28 articles from SUNDAY 4.8.2019

Starwatch: Jupiter in a close encounter with red giant Antares

Our largest planet and the red supergiant are close together in the south-eastern sky, joined on Wednesday evening by the moon There is an interesting trio of celestial objects to look out for on the evening of 8 August. The mighty planet Jupiter is currently close to the red giant star Antares in the constellation Scorpius. On 8 August, this pair will be joined by the moon. The chart shows the...

In bloody August weekend, gun violence beyond mass shootings

In addition to mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, gun deaths were reported in other states, including Illinois, Virginia, Louisiana, Florida and Maryland. In El Paso, at least 20 people were killed and dozens more injured on Saturday morning during a massacre at a Walmart that was packed with back-to-school shoppers, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, officials said....

California hospitals question 2030 earthquake standards

A Southern California hospital spent $72 million on a building designed to do two things after an earthquake: stay standing and stay open. The hospital in Ridgecrest, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, had to evacuate the building as a precaution. Now, Ridgecrest Regional is joining hospitals across the state in questioning standards designed to keep hospitals open after...

Floating nuclear power plant to be towed across Russian Arctic despite 'Chernobyl on ice' concerns

The wind and rain whipped by at several feet per second as crew members stepped outside for a quick smoke, but the world's only floating nuclear power plant barely shifted in the choppy waves of the Kola bay. The length of one-and-a-half football pitches, the Academic Lomonosov looks the part as the vanguard of Russia's “nuclearification” of the Arctic, at least now that its rusty...

Egypt begins restoration on King Tut's golden coffin

Egypt started the first-ever restoration work on a gold-covered sarcophagus of the famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun, ahead of the country's new museum opening next year, the antiquities minister said Sunday. Khaled el-Anany told reporters that work on the outermost coffin, which is made of wood and gilded with gold, is expected to take at least eight months. The coffin remained in the tomb until...

Egypt displays restoration of Tutankhamun gilded coffin

Egypt displayed on Sunday the gilded coffin of Tutankhamun, under restoration for the first time since the boy king's tomb was discovered in 1922. The restoration process began in mid-July after the three-tiered coffin was transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo from the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, southern Egypt. "We are showing you a unique historical artefact, not just for...

New medical procedure could delay menopause by 20 years

Operation could benefit thousands of women who experience serious health issuesA medical procedure that aims to allow women to delay the menopause for up to 20 years has been launched by IVF specialists in Britain.Doctors claim the operation could benefit thousands of women who experience serious health problems, such as heart conditions and bone-weakening osteoporosis, that are brought on by the...

Egypt displays restoration of Tutankhamun gilded coffin

Egypt displayed on Sunday the gilded coffin of Tutankhamun, under restoration for the first time since the boy king's tomb was discovered in 1922. The restoration process began in mid-July after the three-tiered coffin was transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo from the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, southern Egypt. "We are showing you a unique historical artefact, not just for...

Sister: El Paso shooting victim, 25, 'gave her life' for son

A 25-year-old woman who was shot while apparently shielding her 2-month-old son was among the 20 people killed when a gunman opened fire in a crowded El Paso shopping area, her sister said. Leta Jamrowski, 19, of El Paso, learned Saturday afternoon that her sister Jordan Anchondo had been shot to death at Walmart while shopping for back-to-school supplies earlier in the day. Anchondo was the...

Treasure Trove Discovered at Egypt’s Atlantis, Where Cleopatra Was Crowned

Courtesy of Egyptian Ministry of AntiquitiesIn Plato’s Critias the fictional city of Atlantis—a rival to ancient Athens—was cursed by the gods, besieged by earthquakes and floods, and disappeared into the ocean. For centuries, people wrote pseudo-histories about the ancient city and its supposed location. According to Stanford professor Dan Edelstein, some of the theories about Atlantis even...

We must change food production to save the world, says leaked report

Cutting carbon from transport and energy ‘not enough’ IPCC findsAttempts to solve the climate crisis by cutting carbon emissions from only cars, factories and power plants are doomed to failure, scientists will warn this week.A leaked draft of a report on climate change and land use, which is now being debated in Geneva by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), states that it...

Back to the wild: how 'ungardening' took root in America

Retired union organizer Anna Burger lives by a busy road just a minute's walk from a metro station in the US capital Washington, but every morning she wakes up to a birdsong symphony. Butterflies, squirrels and even the occasional deer also come to visit the tree-covered property that she has cultivated with a focus on native species that provide nesting space and nourishment for the local...