This is BIG

The Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, has reinforced the existing Petawatt laser to deliver up to 2,000 trillion watts in the duration of one trillionth of one second.

New 2D crystals from Manchester

Manchester University have reported fabrication techniques for 2D crystals such as black phosphorus and niobium diselenide.

Top passwords

The top passwords of 2014 will make you feel comparatively ingenious

Electric aircraft

Electric aircraft – the future of aviation or just wishful thinking?

Is your desk here?

Your Ddesk says what kind of genius you are

High pressure superconductivity

Researchers set new temperature record for a superconductor

Bird power

An eagle takes unkindly to a drone flying through her skies

Fake universe?

Is our universe a fake?

Watch what an Apple can cost

Teardown estimates a $140 bill of materials for the Apple Watch

Chip spenders

Gartner estimates that over 165,000 companies worldwide buy semiconductor chips. The top 10 spend nearly 40 percent of the total semiconductor revenue; the top 11 to 100 spend about 30 percent; and the remainder spend 30 percent.

Fringe fun

50 of the best ever jokes at the Edinburgh fringe

Man and machines

In 1871 there was one hairdresser for every 1793 citizens of England and Wales; today there is one for every 287. This factoid comes from an interesting study looking at the impact of technology on employment. It seems that technology benefits society and creates new employment in new sectors. Technology shrinks employment as it replaces labour as the source of energy but increases it in knowledge intensive sectors and areas of the drivers of technological change. Also, technological change lowers expenditure on essentials and thus releases spending to create new demands and new jobs.

Review it yourself?

Springer has retracted 64 articles in 10 subscription journals. After spotting fake email addresses the subsequent investigations uncovered fabricated peer review reports. Asking authors to suggest peer reviewers has previously been highlighted as a flaw with submitted email addresses for reviewers leading back to the actual authors. Retraction Watch say that faked reviews have been responsible for 15% of all retractions in the past three years.

More learning

A man’s got to know his limitations, as Clint Eastwood once said. A recent study in Psychological Science suggests that the more that people think they know about a topic in general, the more likely they are to allege knowledge of completely made-up information and false facts. The researchers warn that this tendency to over-claim, especially in self-perceived experts, may actually discourage individuals from educating themselves and thus create a menace, not of ignorance, but of the illusion of knowledge. As Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying, live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever.