British Science Festival: The fight against microplastics
The British Science Festival is coming up In September, and one of the topics being explored across different events is microplastic pollution and how to tackle it. We discuss the events and why taking action now matters.
Source: britishscienceassociation.org
Association of the “Weekend Warrior” and Other Leisure-time Physical Activity Patterns With All-Cause and Cause-Specific
This large prospective cohort study of US adults examines whether performing the recommended level of physical activity throughout the week or in fewer days, such as the weekend, influences all-cause, cardiovascular disease, or cancer mortality.
Source: jamanetwork.com
The First Commercial Sand-based Thermal Energy Storage in the World Is in Operation.
Polar Night Energy’s first commercial sand-based high temperature heat storage is now in operation at Vatajankoski power plant area. The heat storage, which has a hundred tons of sand inside, is producing low emission district heating to the city of Kankaanpää in Western Finland.
Source: polarnightenergy.fi
‘A seismic shift could be underway’: the mission to make steel green
If steel were a country, it would be the planet’s third largest emitter. But the race to decarbonise the sector is gaining momentum
Source: positive.news
Quantum microphone works even better than a regular one
By detecting tiny movements of particles of light, a quantum microphone has recorded human speech that is easier to understand than if it is captured by an equivalent classical version
Source: newscientist.com
Will electric motorbike sales take off across Asia?
"Soaring petrol prices could speed up the transition to electric much faster than expected." Could electric motorbikes become a thing in the UK? Not so much in hilly Cornwall perhaps but cities maybe. The smaller size of a motorbike battery lends itself to being swappable.
Source: bbc.com
Cycling: TfL to begin issuing fines to drivers in cycle lanes
New powers will allow TfL to enforce infringements in a similar way to bus lanes.
Source: bbc.com
The UK’s (new) Bill of Rights
An authoritarian resistance to scrutiny. Very un-British.
“it is becoming abundantly clear that the true objective underpinning this Bill (and the Government’s wider project) concerns not the so-called restoration of parliamentary sovereignty or the strengthening of democracy, but the entrenchment...
Source: publiclawforeveryone.com
Mountain gorillas: The ripple effect of conservation
Justin Rowlatt finds out what gorilla conservation can teach us about protecting other species. 'The secret of this success? Dr Gladys Kalema Zikusoka was the Uganda Wildlife Authority's first vet in 1995, then she set up the charity Conservation Through Public Health. Perhaps surprisingly, she says,...
Source: bbc.com
Strava app flaw revealed runs of Israeli officials at secret bases
A vulnerability in the fitness app allowed Israeli officials' movements to be tracked, a group says.
Source: bbc.com
Global Lessons from Exposing War Abuses in Yemen
Open source tools like the Yemeni Archive allow investigative journalists to track Saudi airstrikes in order to interrogate what is happening on the ground in Yemen.
Source: gijn.org
The Lyonesse Project: a study of the coastal and marine environment of the Isles of Scilly (OASIS ID cornwall2-58903)
This project was commissioned by English Heritage and carried out between 2009 and 2013 by Historic Environment Projects, Cornwall Council with a team of specialists from Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Exeter and Plymouth Universities, English Heritage's Scientific Dating Team, volunteers and local experts and...
Source: archaeologydataservice.ac.uk
Fleeing Russian bombs while battling Facebook. A Meta problem Ukrainian journalists did not need. - Coda Story
The challenge of local journalism and of censoring during war. "Facebook says it’s fighting disinformation and blocking Russian propaganda. But independent newsrooms in eastern Ukraine say they’re being restricted under the same rules."
Source: codastory.com
Extending the lifecycle of clothes during Covid-19
Good example of analysing behaviour by barriers and enablers. “Two studies carried out with the Centre for Behaviour Change examined factors affecting the purchase, repair, repurpose and disposal of clothes by people in the UK before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Source: ucl.ac.uk
Particle physics could be rewritten after shock W boson measurement
“The standard model of particle physics has stood the test of time for decades, but now a new measurement of a particle called the W boson could indicate a chink in its armour.” The scientists took 10 years to do the analysis as it was so complex! “The analysis was so complex that the result took...
Source: newscientist.com
Senior health professionals call for urgent climate briefing of all MPs by the chief scientific adviser: open letter to
Dear prime minister,
We wish to make you aware of our concern for the health of Angus Rose, a 52 year old man, who at the time of writing is on day 34 of a hunger strike outside Parliament, consuming only fluids, vitamins, and minerals.
His not unreasonable demand is that all members of parliament...
Source: bmj.com
Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million
We conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment (EA) in a sample of ~3 million individuals and identify 3,952 approximately uncorrelated genome-wide-significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A genome-wide polygenic predictor, or polygenic index (PGI), explains 12–16%...
Source: nature.com
The Bluestocking: The Ant Mill
The Ant Mill theory of Discourse. "An orphan take is an opinion expressed in backlash to a marginal, nebulous or anticipated opposing view. If you see angry tweets or opeds about the horror of a viewpoint you’ve never seen expressed in the wild, that’s an orphan take."
Source: substack.com
How the War in Ukraine Could Get Much Worse
The West and Russia may be entering into the terminal stages of an insecurity spiral, which could produce a larger European war even if it doesn’t go nuclear.
Source: foreignaffairs.com
International Women's Day: UTI testing '50 years out of date'
Areas of women's health have been neglected for too long, says scientist developing rapid test.
Source: bbc.com
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