Tag: science news

What is ‘Net Zero’, anyway? A short history of a monumental concept

May 23, 2024 admin

Last month, the leaders of the G7 declared their commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. Closer to home, the Albanese government recently introduced legislation to establish a Net Zero Economy Authority, promising it will catalyse investment in clean energy technologies in the push to reach net zero. Pledges to achieve net zero emissions…

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What is ‘Net Zero’, anyway? A short history of a monumental concept

May 23, 2024 admin

Science

Cubans put Asian silkworms to work for artisans in experimental project

May 23, 2024 admin

Silkworm are seen at a farm in Matanzas, Cuba, May 16, 2024. | Photo Credit: Reuters Cuban biochemist Dayron Martin, dressed in a white lab coat and jeans, looks over a table swarming with silkworms with the admiration of a proud father. Hundreds of the cream-coloured caterpillars squiggle across a bed of dark green mulberry…

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Sun’s magnetic field may form close to the surface: new study

May 23, 2024 admin

The sun sets over the mountains, as a geomagnetic storm continues hitting the Earth, in Ronda, Spain, May 12, 2024. | Photo Credit: Reuters New research indicates the sun’s magnetic field originates much closer to the surface than previously thought, a finding that could help predict periods of extreme solar storms like the ones that…

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Sea otters get more prey and reduce tooth damage using tools

May 17, 2024 admin

An undated handout image shows a southern sea otter using a rock anvil to break open shells of prey, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, U.S. | Photo Credit: Reuters Humans are not alone in the use of tools. Chimpanzees, for instance, crack nuts with stones and use sticks to get at…

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Study reveals history and oceanic voyages of remarkable baobab tree

May 17, 2024 admin

A motorcycle drives between baobab trees at baobab alley near the city of Morondava, Madagascar, August 30, 2019. | Photo Credit: Reuters The baobab tree is a distinctive sight on the landscape. When its contorted branches are leafless during the dry season, they resemble jumbled roots emanating from a thick trunk, making it appear as…

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Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time?

May 14, 2024 admin

A false-color image obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows the galaxy JADES-GS-z7-01-QU, the universeÕs earliest-known “dead” galaxy, a galaxy that has stopped star formation, in this undated handout picture obtained by Reuters. | Photo Credit: Reuters The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, is one of the most advanced telescopes ever…

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More than a third of urban Chinese living in sinking cities, study finds

May 14, 2024 admin

People walk on an overpass past office towers in the Lujiazui financial district of Shanghai, China October 17, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters Across the world, many cities are slowly sinking. Most are on the coast, including tropical megacities like Jakarta in Indonesia or Manila in the Philippines, or places like New Orleans, Vancouver or…

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Africa dramatically dried out 5,500 years ago

May 9, 2024 admin

Around five and half millenia ago, northern Africa went through a dramatic transformation. The Sahara desert expanded and grasslands, forests and lakes favoured by humans disappeared. Humans were forced to retreat to the mountains, the oases, and the Nile valley and delta. As a relatively large and dispersed population was squeezed into smaller and more…

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Why NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future

May 1, 2024 admin

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this decade to 2040. The mission would be the first to try to return rock samples…

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