
The mysterious biomechanics of riding – and balancing – a bicycle
Feb 25, 2016 04:27 am UTC| Science
Humans have been riding bicycle-like machines for close to 200 years, beginning with the Draisine or velocipede in 1817. While riding and balancing a bicycle can seem simple and effortless, the actual control process...

Could big dinosaurs swim? Scientists follow the footprints
Feb 24, 2016 14:12 pm UTC| Science
How far can you trust a footprint? Dinosaur footprints are fascinating but theres a question over how reliable they are at providing information about the palaeobiology of the creatures that made them. While certain prints...

What is time – and why does it move forward?
Feb 22, 2016 16:22 pm UTC| Science
Imagine time running backwards. People would grow younger instead of older and, after a long life of gradual rejuvenation unlearning everything they know they would end as a twinkle in their parents eyes. Thats time as...
Chemistry has a bright future for us and our economy
Feb 19, 2016 02:44 am UTC| Science
Chemistry is the science of molecules: the basic building blocks of all known matter. In a way, this makes chemistry the science of everything. Chemists have shown that all the substances around us the Earth and indeed...

Mussel power: how ocean acidification is changing shells
Feb 19, 2016 01:04 am UTC| Science
One of the big problems with the worlds heavy carbon emissions is that they are driving up the levels of carbon dioxide in our oceans, which is making them more acidic. The surface pH of the oceans has already dropped from...

Solving 'Darwin's Paradox': why coral island hotspots exist in an oceanic desert
Feb 19, 2016 00:53 am UTC| Science
It was Charles Darwin, almost 200 years ago, who first asked how it could be that coral reefs could flourish in relatively barren parts of the Pacific Ocean. This conundrum subsequently became known as Darwins...
Gravitational waves offer glimpse into the past – but will we ever catch ripples from the Big Bang?
Feb 18, 2016 12:45 pm UTC| Science
Einstein was right changes in gravity do spread as waves through space. The LIGO experiment detected such waves from a collision between two black holes with masses of about 36 and 29 times that of the sun (described as...