Blasting plastic with powerful lasers turns it into tiny diamonds
Simple plastics can be turned into tiny diamonds with a pulse of laser light, and a similar process may occur inside giant planets, which could explain some of their mysteries…
UK energy crisis sparks rush for firewood despite air pollution fears
People are buying up firewood and installing wood-burning stoves to heat their homes to reduce the impact of the hike in UK energy prices Environment 2 September 2022 By Adam…
Who is Ancestor X? The biggest mystery in human evolution
The search for the direct ancestor of humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans has been protracted and puzzling. Now, fresh clues are adding a surprising twist to the tale Humans 31 August…
JWST has spotted sandy clouds on a distant alien world
Brown dwarfs are too massive to be a planet but not large enough to be a star, giving them features of both. Now, astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope…
What we know about the mysterious pneumonia in Argentina
Three people have died this week due to a pneumonia outbreak of unknown origin in the Tucumán province of northwestern Argentina Health 2 September 2022 By Carissa Wong X-rays have…
Physicists want the next Large Hadron Collider to be climate-friendly
Particle colliders use a huge amount of energy, so physicists are evaluating proposed successors to the Large Hadron Collider to optimise efficiency and reduce their climate impact Physics 2 September…
Apps used as alternatives to prison in US found to have privacy flaws
An analysis of 16 apps used as alternatives to incarceration found numerous privacy problems including in an app used to track almost 248,000 immigrants Technology 3 September 2022 By Jeremy…
There are thousands more UK deaths than usual and we don’t know why
Since April, there have been 22,500 more deaths than expected in the UK. Health experts are concerned but unsure of the causes – which could include covid-19, population ageing and…
Grisly photo of a zombie fungus bursting from a fly wins competition
This dramatic image of the fruiting bodies of a parasitic fungus erupting from a fly’s body won Roberto García Roa the top prize in the BMC Ecology and Evolution image…
Nomad Century review: a bold plan to manage climate migration
Gaia Vince’s new book, Nomad Century: How to survive the climate upheaval, argues that mass migration caused by Earth’s climate crisis could be turned into a plus. Could her plan…