Undersea anchors of ice that help prevent Antarctica’s land ice from slipping into the ocean are shrinking at more than twice the rate compared with 50 years ago, research shows. More than a third of these frozen moorings, known as pinning points, have decreased in size since the turn of the century, experts say. Further … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Many people object to intelligence tests. Some say IQ test scores are too often abused. They says it’s unfair that when children “fail” these tests it can mean they receive a worse secondary education than their more successful peers—sentencing them to a lifetime of disadvantage. Some object to IQ tests for … Read more
My father’s partner, Felicity Grainger, who has died aged 80, began her working life as a research scientist before moving into the world of academic libraries, eventually becoming head of the library services serving three major medical schools. Born in Bournemouth to Stuart Grainger, a bank manager, and Phyllis (nee Brett), after gaining a first-class … Read more
Wouldn’t it be cool if you never had to charge your cell phone? I’m sure that’s what a lot of people were thinking recently, when a company called BetaVolt said it had developed a coin-sized “nuclear battery” that would last for 50 years. Is it for real? Yes it is. Will you be able to … Read more
John Berger, chairman and chief executive officer of Sunnova Energy Corp., speaks during the 2019 CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Aaron M. Sprecher | Bloomberg | Getty Images The residential solar company Sunnova Energy took a beating this week as investors dumped their shares after the … Read more
Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email A few weeks ago, the BBC’s Newsnight programme conducted a focus group of disillusioned voters, who were mostly pretty negative about our leading politicians. Asked who, in an ideal world, they’d like to … Read more
The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers at the University of Bristol and the Open University suggest. The forerunners of mammals ruled the Earth for about 60 million years, long before the origin of the first dinosaurs. They diversified as the top … Read more
The full NGTS lightcurve for NGTS-28AB with the transit positions marked by the red dashed lines. Credit: Henderson et al, 2024 While analyzing the data from the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new brown dwarf. The newfound object, designated NGTS-28Ab, orbits its host star in just about … Read more
“The answer ended up being, yes, in all US states, on average heat pumps will reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” says Eric Wilson, a senior research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the lead author of the new paper. “Even if it’s a relatively low-efficiency heat pump that relies on electric resistance heating during … Read more
BELTON, Texas (FOX 44/KWKT) — A judge in one Texas county has ordered emergency measures in an effort to handle the hordes of total solar eclipse viewers who will descend on the state in April. Bell County Judge David Blackburn issued a local disaster declaration Wednesday after officials decided they had to take “extraordinary measures” … Read more
