Baby maths

Using an advanced brain sensor technology, Israeli researchers have shown that six-month-old infants know when an arithmetic solution is wrong, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While infants are not yet able to regulate their behaviour when detecting errors, the researchers write, “our study indicates that the basic brain circuitry involved in the detection of errors is already functional before the end of the first year of life.” It thus helps to debunk the idea that basic changes in brain anatomy occur between infancy and adulthood.

Drain energy

In the midst of the worldwide energy crisis, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have been continuing their work on a microbial fuel cell that generates electricity from waste water, according to a study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Advances in this fuel cell’s design last year have increased the power output by a factor of 10 and future designs hope to multiply that output by 10 times again. If that goal can be achieved, the fuel cell could be used to generate electrical power — all with the waste water that today goes right down the drain.

Universe’s age

An Ohio State University astronomer and his colleagues have determined that the Triangulum Galaxy, otherwise known as M33, is actually about 15 per cent farther away from our galaxy than previously measured. This finding implies that the Hubble constant, a number that astronomers rely on to calculate a host of factors — including the size and age of the universe — could be significantly off the mark as well. The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal.