Wind and solar produced a record 10 percent of global electricity in the first half of 2020 as the world’s coal plant fleet ran at less than half its capacity, analysis published Thursday showed. Despite a near-record drop in power demand due to the pandemic, renewables accounted for 1,129 terawatt-hours in January-June, compared with 992
Month: August 2020
Something strange has happened in the voice boxes (or larynxes) of primates: these organs have evolved much faster than in other types of mammals, based on a comprehensive new study of 55 different species. The research – the first of its type into the evolution of the larynx – also shows that primate voice boxes
The world could be headed for an ‘information catastrophe’ as the rate of production of digital bits continues to accelerate with no sign of stopping, new research suggests. In a new study – one firmly positioned in the more abstract quarters of theoretical physics, it must be said – researcher Melvin Vopson from the University
One of the world’s most prominent astronomical observatories has a hole. On Monday, a 3-inch-thick (76-mm-thick) cable at the Arecibo Observatory broke, tearing a gash 100 feet (30 metres) long in the reflector dish of the 20-acre radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The observatory had just reopened after a temporary closure due to Tropical Storm
It was a different time. Towards the end of the Cretaceous period, North America was cleaved in two by a giant inland sea. Dinosaurs, nearing the end of their reign, still abounded in this hot, wet place. But they had to watch their step, especially by the water’s edge. In the shallows lurked Deinosuchus: the
A very long time ago, in the very early Universe, scientists have discovered a galaxy that seems way too advanced to have grown in the short timespan since the Big Bang. It’s called SPT0418-47, and it’s lurking 12.4 billion light-years away – when the Universe was just 1.4 billion years old. What makes it special
The Arctic’s rapidly melting sea ice continues to outrun even our most dire predictions for the future, and that’s not out of line with the past. A new and improved model, based on the last warm period in Earth’s history, now suggests shallow pools of rain and melt water could bring about the end of
We think of sharks as solitary creatures. Lurking silently beneath the waves, each single toothy predator operating alone, coming together only temporarily as feasting or mating dictates. We may, however, be totally wrong. According to new research, sharks could be forming large social groups from which smaller numbers break off to forage, and then return
The English town of Lyme Regis is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. It was here in the 1830s that William Buckland, better known for the discovery of the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus, collected fossils with another pioneering palaeontologist, Mary Anning. One of their discoveries was the remains of fossilised crinoids, sometimes known as
When NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) arrived in orbit around the Moon in 2009, scientists immediately started firing lasers at it. More specifically, they were firing lasers at a small reflector array roughly the size of a paperback book, trying to bounce light back to Earth. And after almost 10 years, they have finally succeeded.
Earthquakes come and go, often leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. What they don’t usually do, thankfully, is turn around immediately and come back for another pass. Except… it looks like they can, in exceedingly rare circumstances. In a new study, scientists have found evidence of an unusual and virtually unprecedented ‘boomerang’ earthquake
The predation of livestock by carnivores, and the retaliatory killing of carnivores as a result, is a major global conservation challenge. Such human-wildlife conflicts are a key driver of large carnivore declines and the costs of coexistence are often disproportionately borne by rural communities in the global south. While current approaches tend to focus on
A new analysis of the genomes of the most famous of ancient humans - Neanderthals and Denisovans - has revealed an as-yet-unidentified ancestor for our species – a branch of our distant family tree without any known label to put to it. The study also finds further evidence of interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals, but places it
For almost as long as stories have been told, stories have been deconstructed. For centuries, theorists, philosophers, and scholars have been pulling narrative structures apart, trying to pin down the most fundamental elements that give stories shape and meaning. As far back as the 4th century BCE, Aristotle was dissecting story structures in this vein,
The dwarf planet Ceres was once assumed to be a fairly primitive chunk of rock. But just a few years ago, NASA’s space probe Dawn revealed that there’s more to this asteroid belt body than meets the eye. Now, we’re starting to find out just how much more. Ceres sits in the asteroid belt between Mars
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is a pretty special chunk of rock. It’s the largest and most massive moon in the Solar System. It’s the only Solar System moon that generates its own magnetic field. It has the most liquid water of any Solar System body. And now, scientists have discovered, it may have the largest impact
A massive chunk of Canada’s last fully intact ice shelf, some 4,000 years old, has broken off, reducing the shelf by more than half, scientists reported last Sunday. After separating from the shelf, the piece split in two, forming an iceberg almost the size of Manhattan. Climate change likely fuelled the collapse of the shelf, researchers
People have searched for sex differences in human brains since at least the 19th century, when scientist Samuel George Morton poured seeds and lead shot into human skulls to measure their volumes. Gustave Le Bon found men’s brains are usually larger than women’s, which prompted Alexander Bains and George Romanes to argue this size difference
Are you a rightie or a leftie? No, we’re not talking politics here, we’re talking handedness. And unless you happen to have an abundance of left-handed friends, you might have noticed how rare they are. So why are just 1 in 10 of us left-handed? While no one’s been able to definitively explain this, there are
Despite the long evolutionary history of our species, humans have only been reading and writing for a few thousand years. New research shows that we may have ‘recycled’ a key region of the brain to help us start making sense of the written word. In tests on rhesus macaque monkeys, scientists have demonstrated that a
Spending solitary time in the great outdoors, whether it’s fishing, hunting or exploring, could help foster a kid’s strong bond with nature, a new study suggests. Combine those reflective moments in nature with outdoor social activities, such as camping or scouts, and this vital connection to the natural world could potentially last a lifetime. Not
The idea of freezing particles by warming them is counterintuitive, to say the least. But physicists have shown how specially designed mixtures ‘melt’ in the dark but crystallise the moment the lights come on, thanks to their unique thermal activity. Instead of bouncing the particles around and spreading them out, the researchers showed that by
There are countless exoplanets in the Milky Way, but some are more hardcore than others. Take a type known as hot super-Earths. These planets are nuts. Imagine a rocky world like Earth, but up to 10 times more massive; now zoom it in so close to its star, it takes just 10 days or fewer
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 30 July, carrying a host of cutting-edge technology including high-definition video equipment and the first interplanetary helicopter. Many of the tools are designed as experimental steps toward human exploration of the red planet. Crucially, Perseverance is equipped with a device called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or
Deep in western Russia, if you know where to look, you’ll find a small collection of ragged scrap metal and crumbled concrete. Which isn’t that exciting. But if you rifle through the rubble, you will find a large metal disc bolted to the ground. This isn’t just any old disc – it’s the welded-shut cap
For the first time, the innovative CRISPR gene editing method has been used on squid, marking a milestone in the scientific study of these creatures – and opening up many new areas of potential research. CRISPR enables very precise, speedy, and low-cost DNA edits. Put simple, the ingenious molecular workings of the method are often
After a two-month gap, SpaceX has resumed launching batches of dozens of satellites in its gambit to blanket Earth with high-speed internet access. The satellites are a new “VisorSat” variety to make them less shiny to the ground and especially to astronomers’ telescopes. But researchers say the spacecraft’s experimental new feature, while helpful, won’t fully
From slaying centaurs to biblical mentions, poison-tipped arrows are a staple of cultural stories in the west. But they’ve also proved highly effective in reality, so much so that indigenous peoples around the world are still making use of them today, to successfully feed themselves and their families. The Kalahari San of southern Africa hunt
You wouldn’t think there’s much of a contest between soft hair or a little bit of beard stubble and a sharp steel razor – and yet, most of us know razors quickly lose their sharpness no matter how carefully you shave. Now scientists have a much better idea why this is happening at the smallest
Scientists can use some pretty wild forces to manipulate materials. There’s acoustic tweezers, which use the force of acoustic radiation to control tiny objects. Optical tweezers made of lasers exploit the force of light. Not content with that, now physicists have made a device to manipulate materials using the force of… nothingness. OK, that may be a
In the evolutionary tree of life, the lizard-like tuatara from New Zealand is on a branch all to itself. In the time of the dinosaurs, this extraordinary animal had lots of relatives all around the world, and yet now, there’s nothing else like it on Earth. According to new sequencing of the tuatara’s entire genome
Whether it’s a summer barbecue with friends, your favourite fast food takeaway, or Christmas dinner, we can probably all recall times when we’ve eaten more food in one sitting than we needed to. Plenty of research has looked at the long-term health effects of overeating calories – which include increased fat storage, impaired endocrine (hormone)
When the Sun sets in a blaze of blue and night falls over the dusty plains of Mars, something weird and wonderful occurs. High up above the surface, the atmosphere begins to glow with an ultraviolet light, sometimes pulsing, as nitrogen and oxygen combine into nitric oxide. This invisible glow, first revealed by the Mars
Make a crocodile out of taffy. Take its head and tug on it until its neck extends a good few metres from its body. If you squint, this could be what one odd-looking Triassic reptile called Tanystropheus looked like. More or less. This animal’s assortment of ludicrously long fossilised neck bones has confused the heck
Even in early prehistoric Europe, there was a clear wealth gap between the rich and the poor, and this inequality in life followed people long after their deaths. New archaeological research in Poland reveals the richest humans from Neolithic times were also the ones buried with the most exotic artefacts. This might sound obvious, but
The world has a new brightest fluorescent material, and it’s the first of its kind. Rather than trying to improve fluorescent molecules, a team of chemists have developed a new material that preserves the optical properties of fluorescent dyes. This effectively prevents one of the biggest problems in producing fluorescent materials – the tendency of
Up to half the calcium in the Universe – and that includes our bones and teeth – is thought to come from exploding supernova stars, and researchers have now been able to get unprecedented insight at how these ultra-rare, calcium-rich supernovae reach the end of their lives. The never-before-seen look at how these stellar explosions
Deep in the thick, poisonous clouds wrapped around Venus, the atmosphere is behaving very oddly. A giant, previously unknown planet-scale wall of cloud travels westward around the planet every 4.9 days – and apparently has been doing so since at least 1983. It can extend up to 7,500 kilometres (4,660 miles) long, stretching across the
The Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked on Tuesday evening local time by an explosion that has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands more. The country’s prime minister Hassan Diab said the blast was caused by around 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored near the city’s cargo port. Video footage appears to show a
SpaceX on Tuesday successfully completed a flight of less than a minute of the largest prototype ever tested of the future rocket Starship, which the company hopes to use one day to colonize Mars. “Mars is looking real,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted in response to a fan. The current Starship prototype is fairly crude:
A long-extinct lineage of insect, known fondly as the ‘hell ant’, has been discovered frozen in 99-million-year-old amber, with its scythe-like jaw still pinning its prey. According to scientists, this fierce predator is a newly identified species of prehistoric ant, known as Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, and it’s the first time we’ve ever seen a hell ant actively
An explosion at a port in Beirut brought destruction to the Lebanese capital Tuesday, damaging buildings, killing more than a hundred people, and injuring thousands of others. People recorded videos showing the blast wave and a towering red cloud that some compared to a nuclear weapon’s mushroom cloud. The exact cause of the blast is
Satellite images of penguin poop in Antarctica have revealed a number of Emperor penguin colonies living and breeding on the icy continent that scientists weren’t previously aware of. Eight completely new communities have now been found in some of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Antarctica, and three additional colonies that were previously identified
As if spiderwebs weren’t already icky enough, some spiders have gone and made them poisonous as well, a new study reveals. The unique properties of spiderwebs have long fascinated materials scientists. They’re constructed from one of the toughest known natural materials: lighter, yet five times stronger than steel, and bacteria resistant to boot. Spider silk is also
In recent decades, over 4,000 extrasolar planets have been confirmed beyond our Solar System. With so many planets available for study, astronomers have learned a great deal about the types of planets that exist out there and what kind of conditions are prevalent. For instance, they have been able to get a better idea of just how
Sperm is critical for the fertilisation of almost every living organism on our planet, including humans. To reproduce, human sperm have to swim a distance equivalent to climbing Mount Everest to find the egg. They complete this epic journey simply by wiggling their tail, moving fluid to swim forwards. Though over 50 million sperm will
The hunt for exoplanets in our galaxy is a deeply important endeavour. The more exoplanets we find, the better we can understand our own Solar System – and how life emerges in the Universe. To date, over 4,000 exoplanets have been confirmed – but a new discovery could widen the search, helping us to find
A palaeontologist, a medical pathologist, and an orthopaedic surgeon walk into a museum. No, it’s not the start of a joke, but the research team that has now diagnosed the first confirmed case of aggressive bone cancer in a dinosaur. The specimen in question is a fossilised shin bone from Centrosaurus apertus, a plant-eating horned