Did life evolve more than once? Researchers are closing in on an answer

Has all of life on Earth evolved only once, or are different living beings cut from different cloths? 

How AI, other technologies are already disrupting workplaces

BT’s transition from copper to optical fibre is simply the latest technology transition

Ancient humans may have paused in Arabia for 30,000 years on their way out of Africa

 These humans may have slowly adapted to life in the region’s colder climate before venturing to Eurasia and beyond

Human empathy is our politics

This year, Down To Earth turns 31 years old. We have promises to keep. And keep them we will

Simply Put: People fired, AI hired

Facing a Silent Spring...

Pesticides. Ecological devastation. And cancer. The story of an environmental victim

ChatGPT-powered Wall Street: The benefits and perils of using artificial intelligence to trade stocks

Even a small change in market conditions can trigger a large number of trades, leading to sudden price swings and increased volatility

Artificial intelligence GPT-4 shows ‘sparks’ of common sense, human-like reasoning, finds Microsoft

Latest version of ChatGPT shows signs of artificial general intelligence; can solve novel and difficult tasks in various fields in a way …

Saturn gets crown back for most moons in solar system

Jupiter has once again ceded the title of “most known moons” to Saturn, after 62 new Saturnians moons were discovered, taking the grand total …

Thirsty AIs: ChatGPT ‘drinks’ half a litre of fresh water to answer 20-50 questions, says study

Massive amounts of water go into maintaining the data centres of such AI tools

Stephen Hawking and I created his final theory of the cosmos — here’s what it reveals about the origins of time and life

The enigma at the centre of our research throughout this period was how the Big Bang could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life

People are complaining about Mercury in retrograde. But what does it actually mean?

Humans found out retrograde motion was an optical illusion 500 years ago. However, the pseudoscientific practice of astrology continues to …

Internet, the new water. Let’s not convert it into opium

Internet shutdowns can take unimaginable tolls

AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton says AI is a new form of intelligence unlike our own. Have we been getting it wrong this whole time?

A new intelligence will require a paradigm shift in the way we talk about and manage AI systems

Enigmatic human fossil jawbone may be evidence of an early Homo sapiens presence in Europe — and adds mystery about who those humans were

In contrast to earlier analyses, the Banyoles jawbone was found to be most similar to Homo sapiens fossils, not Neandertals  

Generative AI is forcing people to rethink what it means to be authentic

Generative AI thrives on exploiting people’s reliance on categorical authenticity by producing material that looks like “the real …

What makes humans unique? Scientists compare genomes of 240 species to uncover secrets of mammalian evolution

Mammals diversified when continental landmasses began drifting apart, notes study

‘An individual’s genome carries information shaped over millenia of evolutionary history’

Down To Earth spoke with Aryn P Wilder, co-author of one of 11 research papers providing insights into mammalian evolution

Easy to switch: Here is why India’s dairy farmers should shift to ethnoveterinary medicines

Low-cost ethnoveterinary medicines can help curb the use of antibiotics in Indian dairy sector and combat the overlooked pandemic of …

Simply Put: Of DNA and double standards

Unravelling DNA’s structure: A landmark achievement whose authors were not fairly credited

History has acknowledged how Rosalind Franklin was sidelined

Galaxy mergers ignite ‘quasars’ — the most powerful celestial objects: Study

Quasars likely to be future of Milky Way galaxy when it collides with Andromeda in about 5 billion years

Simply Put: New Theory of Evolution

New study finds Mars’ core less dense that Earth’s. How it impacts the Red Planet

Unlike Earth's core, Mars' innermost layer cannot generate magnetic field

Shakespeare by numbers: how mathematical breakthroughs influenced the Bard’s plays

Shakespeare's plays registered the 16th-century crisis of classical mathematics in the face of newer ideas