scientists say they've caught up.

www.newscientist.com/article/2471...
Doubts cast over D-Wave's claim of quantum computer supremacy
D-Wave's claim that its quantum computers can solve problems that would take hundreds of years on classical machines have been undermined by two separate research groups showing that even an ordinary ...
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Mar 12
The asteroid Bennu, which NASA brought back samples from to Earth in 2023, is baffling scientists with its abundance of nitrogen and odd magnetic properties.

www.newscientist.com/article/2471...
The asteroid Bennu is even weirder than we thought
Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu reveal that it has a bizarre chemical make-up and is unusually magnetic
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Feb 27
A computer contained in a thin thread of stitchable fabric could be used to record, and understand, all sorts of information about the body that devices like Apple watches can't.

And it's being tested on Canadian and US soldiers right now, in the Arctic.

www.newscientist.com/article/2470...
Thread-based computer could be knitted into clothes to monitor health
Wearable technology could go beyond smartwatches to items of clothing that monitor large parts of your body
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Feb 27
50 years after it was first dreamt up by Douglas Hofstadter, this fascinating fractal butterfly has been found in a real physical system (in graphene, no less)!

It's butterflies all the way down 🦋

www.newscientist.com/article/2470...
Physicists capture a strange fractal ‘butterfly’ for the first time
The electrons in a twisted piece of graphene show a strange repeating pattern first predicted in 1976, but never directly measured until now
www.newscientist.com
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alexwilkins.bsky.social
Alex Wilkins @alexwilkins.bsky.social · Feb 25
Another moon launch tomorrow, including:
🌑 The southern-most point ever visited
🌑 A hopping robot entering a crater w/ permanent shadows (for the 1st time)
🌑 An asteroid mining mission
🌑 A rover with a tiny cute ant-sized rover on its back

www.newscientist.com/article/2469...
Intuitive Machines' lunar lander Athena set to blast off to the moon
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is about to launch a number of missions, including a private lunar lander, a lunar satellite for NASA and a prospecting probe for an asteroid-mining company
www.newscientist.com
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