WEIRD SCIENCE
A microscope image of the cacti-inspired spines that line the new membrane and collect water from thin air. Caltech – By Michael Irving 2021 May 20 – Water scarcity is one of humanity’s most pressing problems. Now engineers at Caltech have developed a new …
– By Amy Woodyatt, CNN Updated 2021 May 20 – London There is no such thing as a “safe” level of drinking, with increased consumption of alcohol associated with poorer brain health, according to a new study. In an observational study, which has …
Scientists have used a monomer made from a component in citrus fruit peels called limonene to produce entirely sustainable transparent wood. Céline Montanari – By Nick Lavars 2021 May 04 – For tens of thousands of years, humans have been drawn to wood as …
Plastic Waste Makers index identifies those driving climate crisis with virgin polymer production. A woman collects recyclable plastics washed up on the beach in Bali, Indonesia. Photograph: Agung Parameswara/Getty Images – By Sandra Laville Last modified on 2021 May 18 – Twenty companies …
In states like Kansas, energy companies want to impose charges on people who produce their own power with rooftop arrays. An aerial photo taken with a drone shows solar panels installed on a private home in Round Lake Heights, Illinois. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA …
The billion-year-old multicellular microfossil was found at Loch Torridon in the Scottish Highlands. grafxart/Depositphotos – By Michael Irving 2021 May 02 – Scientists have discovered the fossil of what may be the earliest multicellular animal ever found. Dating back a billion years, the microscopic …
The UK’s Royal Marines put the Gravity jet suit to “very successful” use in ship boarding demo exercises. Gravity Industries – By Loz Blain 2021 May 04 – Jet suits, jetpacks, jetboards … The new range of crazy personal flight devices all share some …
The Green New Deal, formerly seen as radical, is now in mainstream debate. And renewable energy becomes more efficient every day. Power-generating windmill turbines at sunset near Larnaca, Cyprus. Photograph: Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters – By Rebecca Solnit Last modified on 2021 May 01 – …
Faster than light travel is the only way humans could ever get to other stars in a reasonable amount of time. Les Bossinas/NASA/Wikimedia Commons – By Mario Borunda, Associate Professor of Physics, Oklahoma State University 2021 Apr 23 – The closest star to …
A map of the Milky Way gathered from Gaia data. ESA/Gaia/DPAC – By Michael Irving 2021 Apr 28 – Antimatter is the strange, evil twin of regular matter, and it’s thought to have been mostly banished from our universe. But could it still be …