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According to a study conducted by Kaare Jensen at the Technical University of Denmark, the most dangerous type of paper for causing paper cuts is approximately 65 micrometers thick. Jensen and his colleagues tested various types of paper, including tissue paper, print magazines, office paper, book pages, business cards, and printed photos, to determine their ability to cut human skin. They found that paper of this thickness, commonly used for dot matrix printers and printed scientific journals, is not so thin that it buckles upon contact, but not so thick that its impact is blunted. The researchers even created a recyclable knife, called the "Papermachete," with a blade made from scrap paper of this thickness. [Extracted from the article]

According to UK consumer group Which?, some eco-friendly toilet paper brands that claim to be made from bamboo actually contain very little bamboo. Which? assessed the grass fiber composition of loo rolls from five popular UK brands and found that samples from Bumboo contained just 2.7% grass fibers, Naked Sprout paper had 4% grass fibers, and Bazoo had 26.1%. Instead of bamboo, the toilet paper was mainly made from virgin hardwoods. Only two of the brands tested, Who Gives a Crap and The Cheeky Panda, contained 100% grass fibers. Bumboo, Naked Sprout, and Bazoo claim to use bamboo certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), but Bumboo and Bazoo acknowledged issues in their supply chain and are implementing stricter controls. Naked Sprout emphasized that its entire supply chain is FSC certified. [Extracted from the article]

A recent article in New Scientist discusses a robot called PaperBot that can design and test objects made from folded paper, such as planes, more effectively than a human. The robot, developed by researchers at Columbia University, uses a machine learning algorithm to adjust the design of the paper plane based on how far it flies. After 100 trials, PaperBot's best design flew further than the best design created by a human. This research demonstrates the potential for robots to excel in tasks that are difficult and computationally expensive to simulate. [Extracted from the article]

A THIN towel that expands into a jelly-like blob can absorb liquids three times as well as paper or cloth-based products. Now, Srinivasa Raghavan at the University of Maryland and his colleagues have produced a dry, absorbent hydrogel that stays intact even while rolled up. [Extracted from the article]

This article argues against the use of euphemisms when referring to menstrual products, such as "sanitary towels" or "feminine hygiene products." The author asserts that these terms perpetuate the false belief that menstruation is dirty or polluting, which has historically been used to oppress women. The author also highlights that the use of feminine descriptors excludes trans men and non-binary individuals who menstruate. The article suggests using the term "menstrual products" instead, as it accurately reflects their purpose and avoids reinforcing shame or stigma. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a collection of puzzles and quizzes from the New Scientist journal. It includes brain teasers, a quick quiz, a quick crossword, and a digital targets puzzle. The puzzles cover a range of topics including astronomy, biology, and mathematics. The document provides the questions and challenges, but the answers and solutions are not included and will be provided in future issues. [Extracted from the article]

This article from New Scientist discusses how mathematics can be used to wrap gifts in a precise and efficient manner. The author explains that when wrapping box-shaped gifts, measuring the length and thickness of the box can help determine the amount of paper needed. For cylindrical gifts, the paper should be slightly wider than the diameter of the gift and the length should be the sum of the diameter and the length of the gift. The article also provides instructions for wrapping equilateral triangular prism gifts and large, flat, square-ish gifts using mathematical methods. The author emphasizes the importance of aligning the pattern on the paper for maximum aesthetic appeal. [Extracted from the article]

Robots fast enough for fighting games Remotely operated one-armed boxing robots, inspired by the 2011 movie Real Steel, can respond to a person's movements in as little as one-hundredth of a second. Worms use static to hitch a lift on bees Bees accumulate an electrical charge as they fly, and experiments show that Caenorhabditis elegans nematode worms can exploit this to jump through the air and hitch themselves a ride. Strong and easily removed sticky tape Laser-cutting three sides of a rectangle in a repeating pattern along sticky tape, a method inspired by kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting, makes it 60 times stronger, as well as being easy to peel off. [Extracted from the article]

Most children can fold a paper plane, but Alom Shaha prefers paper helicopters – and they are better for experimenting with [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to an article in New Scientist, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have found that writing by hand may improve memory retention compared to typing. The study involved 36 students who were asked to write down half of a list of 30 words by hand, while typing the other half. The researchers found that writing by hand increased connectivity between central parts of the brain and the parietal lobe, which is important for memory. The lead researcher, Audrey van der Meer, suggests that handwriting engages more senses and activates more areas of the brain. [Extracted from the article]

A controversial mathematical proof known as the ABC conjecture has sparked bitter divisions among mathematicians. In 2012, Shinichi Mochizuki published a 500-page proof of the conjecture, but many found it incomprehensible. Kirti Joshi at the University of Arizona has now proposed a proof that he claims fixes the problems with Mochizuki's work, but Mochizuki and his supporters remain unconvinced. The debate centers around a part of Mochizuki's proof called Conjecture 3.12, which Joshi believes he has addressed more satisfactorily. However, the paper has not been peer-reviewed, and the controversy continues. [Extracted from the article]

"For every unit of power the heat pump consumes, it can remove up to four times that much heat" The heat pump also uses water via a stack of wet paper strips placed at the other end of the tube to the speaker. The team's thermoacoustic heat pump consists of a metal tube filled with nitrogen, connected on one end to a loudspeaker that plays a sound roughly 100 times more powerful than the noise from a chainsaw. [Extracted from the article]

It tastes like coconut that's lost most of its moisture" The researchers collected the bacterial cellulose, then air-dried it and dipped it in sodium alginate, a carbohydrate found in algae, to fill the pores in the cellulose that would otherwise absorb water. Sodium alginate also has the benefit of sticking to itself, so the researchers could simply roll the sheets of cellulose up into straws, with no glue required (Advanced Functional Materials, doi.org/gnz7q7). WHEN it comes to drinking with a straw, there is no perfect option - plastic straws can release microplastics, while paper straws buckle and bend when they get wet. [Extracted from the article]

The article provides information on an interlocking kirigami pattern for paper designed by Zhang Hongying at the National University of Singapore and Jamie Paik at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne that forms a thin shell of alternating squares.

The batteries are dormant while dry, but produce current when water is added (Scientific Reports, doi.org/h6jm). A battery made from paper coated with graphite and zinc dust can provide power for a range of tiny disposable electronics, with possible uses in delivery tracking and environmental monitoring. [Extracted from the article]

This article from New Scientist discusses various scientific findings and reports. It highlights the discovery that hyaluronan, a substance found in naked mole rats, can protect cells against inflammation and early death. The article also mentions unusual behaviors observed in animals, such as homosexual necrophilia in ducks, ladybirds mating with dead conspecifics, and snakes copulating with headless females. Additionally, it mentions medical papers with intriguingly horrifying titles that may pique readers' curiosity. The article concludes by inviting readers to share any easily over-imaginable titles of scientific reports they come across. [Extracted from the article]

A recent scientific paper titled "An environmental analysis of public UAP sightings and sky view potential" explores the phenomenon of UFO sightings and their correlation with environmental factors. The authors, two geographers and a military intelligence expert, conducted a study using data from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) and found that more people reported seeing UFOs in the western part of the United States, where there is less light pollution. The researchers also discovered that many reported UFOs were actually identified as Starlink satellites or the planet Venus. While the paper does not provide evidence of alien visitors, it confirms that there are legitimate sightings of unexplained phenomena in the sky. [Extracted from the article]

Features The Vatican's archives contain thousands of manuscripts that are encrypted BEATA MEGYESI strode past the Pontifical Swiss Guards, in their Renaissance-era uniforms. Then there are ciphers that involve translations of letters, for example swapping the first and last letters of every word before you can read the plaintext. Lasry showed that Bourbon used a cipher that is neither polyphonic nor homophonic, but polyhomophonic - in other words, some of its individual cipher symbols can represent several plaintext letters, but equally each plaintext letter can be represented by several different cipher symbols. Megyesi had the opportunity to use the Vatican's encrypted papers for a project with an audacious goal: to fully automate the process of decrypting historical ciphers so that many thousands of otherwise inaccessible letters could finally speak to us from down the centuries. [Extracted from the article]

@Grammar dammit, via Twitter Lots of people yawn without closing their eyes. Their eyes close when they yawn due to tiredness, but stay open during a stress-related yawn. Rolling dilemma Which is the best way to put a roll of toilet paper onto the holder: rolling towards you or away?. [Extracted from the article]

A group of researchers has disputed the claim that the extinct hominin Homo naledi buried its dead and produced rock art. They argue that the evidence for these claims is non-existent. The controversy surrounds the findings of the original researchers, who discovered hundreds of bones in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa and suggested that H. naledi engaged in symbolic and ritualistic behaviors. The debate also extends to the way the research was published, with some arguing for a more multidisciplinary approach and others defending the transparency of the process. [Extracted from the article]

A 2012 paper titled "Finger injuries caused by power-operated windows of motor vehicles: An experimental cadaver study" used the index, middle, ring and little fingers of 10 cadaver hands to "simulate real events in which a finger is jammed between the glass and seal entry of the window of a current motor vehicle". Behold how it also praises a 2011 study by the same team as the finger-injuries cadaver paper: "a realistic setup with a modified car door was used. Window pains When you donate your future former self "to science", your generosity might open a door (and, as you will see, close a window) to adventure. [Extracted from the article]

A recent study conducted by researchers at Cornell University has found that wasps have specific brain cells that are used to recognize faces. These neurons are similar to the face-recognition cells found in the brains of primates, including humans. The researchers studied northern paper wasps and found that they are able to recognize individual wasps based on the subtle color markings on their faces. The study suggests that the social benefits of rapid and accurate face recognition may have independently selected for face-specific cells in both wasps and humans. However, it is important to note that just because wasps and primates have similar networks does not mean that they will work in the same way. [Extracted from the article]

The Carrington event of 1859, the largest recorded solar storm in history, may have been even more extreme than previously thought, according to newly discovered magnetic data. The event, which involved a massive solar flare and a coronal mass ejection, caused a geomagnetic storm that resulted in auroras and damaged telegraph wires. The recently digitized magnetic field recordings from two observatories in London indicate that the storm was at least a 1-in-100-year event, possibly even a 1-in-1000-year event. This new information aligns with some of the original estimates of the storm's strength and confirms its extreme nature. [Extracted from the article]

The back pages Mathematics of life Mathematics of life reveals the mathematical ideas and shortcuts behind everyday situations Next week Debunking gardening myths FAIRNESS is important - in life, and in pizza. For example, if the number of people you are sharing a pizza between is a power of two - one, two, four, eight, 16 - cutting the pizza into as many slices is easy. Place your pentagon in the centre of the pizza, then cut along lines radiating out from the centre of the pentagon and through each corner. [Extracted from the article]

Two recent studies suggest that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), an ocean current system that transports warm water and nutrients around the Atlantic Ocean, could collapse by the middle of the century. This collapse could lead to severe consequences such as a drop in temperatures across northern Europe, rapid sea level rise in North America, and disruption to monsoons in Asia. However, these predictions are controversial, and there are still significant uncertainties and limitations in using early warning signals (EWS) to predict the behavior of the AMOC. Some experts argue that climate models and historical data are not yet accurate enough to confidently make such predictions. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a collection of letters from readers published in New Scientist. The letters cover a range of topics, including weight loss drugs and their potential impact on the environment, the inadequacy of current plans for carbon capture, criticism of the idea that humans evolved to chase down prey, the feasibility of Dyson spheres, the environmental impact of plastics versus paper bags, the concept of our reality being a simulation, the aging mindset, and the dangers of ageism. The letters provide diverse perspectives on these topics and offer insights into various scientific and societal issues. [Extracted from the article]

The International Space Station (ISS), a collaborative project involving 23 countries, is set to be decommissioned around 2030. The challenge lies in safely bringing down the massive structure, weighing 420,000 kilograms, without causing harm or leaving debris that could render low Earth orbit uninhabitable. Various options, such as preserving it as a space museum or dismantling it for future use, have been considered, but NASA's white paper suggests that neither option is feasible. The process of deorbiting the ISS involves carefully controlling its descent and relying on atmospheric drag, but it carries risks and uncertainties. The future of international collaboration in space, particularly between the US and Russia, is uncertain, and the rise of private companies like SpaceX may shape the next phase of space exploration. [Extracted from the article]

The findings of the eight-year investigation align with earlier reports from pharmaceutical companies Bayer and Amgen. A LONG investigation into the reliability of preclinical cancer biology research has found that fewer than half of the results published in 23 highly cited papers could be successfully reproduced. [Extracted from the article]

This article from New Scientist explores the mathematical principles behind covering surfaces with shapes, such as tiles or jigsaw puzzle pieces. The author explains that while square or rectangular shapes are often used for tiling due to their ability to cover a surface with no gaps, other shapes can be arranged in an efficient way to achieve the best coverage. The article highlights the hexagonal arrangement as the most optimal for covering surfaces with circular shapes, such as coins or jigsaw puzzle pieces. The author also mentions a research paper that used this hexagonal arrangement to determine the optimal size table for working on a jigsaw puzzle. By comparing the size of the central rectangular section of a puzzle piece to its area in the hexagonal arrangement, the paper concluded that an unsolved puzzle takes up around 1.73 times as much space. The article concludes by acknowledging the bees for inspiring this ingenious insight. [Extracted from the article]

In March of this year, mathematicians at the University of Waterloo discovered the first ever single tile that can cover a surface without forming repeating patterns, which they called the "hat". This discovery has since inspired various applications, from jigsaw puzzles to research papers. The team later unveiled a second shape, the "spectre", which improved on the hat by not requiring its mirror image to tile fully. The hat has sparked numerous papers in fields such as engineering and chemistry, and has even garnered interest from a scientific instrument company for potential use in collecting atmospheric samples on Mars. The team has chosen not to commercialize the hat, preferring to let it be freely used and explored by others. [Extracted from the article]

In a paper published in March, he suggested that large groups of galaxies, such as the nearby Council of Giants, could deflect cosmic rays from more plausible sources like AGNs. When cosmic rays hit our atmosphere, they usually collide with molecules in the atmosphere, producing a shower of energetic particles that rain down. The Pierre Auger Observatory is an array of 1600 detectors in Argentina that observes incoming cosmic rays in the southern hemisphere sky. The OMG particle remains the wildest cosmic ray ever seen. [Extracted from the article]

A simple way to transfer sperm, freeze-dried on a sheet of paper, could find an application in scientific studies and animal husbandry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter Higgs, a physicist, developed a theory in the 1960s that explained why particles have mass. His theory proposed the existence of a new type of field, called the Higgs field, which interacted with particles and gave them mass. Higgs's work was initially overlooked but eventually gained recognition. In 2012, the Higgs boson, a particle associated with the Higgs field, was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider. Higgs received numerous accolades for his work, including the Nobel Prize in Physics. He passed away in April 2024 at the age of 94. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a collection of letters from readers published in New Scientist. The letters cover a range of topics, including the benefits of working from home versus working in an office, the motivation to work hard in research, the potential use of supersonic cargo planes by the military, the search for a theory of everything in physics, the idea of using bone paste in food production, the possibility of some individuals having a heightened sense for pheromones, the effectiveness of taking notes with pen and paper versus using a keyboard, and the decommissioning of a fusion reactor. The letters come from various locations around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. [Extracted from the article]

Li and his colleagues think this bottleneck was probably due to climate change, with global cooling around this time leading to severe drought in Africa and Eurasia. John Hawks at the University of Wisconsin, who wasn't involved in the study, points to a paper from earlier this year suggesting that early humans in Africa were split into several distinct populations with only occasional migrations and mergers between them. Population bottlenecks occur when an existing population is reduced in size, for instance as a result of a catastrophe or when a small number of individuals leave one population to found a new one. [Extracted from the article]

Watch Stories of Paper Innovation are told by Nasreen Khan at Georgia Tech, as she probes paper's past (like printing with wood blocks, above) and its future. Visit Supernova Science really matters, as the destructive effects of exploding stars wreak havoc across the universe. Read The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars are explored by behavioural scientist Lixing Sun. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses a study by a team led by Daiyu Ito at the University of Yamanashi in Japan which found a simple way to transfer sperm in the mail which involves placing sperm on a sheet of paper and popping it in the post.

But there was still a problem: nobody had ever seen an adult eel in the Sargasso Sea or any eel eggs. Wright suspects climate change is also a culprit, perhaps by weakening the ocean currents the eel larvae use to surf to Europe, or by changing the nature of the Sargasso Sea. As a result of Schmidt's 1912 paper, the Sargasso Sea became accepted as the hitherto- mysterious location of eel reproduction, meaning that European eels must somehow migrate up to 10,000 kilometres on the return journey to complete their life cycle. Elvers and adult eels were a key food in Europe and interest was growing in aquaculture, but nobody had ever seen a larval eel or witnessed sexual activity between adults. [Extracted from the article]

"Over a long enough time, you cut emissions, but in the interim you've increased warming" Research has found that using wood for construction instead of concrete and steel can reduce emissions. Accounting for emissions in this way, the researchers report in a related paper that increasing forest harvests between 2010 and 2050 would add emissions equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of total annual emissions (Nature, doi.org/gsh6d5). Environment USING more wood for construction has been touted as a lower-emission alternative to building with steel and concrete, but it may not be as carbon- friendly as thought. [Extracted from the article]

News Mathematics A PURSE of $1 million is being offered to anyone who can end the dispute over an impenetrable maths theory, the veracity of which has been debated for years. Kato says that Kawakami isn't a mathematician, but sees IUT as a momentous part of the history of mathematics and believes that the cash prize is a "good investment" if it can finally clear up the controversy one way or the other. The competition is being run by the Inter-Universal Geometry Center (IUGC), which has been founded by Kawakami specifically to promote IUT, says Fumiharu Kato, director of the IUGC. [Extracted from the article]

Ants that consume caffeine are able to locate food sources more quickly, suggesting that the drug enhances their learning abilities. Researchers conducted an experiment using Argentine ants and found that ants that consumed low or moderate doses of caffeine were able to find the food source more efficiently with each attempt, while ants without caffeine took longer and more meandering paths. However, the highest dose of caffeine was fatal for the ants. This study highlights the potential benefits of caffeine for enhancing learning in ants. [Extracted from the article]

Views I ALMOST didn't write this column because I worried that it might give people the wrong impression about quantum mechanics. The TRAP phenomenology forms the basis for our arguments that quantum mechanics is necessary. In a 2021 paper, Lorenzo Catani, Matthew Leifer, David Schmid and Robert W. Spekkens named these three outcomes the "traditionally regarded as problematic", or TRAP, phenomenology. [Extracted from the article]

But a paper by Ivana Winkler and Angela Goncalves at the German Cancer Research Center claims that the menopause is, in fact, widespread among mammals. News ONLY humans and a few toothed whales undergo the menopause, many sources will tell you. '" So Goncalves and Winkler set out to establish which other mammals have a menopause by reviewing published studies. [Extracted from the article]

A new paper from researchers at the University of Warwick explores the idea that spiritual experiences can be born from science, rather than religion. The researchers developed a psychological scale to measure the emotions elicited by a greater understanding of the physical world, and found that these "spirituality of science" scores were distinct from general belief in science as a means of rational inquiry. Higher scores on the scale were associated with higher life satisfaction, suggesting that finding spirituality in science can provide the same existential support as religion. The researchers hope that this work will lead to further investigations into the potential health benefits of spirituality in science. [Extracted from the article]

Curiously Meta Coltan Scrivner's curiosity about morbid curiosity is ushering him to higher and higher realms. Scrivner defines morbid curiosity as "a motivation to seek out information about dangerous phenomena". Scrivner also teamed up with colleagues for a related 2020 study that New Scientist readers may recall: "Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the covid-19 pandemic". [Extracted from the article]

IT HAS been almost a century since Fritz Zwicky first hypothesised the existence of dunkle materie - which translates to "dark matter" in English. Rubin and Ford's papers on this topic were published over the 1970s, leading to an awakening in the 1980s: the dark matter problem was real, and it wasn't going anywhere. But 30 years is about half of many human lifetimes, and it was long enough that Zwicky didn't get to see all of Rubin and Ford's papers be published - he died in 1974. [Extracted from the article]

News A TEAM of researchers claims to have created the first materials that conduct electricity perfectly at room temperature and pressure, but many physicists are sceptical. Kim says he is aware of the scepticism, but believes that other researchers should try to replicate his team's work to settle the issue. The theoretical models that Kim and his colleagues cite as explaining why the new material can super conduct at such different conditions than all previous ones have also been called into question by one of the researchers that New Scientist spoke to. [Extracted from the article]

Kato says that Kawakami isn't a mathematician, but sees IUTas a momentous part of the history of mathematics andbelieves that the cash prize is a "good investment" if it canfinally clear up the controversy one way or the other. Dwango didn't respond to a request for interview, but duringa press conference, Kawakami said he hoped that his "modestreward will help increase the number of mathematicians whodecide to get involved in IUT theory". News News & Technology A decade of disagreements over an impenetrable theoryhave been kicked up a notch by the promise of a large prizefor anyone who can settle the matter, says Matthew Sparkes Mathematics A PURSE of $1 million is being offered to anyone who canend the dispute over an impenetrable maths theory, theveracity of which has been debated for years. [Extracted from the article]