20 articles from SUNDAY 15.12.2019
Starwatch: the moon approaches the bright star in the lion's breast
Look east this week to find the constellation Leo, as the moon, entering its last phase, passes the bright white star RegulusThe moon slides through the constellation of Leo, the Lion, this week, passing the bright star Regulus along the way. The chart shows the view looking east from London at midnight tonight, as 16 December becomes 17 December 2019. The moon is approaching its last quarter...
Sales of electric vehicles plummet in Ontario now that province has cancelled rebate
Sales of electric vehicles in Ontario have plummeted since the Progressive Conservative government cancelled a rebate last year, hampering progress toward a national...
COP25: Longest climate talks end with compromise deal
Exhausted delegates reach agreement on the key question of ambition with tricky issues postponed.
Greta Thunberg in Twitter spat with German rail firm
Deutsche Bahn says activist’s tweet implied she had not been offered a seat on journey homeSwedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been criticised by a German rail firm for what it said was her implication that she had spent a journey without a seat on an overcrowded train.The teenager tweeted a photograph of herself looking pensively out of the window of her German train on Saturday,...
Exoplanets can be made less habitable by stars' flares
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/15 19:47
Astronomers found that not all exoplanets in habitable zones will be able to maintain hospitable conditions for life. Exoplanets in close proximity to stars are subject to radiation bursts which can disrupt habitable conditions unless the exoplanet has significant atmospheric or magnetic shielding.
Greta Thunberg apologises for 'put leaders against the wall' comment
The teenage climate activist says the phrase has a different meaning in her first language, Swedish.
Giant cyclone the size of Texas discovered on Jupiter
"These cyclones are new weather phenomena that have not been seen or predicted before," said Cheng Li, a Juno...
Longest UN climate talks end with no deal on carbon markets
Marathon international climate talks ended Sunday with negotiators postponing until next year a key decision on how to regulate global carbon...
Race against time to launch Europe’s troubled mission to Mars
European Space Agency asks for help from Nasa with ExoMars project as trials fail and cost rises to €1bnSpace engineers are racing against time to fix major faults in the robot probe they plan to send to Mars next year. The complex parachute system that should slow ExoMars – Europe’s largest ever planetary mission – as it plunges into the Martian atmosphere failed catastrophically during...
This is what it takes to be a gold medal sprinter | Dina Asher-Smith
The attention after winning gold in Doha was amazing – but success really begins by staying focusedI love being the hunter. The one in pursuit. In training, I’ll latch on to the boys and chase them down. Even when I was younger, I tended to race girls who were older than me – at 17 I was racing 30-year-olds. It’s where I’m comfortable. But the hunter can go on to become the hunted. And...
May I have a word about… lasers and their more unusual uses | Jonathan Bouquet
How to tell a drug dealer from a pastry chef, the scientific wayScience is not my strong suit, but even I know the worth of lasers – eye surgery, sawing James Bond in half. But a recent report suggests myriad uses for these devices, from combating climate change to detecting fake whisky.According to Dr Robin Head, a scientist at M Squared Lasers, the use of lasers is why “we can suddenly...
Air pollution is breaking our hearts: Human and marine health is affected in similar ways
- EurekAlert
- 19/12/15 06:00
Research published today in The Journal of Physiology by researchers at The University of Manchester shows that the knowledge we have about how pollution harms the hearts of marine species can be applied to humans, as the underlying mechanisms are similar.
More than 1 in 3 low- and middle-income countries face both extremes of malnutrition
- EurekAlert
- 19/12/15 06:00
Being undernourished or overweight are no longer separate public health issues. The first paper in a four-paper report to be published in The Lancet details how more than one in three low- and middle-income countries face both extremes of malnutrition -- a reality driven by the modern food system.
NYU Abu Dhabi researcher discovers exoplanets can be made less habitable by stars' flares
- EurekAlert
- 19/12/15 06:00
In this new study, NYUAD Center for Space Science Research Scientist Dimitra Atri found that not all exoplanets in habitable zones will be able to maintain hospitable conditions for life. Exoplanets in close proximity to stars are subject to radiation bursts which can disrupt habitable conditions unless the exoplanet has significant atmospheric or magnetic shielding.
Smaller class sizes not always better for pupils, multinational study shows
- EurekAlert
- 19/12/15 06:00
A new statistical analysis of data from a long-term study on the teaching of mathematics and science has found that smaller class sizes are not always associated with better pupil performance and achievement.
The Lancet: More than one in three low- and middle-income countries face both extremes of malnutrition
- EurekAlert
- 19/12/15 06:00
A new approach is needed to help reduce undernutrition and obesity at the same time, as the issues become increasingly connected due to rapid changes in countries' food systems. This is especially important in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new four-paper report published in The Lancet.
The rare genetic disorder identified in only 3 people worldwide
- EurekAlert
- 19/12/15 06:00
A team of South Australian researchers has cracked a rare gene variant for a disorder that causes severe neurodegeneration in infants.
Warming climate will impact dead zones in Chesapeake Bay
- EurekAlert
- 19/12/15 06:00
In recent years, scientists have projected increasingly large summer dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, areas where there is little or no oxygen for living things like crabs and fish to thrive, even as long-term efforts to reduce nutrient pollution continue. Researchers from University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science factored in local impacts of climate change to make projections of...
Climate change: Call for 'flexibility' to reach consensus at talks
UN climate change talks in Madrid are struggling to reach agreement on crucial measures.
How Africa will be affected by climate change
The African continent is more vulnerable than any other region to the world's changing weather patterns.