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It’s not hard to find echoes of the late 1990s in the zeitgeist. Now as then, impeachment is on many peoples’ minds, and films such as The Matrix and The Sixth Sense continue to influence culture. Another feature of the same era that perhaps has a more important, if subtler, influence is the infamous Y2K bug. Y2K was the great glitch in computer systems that looked capable of destroying civilisation at the stroke of midnight on the millennium. In the end, however, nothing much went wrong. Some people started to wonder if we had been misled all along. In fact, they couldn’t have been more mistaken. Y2K is in danger of becoming one of those moments in history from which exactly the wrong lessons have been drawn. Many of the systems that were at risk from the Y2K bug dated from the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. This was the era when the alleged insistence by Bill Gates that “640k [of RAM] ought to be enough for anybody” was still ringing in people’s ears. Even powerful servers had o

It is, for many of us, the most wonderful time of the year. “Christmas cheer” is that thing which is often referred to by those who believe December really is the season to be jolly. It’s that feeling of joy, warmth and nostalgia people feel when the jingle bells start jingling. But what is the science behind it? Evidence of Christmas cheer inside the brain was found during a study run at the University of Denmark in 2015. Twenty people were shown images with either a Christmas or non-Christmas theme while having their brain monitored in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. The fMRI machine highlights parts of the brain when there is an increase or decrease in activity in that region. And when there was an increase of activity for this study, that region lit up like … well, a Christmas tree. When the participants saw photographs of Christmas themed images, such as mince pies, a network of brain regions lit up, leading the researchers to conclude that they had fou

With 2019 nearing its end and the holiday season about to reach its peak, we’d like to recap the year and have a look back at what has gone on at DXOMARK.com during the past 12 months. DXOMARK Camera In 2019, we tested more smartphone cameras under our DXOMARK Camera test protocol than ever before—33 in all. This includes everything from entry-level to high-end models and a wide variety of brands. Compared to the previous year, we saw a significant increase in performance, with smartphones delivering better image quality across all device and test categories. At the end of 2018, the Huawei P20 Pro topped our ranking with a DXOMARK Camera overall score of 109, followed by the Apple iPhone XS Max at 105 points and the HTC U12 Plus at 103 points. Fast-forward a year and the current top score is 123, held by the Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G. The two runners-up, the LTE version of the Mate 30 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition, both scored 121. The best-placed Apple device is the iP

It may all have happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but there’s a secret weapon in every Star Wars film that’s found almost everywhere humans live on Earth. It explains how the scrappy Rebel Alliance were able to defeat the mighty Galactic Empire, with all its high-tech weaponry, vast space armada and the Death Star. Even with the help of Jedis, The Force, ewoks and a wookiee, Luke Skywalker and the rebels skirted annihilation on many occasions. We believe that their ultimate victory owed less to their mystic powers and allies, and instead to something more down-to-earth. Read more: How to build a real lightsaber In several key moments throughout the series, the survival of the rebels depends on their ability to escape the Empire’s clutches, by retreating to, and defending, fortified bases. These are spread out on remote planets throughout the galaxy, in often hostile environments, from snowbound Hoth to desiccated Crait. It’s time to finally give the Rebel Allian

In 1924, a 3-year-old child’s skull found in South Africa forever changed how people think about human origins. The Taung Child , our first encounter with an ancient group of proto-humans or hominins called australopithecines , was a turning point in the study of human evolution. This discovery shifted the focus of human origins research from Europe and Asia onto Africa, setting the stage for the last century of research on the continent and into its “ Cradles of Humankind .” Few people back then would’ve been able to predict what scientists know about evolution today, and now the pace of discovery is faster than ever . Even since the turn of the 21st century, human origins textbooks have been rewritten over and over again. Just 20 years ago, no one could have imagined what scientists know two decades later about humanity’s deep past, let alone how much knowledge could be extracted from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque or satellites in space. Human fossils are outgrowi

Imagine the scene – gleeful children ripping open presents, harassed parents surveying the carnage of once-tidy homes, disgruntled relatives muttering disapproval into their third glass of sherry. All familiar sights around Christmas, when the social obligations of the festive season draw people together with their kith and kin. This type of social event is perfectly natural. Humans are, after all, a social species, regardless of individual preferences. Traditional celebrations can often mean more people and more stress, but what people might not expect so much is how this seems to magnify our emotions . Tempers seem to flare more rapidly, tears are shed readily, and at times, joy can appear to radiate from every face. Read more: How mindfulness could give you the gift of a calmer Christmas But how far can these magnified emotions be trusted? You’re likely to have gushed over the gift you can’t wait to return to the store on Boxing Day and you’ve probably gritted your teeth and ke

Debaucherous evening last night? You’re probably dealing with veisalgia right now. More commonly known as a hangover, this unpleasant phenomenon has been dogging humanity since our ancestors first happened upon fermentation. Those nasty vertigo-inducing, cold sweat-promoting and vomit-producing sensations after a raucous night out are all part of your body’s attempt to protect itself from injury after you overindulge in alcoholic beverages. Your liver is working to break down the alcohol you consumed so your kidneys can clear it out ASAP. But in the process, your body’s inflammatory and metabolic reactions are going to lay you low with a hangover. As long as people have suffered from hangovers, they’ve searched in vain for a cure. Revelers have access to a variety of compounds, products and devices that purport to ease the pain. But there’s a lot of purporting and not a lot of proof. Most have not been backed up well by science in terms of usefulness for hangover treatment, and oft

Having a few drinks at Christmas is, for some people, as much a part of the festive tradition as presents , decorations or carols . So if you find yourself nursing a hangover on Boxing Day, you might be interested to know what’s actually going on inside your body and why you feel so bad. We tend to drink because in low doses alcohol is initially a euphoriant, it makes you feel happier . It does this by causing the body to release dopamine and endorphins, chemicals that stimulate the brain’s reward system. But, after a while and as you drink more, it ultimately suppresses some brain activity and slows down your heart and breathing. The effects of the initial intake of any alcohol is the first of many stages of narcosis, the last of which is death. There just happens to be a large window between an effective dose (which has you thinking you are far more witty and handsome than you actually are and, later, running down the street with a traffic cone on your head) and a lethal dose (w

We’ve all been there. You are in the middle of a heated disagreement when you lose respect for the opposing party. Whether it is about the latest election or childcare, you feel like your considered arguments are not appreciated – perhaps even ignored. But did you ever wonder what exactly is happening in the mind of the person on the other side? In a recent study, just published in Nature Neuroscience , we and our colleagues recorded people’s brain activity during disagreements to find out. In our experiment, we asked 21 pairs of volunteers to make financial decisions. In particular, they each had to assess the value of real estates and bet money on their assessments. The more confident they were in their assessment, the more money they wagered. Each volunteer lay in a brain imaging scanner while performing the task so we could record their brain activity. The two scanners were separated by a glass wall, and the volunteers were able to see the assessments and bets of the other perso