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Alcock and Brown leaving Newfoundland.

Charting the take-off of air travel

Juliana Adelman

From Alcock and Brown’s transatlantic crossing to global commercial flights, the 20th century saw astonishing developments in aviation

Head of 40,000-year-old Ice Age wolf found perfectly preserved in Russia

A handout picture taken shows the head of an ancient wolf, discovered in Russia. Photograph: AFP/Getty

Adult beast about 25 per cent bigger than today’s wolves

What’s inside a black hole? We’re looking into it

Ana Alonso-Serrano: ‘We need to push more for changing the image of a physicist as a man’

Conor Purcell

Physicist Ana Alonso-Serrano on black holes, wormholes and the multiverse theory

How to power all your devices – using your own body

Xinxin Xiao: ‘Health is an eternal theme of mankind’

Claire O'Connell

Research Lives: Dr Xinxin Xiao, post-doctoral researcher at Technical University of Denmark

Bats reveal genetic basis for extended lifespan and ability to resist cancer

The longest-lived species of bats, known as Myotis, pictured in Brittany. Photograph: Olivier Farcy/Bretagne Vivante

Kevin O'Sullivan

Critical evidence intervention in ageing process might increase quality of living

Embrace, a sculpture where a simple closed curve separates two regions. Photograph: Prof Robert Bosch of Oberlin College, Ohio

Where ‘simple curves’ become more complex than you think

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: The Jordan curve theorem shows an example of how intuition can lead us astray

The first-ever photograph of a black hole, taken using a global network of telescopes, conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope project. Photograph: Reuters

Is dark matter composed of black holes?

William Reville

The embarrassing gap in science’s understanding of the universe may soon be filled

Hurricane Frances displays the Coriolis effect which has a dominant influence on the global circulation of the atmosphere and oceans.

Rotation of Earth results in spin-off effects

Peter Lynch

Weather and ballistics among areas affected by Coriolis effect

Charles Darwin discovered natural selection.

How to recognise alien life

William Reville

Life on other planets may not be carbon- and water-based but the familiar principles of natural selection will almost certainly apply

‘Why do prominent scientists such as Richard Dawkins still campaign to replace religion with science?’ Photograph: Alan Betson

Science would be well advised to avoid picking fights with religion

William Reville

Promoting science to replace religion often has the opposite effect, and scientists would be well-advised to stop picking futile fights

Maryam Mirzakhani was awarded a Fields Medal for her mathematical research. She died from breast cancer at the age of 40 in 2017.

The rise and rise of women in maths

Peter Lynch

Once a field dominated by men, brilliant women mathematicians are finally getting the recognition they deserve

Plants are easily the dominant life form on Earth, constituting 80% of total biomass. Humanity barely registers in comparison. File photograph: Cyril Byrne

Plants are worthy of same compassion we show animals

William Reville

Incredibly versatile life forms that dominate the planet deserve greater respect

Kepler’s vanishing circles hidden in Hamilton’s Hodograph

Peter Lynch

Great Irish scientist William Rowan Hamilton devised the hodograph and used it in his analysis of the motions of the planets

Animals that pass the mirror test have large brains relative to body size and have higher levels of empathy and social awareness. You might wonder about ants passing the test, but the brains of some ant species constitutes 15 per cent of body mass

The mirror test of self-awareness

William Reville

Only a handful of species have been shown to possess the ability of visual self-recognition

Yitang Zhang: While working for University of New Hampshire as a lecturer, Zhang submitted an article to the Annals of Mathematics in 2013 which established the first finite bound on the least gap between consecutive primes that is attained infinitely often

Closing the gap between prime numbers

Peter Lynch

The Twin Prime Conjecture remains unproven. The quest to close the gap is ongoing

Phillips’s simulation of a developing unstable wave in the atmosphere. While at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton he made the first computer simulation of the global climate

A pioneer of climate modelling – and maths

Peter Lynch

The work of Norman A Phillips had a galvanising effect on the meteorological community

The adult intestine hosts about 1.2kg of bacteria and many of these microbes are essential for good health. Graphic: Getty Images

Hyping the microbiome may have unpleasant side effects

William Reville

Data is piling up but a theory with which to interpret it remains to be developed

Joseph Fourier’s idea that the Earth’s atmosphere acts like an insulator is the first formulation of what we now call the greenhouse effect. File photograph: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

How Joseph Fourier discovered the greenhouse effect

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: French physicist’s study of heat conduction led him to analyse why Earth was so warm

The new research is the work of a company called Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd, based in Ness Ziona, Israel. Photograph: VVG/Science Photo Library

Israeli cancer treatment could be something special

William Reville

Company’s efforts to address issues around cell mutations met with scepticism

Hokusai’s woodcut The Great Wave off Kanagawa. The wave is estimated at more than 10m in height. In January 2014, a wave off Killard Point in Co Clare was measured at almost 30m.

Hokusai’s great wave and roguish behaviour

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: Consensus on the origins and behaviour of rogue waves is only beginning to emerge

Declining birth rates are no longer confined to the western world. Photograph: Erik De Castro/Reuters

Earth’s population may start to fall from 2040. Does it matter?

William Reville

William Reville: As populations age and are not replenished, societies could be strained

We are fortunate to be meat-eaters because meat drove the evolution of our large brains and complex bodies. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times

Humans are not ready to take red meat totally off the menu

William Reville

Our diets may be bad for our health, but a vegetarian world would create new problems

Sequencing is important in sports: penalty shoot-outs in football, service order in tennis tie-breaks and choice of colour in chess matches. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images

A mathematical formula for sharing fair and square

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: Even the naming of the Thue-Morse sequence is about fair play

Cloud computing: we could be walking in the footsteps of some of the world’s greatest thinkers. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times

Ramble on: exercising your mind in the great outdoors

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: nature provides a myriad mathematical puzzles to ponder as you walk

Our sedentary lifestyle, 5000 or less steps per day, is correlated with a spectrum of diseases; cardiovascular, diabetes and more. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

Apes can be lazy and never get fat. We can’t. How come?

William Reville

Understanding the difference explains why modern lifestyles damage our health

Pills or placebo? Science may not be the only way to understand illness and healing and that the placebo effect is a biological response to the act of caring – the rituals involved trigger specific neurobiological pathways that modulate body sensations, symptoms and emotions

Patient care and enzyme release appear crucial to placebo effect

William Reville

Research points to biochemical basis for perplexing but powerful medical treatment

This artist’s impression compares the seven planets orbiting the ultra-cool red dwarf star Trappist-1 to the Earth at the same scale. They are shown to the same scale but not in the correct relative positions. Image: M Kornmesser/ESO

Lessons from potentially habitable planets could have deep resonance

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: Significance of Kepler’s theory on orbital periods shown in Trappist-1A

Sir Roger Scruton believes heresy is central to understanding the erosion of free speech

New doctrine threatens freedom of speech in universities

William Reville

Bowing to fear of causing offence undermines fundamental principle of free enquiry

“Trees are approximately conical in shape . . . Cones are developable surfaces: they can be flattened out into a plane without being stretched or shrunk.” Photograph: Fabian Bimmer/AP

Consider a spherical Christmas tree

Peter Lynch

Scientific models can oversimplify complex real-world phenomena

Lava erupts near Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano. Experiments show that hot spring pools can sequester simple biological chemical building blocks into membrane-enclosed compartments. Photograph: Armann Hoskuldsson/Reuters

Did life begin on Earth in volcanic pools?

William Reville

Confirmation of hypothesis could guide exploration for life on other planets

One source of randomness is atmospheric noise, the “static” generated by lightning discharges. Photograph: Julian Stratenschulte/EPA

Random numbers plucked from the atmosphere

Peter Lynch

Randomness defies precise definition despite attempts to define it over the years

Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, proposed eugenics as a science in the late 1800s

New eugenics proposals must be interrogated very carefully

William Reville

William Reville: Social pressure on parents to go along with genetic enhancement of offspring would be great

Many critics now blame this self-esteem movement for producing a generation of emotionally fragile young adults. Photograph: iStock

Self-esteem is great – so long as it is rooted in reality

William Reville

William Reville: The misguided US self-esteem fad lingers on this side of the Atlantic

An illustration of Prof James Moriarty in Conan Doyle’s work bears a striking resemblance to a photograph of Prof George Boole (left) and may well have been based on it.

Could Sherlock Holmes’s true nemesis have been a mathematician?

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: New book suggests Arthur Conan Doyle based Moriarty on George Boole

Kepler’s idea was not warmly supported by his contemporaries, but harmonic relations are known today to be crucial. Photograph: Getty

Harmony was at the core of Johannes Kepler’s cosmic model

Peter Lynch

That’s Maths: For Kepler, music played a key role in the emergence of the new astronomy

Columnists

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson -

Belfast’s dreadful murals should be consigned to the past

Janan Ganesh

Janan Ganesh -

Democrats still cling to idea of US as a redemptive force in the world

Peter Cluskey

Peter Cluskey - Hague Correspondent

Dutch royal visit included a brave gesture of respect for my late wife

Maureen Dowd

Maureen Dowd -

Trump is a gargoyle atop the White House, chomping on US values

Citizen Science The Irish Times and citizen science researchers have teamed up. See the results here

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Features & Opinion

Money for taking care of the environment does not grow on trees

The amount the Government is currently spending on maintaining nature is pitiful

Marine reserves work as they protect the oldest and largest animals

After centuries of fishing we do not know what natural conditions are. Only marine reserves will give us such insights

Einstein, Eddington and the 1919 eclipse

Observations of solar eclipse confirmed accuracy of theory of relativity

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