Google and Waymo used driverless cars to make a virtual San Francisco

Software can analyse millions of static photographs taken in city streets and create a realistic 3D model that users can smoothly navigate Technology 16 February 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Software can analyse millions of static photos of city streets taken atop cars and construct a realistic 3D model that could be used to create immersive … Read more

Covid-19 news: Vaccination halves risk of long covid, finds analysis

By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu, Layal Liverpool, Carissa Wong and Alex Wilkins A woman receives a covid-19 booster jab in London Britain, UK NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Latest coronavirus news as of 12pm on 16 February The chance of getting long covid are … Read more

Snakes: Invasive poisonous toads are killing Madagascar’s native snakes

There is evidence of a significant death rate among Malagasy snakes that attempt to eat the poisonous Asian common toad Life 16 February 2022 By Jake Buehler An Asian common toad in Madagascar Fulvio Licata Fears about the impact of invasive, poisonous toads in Madagascar appear to be justified, suggests new research. The amphibians are … Read more

Fusion power: DeepMind uses AI to control plasma inside tokamak reactor

For the first time, artificial intelligence has been used to control the super-hot plasma inside a fusion reactor, offering a new way to increase stability and efficiency Technology 16 February 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Plasma inside the TCV fusion reactor in Switzerland Curdin Wüthrich/SPC/EPFL Fusion reactors promise cheap, abundant and relatively clean energy – if … Read more

Atomic Clocks Experiment Reveals Time Dilation at The Smallest Scale Ever

In his theory of general relativity, Einstein predicted something called time dilation: the notion that two clocks under two different gravitational pulls will always tick at different speeds.   The effect has been observed in many experiments since, but now scientists have recorded it at the smallest scale seen so far. The result was achieved using … Read more

The race is on to tackle climate change by pulling carbon from the air

By Adam Vaughan Energy firm Drax has a biomass power plant in Yorkshire, UK Clare Jackson/Alamy A CATTLE shed near Edinburgh sucking up methane emissions and a team altering the acidity of seawater in the English Channel might seem unlikely prospects for avoiding increasingly dangerous climate change. But they are just two of 24 projects taking part … Read more

Atomic clock experiment shows Einstein’s general relativity is right

Physicists have measured time dilation on the smallest scale ever using an atomic clock made of thousands of ultracold atoms formed into a stack of pancake-shaped blobs Physics 16 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins Time dilation has been measured inside a tiny atomic clock Jacobson/NIST The world’s most precise atomic clock has confirmed that the … Read more

Astonishing Discovery Shows Humpback Whales Swimming Thousands of Miles to Mate

Humpback whales can swim as far as 3,700 miles (5,955 kilometers) for the chance to mate, per a new study. Scientists analyzed a database of over 450,000 pictures of whales in the wild to track the animals. They found that some would swim thousands of miles during the mating season.   Two distinctive males, which could be … Read more

Oil giants accused of greenwashing for failure over energy transition

An analysis of BP, Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil finds a mismatch between their rhetoric on low-carbon energy and their actions and spending Environment 16 February 2022 By Adam Vaughan Oil rigs at Cromarty Firth in Invergordon, UK Shutterstock / James Jones Jr Four of the world’s biggest oil companies have been accused of greenwashing for … Read more

Orangutans can learn how to use stone tools as hammers and knives

Captive orangutans that had never seen stone tools could work out how to use them to hit or cut things – but they couldn’t get the hang of making them Life 16 February 2022 By Michael Marshall Orangutans live in trees and rarely encounter stones MERVYN REES/Alamy Stock Photo Captive orangutans that had never seen … Read more