Science X Dialog
Science X Dialog is where researchers can share news and information about their own published journal articles.
How to apply
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/evolutiontha.jpg)
Dialog / Evolution: That famous 'march of progress' image is just wrong
Evolution explains how all living beings, including us, came to be. It would be easy to assume evolution works by continuously adding features to organisms, constantly increasing their complexity. Some fish evolved legs and ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/fromcrocodil.jpg)
Dialog / From crocodiles to krill, a warming world raises the 'costs' paid by developing embryos
Apart from mammals and birds, most animals develop as eggs exposed to the vagaries of the outside world. This development is energetically "costly." Going from a tiny egg to a fully functioning organism can deplete up to ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/thenaturaldi.jpg)
Dialog / The natural direction of heat flows—from hot to cold—can be reversed thanks to quantum effects
In a hot summer Sunday braai or shisa nyama (South African barbecue), if you don't finish your favorite beverage quickly, the ice cubes will melt and the drink will get warm—undoubtedly spoiling your braai/shisa nyama. ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2017/health.jpg)
Dialog / The problem with healthcare price transparency: We don't have cost transparency
US$2.4 million. $1.5 million. $2.28 million. These are the amounts of money the health system where I work, teach and receive health care spent purchasing a PET scanner, a CT scanner and a three-month supply of pembrolizumab, ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/5e4ee8997cf95.jpg)
Dialog / Iberian-Appalachian connection unveils a new and deep view of the interior of Pangea as it was amalgamated
Recently, my team reported unprecedented evidence of a continental connection between the ancient landmasses Laurentia (North America) and Iberia (the northern margin of Gondwana) in the Late Pennsylvanian period (307-299 ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/meettheinsec.jpg)
Dialog / Meet the insects that are defying the plunge in biodiversity
In 2019, there were 44 million fewer breeding birds in the UK than there were in the 1970s. There are thought to be fewer than one million hedgehogs, compared to 35 million in the 1950s. Two-thirds of British butterflies ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2019/3-drug.jpg)
Dialog / What I've learnt about drug testing in Nigeria over the last 20 years
Poor quality medicine is one of the obstacles to improving health in developing countries. One in 10 medicines may not meet acceptable standards, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/designingart.jpg)
Dialog / Designing artificial brains can help us learn more about real ones
Despite billions of dollars spent and decades of research, computation in the human brain remains largely a mystery. Meanwhile, we have made great strides in the development of artificial neural networks, which are designed ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/nosuchthinga.jpg)
Dialog / No such thing as nonlinear resolution in ultrafast laser machining
This year, we celebrate the 60th birthday of the laser. Its inventor, Theodore Maiman, once famously called it "a solution looking for problems," a judgment that has been soundly contradicted over the decades, as demonstrated ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/3-newdiscovery.jpg)
Dialog / New discovery: Madagascar's bizarre aye-aye has six fingers on each hand
The aye-aye is one of nature's most fascinatingly bizarre creatures. Native to Madagascar, this lemur is the largest nocturnal primate in the world and has unique features that set it apart. It has bat‐like ears that allow ...
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/discoveringn.jpg)
Dialog / Discovering new details of the human intestinal mesentery
A new discovery regarding the human intestinal mesentery may radically change the fundamentals of anatomy and embryology and related surgical approaches.
![](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/325u/2020/asteroidbelt.jpg)
Dialog / The gravitational conflict that created the asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the ring-shaped disc consisting of irregular small bodies called asteroids located between Mars and Jupiter. I have studied the origins of the asteroid belt in the the solar system and showed how the ...