91É«ÇéƬ

If we exclude the panspermia hypothesis, then life on Earth, with key biomolecules utilising only one of two possible mirror-image – or chiral – forms, arose from random "experiments" in which prebiotic molecules became self-replicating and able to adapt ( 1 March, p 34 ). It seems unlikely that only a single instance survived to …

Assuming the chirality of life on Earth was randomly selected and locked in, the opposite chirality could have happened just as easily. We are now exploring other worlds and moons looking for life. What if we discover mirror bacteria on Saturn's moon Titan? Would it be safe to return samples to Earth? Would any hitchhiking …

The idea that artificial intelligence has no "clear use case" is, in my opinion, disconnected from the facts. Many may feel that AI usage has negative consequences, but there are plenty of stories of people using it in effective ways ( Leader, 15 February ). My younger colleagues avoid Google. They use ChatGPT or its …

Talk of how to cook the perfect boiled egg reminds me of trying to cook one in compost. My compost bin was insulated to accelerate decomposition, so got unusually hot. I buried a foil-wrapped egg about 20 centimetres deep in it and left it for 1 hour. The result was a hard-boiled yolk swimming in …

The wish, need or preference to pin down a precise official start date for the Anthropocene is curious. The boundary between the preceding epochs, the Pleistocene and Holocene, says Encyclopaedia Britannica , is "around 10,300 ± 200 years" ago. Perhaps it makes sense for the Anthropocene start date to remain uncertain, too ( 22 February, …

Could it be that the research on proclivity for dessert focuses too much on sugar? Most restaurants once offered savoury options for this course. That is now mostly just a cheeseboard. I don't think anyone had issues with having a savoury dessert, which indicates that sugar wasn't a factor ( 22 February, p 18 ).

I wonder whether the nocebo effect could affect life expectancy. If, for example, you believe your allotted span to be three score years and 10, will you tend to succumb by age 70( 22 February, p 38 )?

The cosmic dark ages weren't truly dark, as neutral hydrogen atoms absorb light only at some frequencies ( 22 February, p 32 ).

Much as I would like to see Anthony Carmona's idea of a global environmental court come to fruition, I fear the precedents suggest it would fail. We already have an International Criminal Court to prosecute war crimes and related offences, but nations that commit these often simply refuse to accept its jurisdiction. Sadly, any global …

The idea that "we're still using decades-old code" comes as no surprise to those who have worked for long-established computer firms. One example is IBM's CICS software, first released in 1969. It still supports a majority of online banking, insurance, stock trading and credit card applications, as well as applications in other industries and government, …