The year is 2050. Walk out of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas, and drive north across the sun-baked scrub where a few remaining oil pumpjacks nod lazily in the heat, and then you’ll see it: a glittering palace rising out of the pancake-flat ground. The land here is mirrored: the choppy silver-blue… Read More Frank Swain: The device that reverses CO2 emissions
A team of researchers from Columbia University has found that radiation levels from atomic testing in the Marshall Islands are still too high for human habitation. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes radiation readings of soil samples from four of the islands, and what they found. Over the… Read More Radiation from atomic testing in Marshall Islands still too high for human habitation (2019 report)
She unearthed fantastic prehistoric creatures that had been lost to the sands of time, and her achievements — overlooked and uncredited while she was alive — also almost remained buried. An unsung pioneer of paleontology, Mary Anning is finally getting some of the recognition she deserves thanks to the tireless work of academics and campaigners.… Read More Katie Hunt: 'Ammonite' and 5 more works about women overlooked by history
A lot of the blame for COVID-19’s “second wave” has been pointed at people not following safety guidelines put out by health experts and government officials. A new report however, says don’t blame people, blame the weather. Researchers from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus find hot weather and wind have a bigger impact on… Read More The weather has a bigger impact on COVID spread than social distancing, study concludes
Members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and doctors across the country are staging protests Friday against the Centre’s move allowing postgraduate practitioners of Ayurveda to be trained in performing surgical procedures. On November 19, a government notification listed out specific surgical procedures that a postgraduate medical student of Ayurveda must be “practically trained to… Read More Indian Medical Association strike over ‘Ayurveda surgeons’: 30,000 from Gujarat join protest, AIIMS doctors wear black band
At the heart of Oxford’s effort to produce a Covid vaccine are half a dozen scientists who between them brought decades of experience to the challenge of designing, developing, manufacturing and trialing a safe vaccine at breakneck speed. Prof Sarah Gilbert, the Kettering-born project leader, arrived at Oxford in 1994 to work with Prof Adrian Hill, a senior member… Read More Ian Sample: How a handful of scientists developed Oxford vaccine at breakneck speed
This month marks 20 years of continuous human habitation of space on the ISS. The ISS is an orbiting laboratory for conducting scientific and technological experiments in microgravity. It is an extraterrestrial base for learning how to live and work in a remote, isolated and confined environment to prepare for exploring other planets. It is… Read More Inside the International Space Station – in pictures
Scientists have found the strongest evidence yet that people who recover from Covid may mount a much faster and more effective defence against the infection if they encounter the virus again. Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York found that the immune system not only remembered the virus but improved the quality of protective antibodies… Read More Covid immune response faster and stronger post-infection, scientists say
After the truth-shower 