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The Late Cretaceous flying reptiles known as pterosaurs were contemporaries and close relatives of dinosaurs and, as far as we know, the first vertebrates to master powered flight. They came in a variety of sizes, from tiny bats to small planes. When you see the skeleton of a massive one – with a wingspan up to 39 feet (nearly 12 metres) – in a natural history museum, you might wonder how such a creature ever left the ground. Perhaps no one has spent more time pondering this question than Liz Martin-Silverstone, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol in the UK, who specialises in biomechanics. This short video from the Sicily-based filmmaker Pierangelo Pirak uses Martin-Silverstone’s expertise in pterosaur flight as a springboard for a perhaps unanswerable, but still fun-to-ponder question – would it be possible for a human to ride one?
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Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
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Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
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Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
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Metaphysics
Simple entities in universal harmony – Leibniz’s evocative perspective on reality
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
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Engineering
A close-up look at electronic paper reveals its exquisite patterns – and limitations
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Cognition and intelligence
What’s this buzz about bees having culture? Inside a groundbreaking experiment
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Earth science and climate
The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact
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Cosmology
The Indian astronomer whose innovative work on black holes was mocked at Cambridge
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