A quantum origin for time

It’s time to put your quantum thinking caps on this week for New Scientist’s rundown of the best science and technology stories, with two brain-melting pieces about time. On a lighter note, we’ve got a story about why seaweed is green – no, not in the way you think – and my new favourite science-themed board game.

Quantum 'arrow of time' suggests early universe had no entanglement

Where does time come from? It’s a question I’ve long been fascinated by, so this story was a great read. Researchers have proposed that the flow of time could be determined by particles becoming quantum entangled, a phenomenon by which their properties become intrinsically linked. That in turn could tell us more about the universe’s beginning, and its end.

Can seaweed provide the minerals we need for clean energy?

When I hear the phrase “high tech”, seaweed isn’t the first thing that comes naturally to mind, but as my colleague James Dinneen has discovered in the latest issue of our Fix the Planet newsletter, I’m wrong. It turns out that seaweed is particularly good at absorbing the rare earth elements we need for electric car batteries and other green gadgets, so harvesting the plant could be a form of ecologically-friendly mining.

Ancient Egyptian skull shows oldest known attempt at treating cancer

This is an amazing story, showing that people in Egypt 4000 years ago attempted to treat cancer through surgery.? While it’s not clear that the efforts were actually successful, it’s an incredible glimpse at our earliest efforts in combating the disease.

More from New Scientist

• I reviewed Aqua, a board game all about coral reefs this week – take a look.
• My colleague Alex Wilkins has a heroic run-down of four books on AI, as publishers rush to jump on the latest tech bandwagon.
• Our magazine cover story this week is another story about quantum mechanics and time, in this case a brilliant look at efforts to actually send quantum information to the past!

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Jacob Aron, News Editor