• The Big Bang in Europe: How Gunpowder Changed the Medieval World

    The Big Bang in Europe: How Gunpowder Changed the Medieval World

    The Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, was a fighter's warrior. Philip had been a soldier since he was a boy, hawk-nosed, ambitious, and aggressive. When he fought with his father, King John II of France, at the battle of Poitiers in 1356, he was still a smooth-faced 14-year-old child. When Edward, the Black Prince of Wales, defeated the French on the field at Poitiers, he, like King John, was taken prisoner by the English. A decade later, the duke, always seeking for a method to gain an advantage over the English invaders, welcomed a fresh technology: gunpowder.
  • Control group outperforms mediums in psychic test

    Control group outperforms mediums in psychic test

    Some volunteers performed above chance. They weren't the psychics.
  • Four scenarios for the next supercontinent

    Four scenarios for the next supercontinent

    The arc of geological history is long, but it bends towards supercontinents – so, what will the next one look like?
  • Baby universes led to black holes and dark matter, proposes paper

    Baby universes led to black holes and dark matter, proposes paper

    Are we living in a baby universe that looks like a black hole to outside observers? New study raises possibility.
  • New antidepressants work faster, but don't expect miracles

    New antidepressants work faster, but don't expect miracles

    Chances are high that you or someone you know will experience a period when depression gets in the way of work, social life or family life. Nearly two in three people with depression will experience severe effects.
  • How ‘heat death’ will destroy the universe

    How ‘heat death’ will destroy the universe

    The expansion of the universe is speeding up—contrary to what many physicists expected. A "heat death" is coming, but it's not what you think.