Wonders of Science 2024, November

Some secret lab projects are supposed to make our world a better place. Others are looking to bring new high-tech products to market. Still others, well, completely incomprehensible at first glance

Anyone who has abused alcohol or cigarettes at least once knows that getting rid of this kind of addiction can sometimes be extremely difficult

The ionosphere is located at an altitude of fifty kilometers and higher from the Earth's surface. It is a shield that protects the planet from radiation from space. The ionosphere is saturated with ions and free electrons. Everyone knows this from the course of the school curriculum

People's Republic of China will spend thirty-five billion yuan (over $ 5 billion) building the world's most powerful particle accelerator

Since the days of the Wright brothers, aeronautical engineers have experimented with the design of the "Flying Wing": tailless aircraft without a defined fuselage. All components of the machine and the pilot himself are located in the wing plane

Identification by the face recognition system is becoming more and more popular: we, for example, when we were at MWC 2019, got to the event just with its help

1. Ancient Chinese mechanical horseThe wooden horse was created by Zhuge Liang, Shu Han's servant in 480 BC. It was supposed to be a mechanical walking copy of a horse, the main purpose of which is to carry supplies (grain) to the army.- Salik

“The day is not far off when ordinary books, newspapers and magazines will disappear. Each person will carry with them an electronic notepad - a combination of a flat-panel display with a miniature radio transceiver. By typing the required code on the keyboard of this notebook, one can, being anywhere on the planet, recall texts and images from giant computer databases, which will replace not only books, magazines and newspapers, but also televisions,”he wrote in the early 198

DAPRA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) wants to conduct bioengineering operations on common plants to turn them into spies

Even before the start of the Great Patriotic War, work was underway in the USSR and Germany to create a new type of weapon. Subterrins (combat underground "boats") were intended for covert movement under enemy territory, and then a surprise attack on strategic objects

Electrons are absolutely round, and some physicists are unhappy with this. New experiment captures the most detailed images of electrons to date

The curved tower, which was created by German specialists, is designed primarily to produce an effect on the viewer with its appearance. But the experts who worked on it hope that it is not only a work of art, but also a clear confirmation of their hypothesis that the processes of wood deformation as a result of drying can be controlled

If the male half of humanity disappears, then women will be able to continue the human race on their own through parthenogenetic reproduction. Leading Russian geneticists told Izvestia about this

The amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is steadily growing, so the issue of purifying the air of our planet is becoming more and more urgent. But why not use this gas to create fuel and save the planet at the same time?

Human intelligence is one of the most important inventions of evolution. This is the result of a sprint that began millions of years ago and led to an increase in brains and the emergence of new abilities. Ultimately, humans straightened their backs, took a plow and created civilization, while our primate cousins remained in the trees. So

Science is constantly looking for ways to extend human life and preserve human health. Programmer from Russia Valery Spiridonov will receive a new body

The Second World War is one of the conflicts in the history of mankind, rich in all kinds of technical, engineering inventions. Some certain things can be extremely difficult to understand these days. For example, why in Germany, in the Luftwaffe they installed some kind of rings on planes

Scientists from Moscow State University, together with their Japanese colleagues, learned how to change the polarization of the light flux, as well as slow down its speed, and almost ten times

Russian scientists, assigned to RSC Energia, managed to charge a mobile phone at a distance of 1.5 km. This extreme charging is made possible by a laser system. Experiment scientists conducted in a high-rise building in Korolevo near Moscow

In medieval Europe, beer was actively used by doctors to treat kidney diseases and bronchial asthma, but today the drink is considered one of the main reasons for a hangover and the development of the so-called "beer heart", when the muscle organ works in an enhanced mode and sags

There is no doubt that a manned mission to Mars will sooner or later take place and the first settlers will have to live somewhere. At the same time, the material for houses must be durable, inexpensive and withstand the harsh conditions of the red planet

Scientists at the Samara National Research University named after Sergei Korolev have developed a nano-satellite engine that runs on vodka (a 40% aqueous solution of ethyl alcohol). Reported by TASS

An antidote that neutralizes alcohol and toxic products of its decay, will save you from a hangover - and has already proven effective in rodent experiments

Scientists say synthetic alcohol, or alcosynth, is healthier than traditional alcohol and may help reduce the harm associated with the latter

Chilean scientists said they are developing an alcoholism vaccine that will be tested in humans next year. It will work to neutralize the enzyme that alcohol metabolizes

The main problem of modern cryonics (the science of freezing living tissues) is the difficulty in defrosting these tissues in such a way that ice crystals do not damage living material

For expeditions to Mars and the Moon to be successful, astronauts must remain healthy, despite the severe effects of weightlessness and deadly radiation. NASA scientists will conduct several experiments on humans to develop ways to defend against these threats

Small and low-yield nuclear weapons have historically been unlucky. In those blessed times, when nuclear charges of all types were actively developed and tested, there was no suitable isotope for them. Only plutonium-239 and uranium-235 were available, and you couldn't make a compact nuclear charge out of them

We already had a topic about how "The screwdriver became a fuse against a nuclear explosion", but I propose to read about this incident in more detail

For a long time, scientists have been trying to create conditions for a stable controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction

Astrophysicists have found that energy flows that cause heating reduce the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. This reduces deviations from the equilibrium values in the system and increases the efficiency of nuclear fusion reactions

The final stage of the installation of a laser thermonuclear installation was completed in Sarov last week. With its help, it is planned to conduct experiments on controlled inertial thermonuclear fusion. The idea of creating such a facility was first proposed in the 1950s by academicians Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm

Just recently, we told you about how a robotic surgeon performed successful kidney transplants in the UK. And here again, great news from Foggy Albion

For more than half a century, the creation of an effective thermonuclear reactor for generating electricity has remained an unattainable task that has united scientists from many countries, several fields of science and technology. It is all the more surprising that on October 12, 2019, the American Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) approved an application filed a year and a half ago for the design of not just a working, but also a compact thermonuclear reactor

In 2017, Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero plans to perform the first ever complex operation, during which he will transplant the head of a living patient onto the body of the deceased. The operation will be carried out in several stages

After the words of Vladimir Putin about the collection of biomaterials from Russians for mysterious purposes, the topic of genetic weapons went to the news tops. Basically, the very idea of such WMD is ridiculed, but, unfortunately, everything is not so simple

A meeting was held in Beijing to start work on the creation of 6G technologies. The reaction from Chinese readers was not long in coming. Many of them immediately remembered the United States, which is now "sleep deprived again." “Hey Americans, hurry up! H

William Norfolk of San Pedro, California is an inventor who has focused his energies on military tasks. And, perhaps, it was not his fault that his ideas were too non-standard and difficult to implement. His first invention was a system for "catching" enemy mines, torpedoes and even entire ships

Not so long ago, large-scale laser shows in Southeast Asia caused a wave of unexplained mental disorders

The world is again talking a lot about missiles, bombs and nuclear weapons. We could not pass by, and today's material will be devoted to a strange and eccentric, if I may say so about a deadly weapon, invention. The project appeared during the Cold War and was called (also rather strange) "Blue Peacock"