2022 news preview: High-voltage supergrids could power the world

By Adam Vaughan Solar reflectors in Australia’s Northern Territory generating power John Warburton-Lee Photography/Alamy INDIA gained notoriety when it finished November’s COP26 climate summit by weakening a move to end the use of coal. Less widely recognised is that the country also started the Glasgow summit in a more positive fashion, with a plan to … Read more

Covid-19 news: Hospitals in England declare critical incidents

By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu and Layal Liverpool A man passes a temporary ‘Nightingale’ field hospital constructed in south London, England, 3 January 2022. NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstoc​k Latest coronavirus news as of 12pm on 4 January Staff shortages force health service providers … Read more

Latin American Abortion Laws Hurt Health Care and the Economy–a Lesson for a Post-Roe U.S.

As the U.S. braces for the possible rollback of abortion rights later this year, seismic shifts are happening south of the border. A series of recent legal and legislative decisions has begun to loosen restrictions in Latin America, a region with some of the world’s harshest antiabortion laws. And they could chart a path toward … Read more

What the thermodynamics of clocks tell us about the mysteries of time

Surprising new insights about the strange physics underlying how clocks work could transform our understanding of time’s arrow – and hint at how time works at the quantum scale Physics 29 December 2021 By Miriam Frankel Hardziej Studio A CENTURY ago, two intellectual giants met to debate the nature of time. One was the French … Read more

Watch ‘coronal streamers’ streak off the sun in close-up video from Parker Solar Probe

A new video of solar streamers evokes the streaking stars seen during spacecraft hyperdrives in “Star Wars.” The new NASA video from the Parker Solar Probe shows these mysterious sun structures up close for the first time, flowing past the spacecraft like interstellar fireflies. Previously, we could only catch a glimpse of streamers during solar … Read more

‘Cosmic monster’ star spits energy with the force of a billion suns

A dense, magnetic star violently erupted and spat out as much energy as a billion suns — and it happened in a fraction of a second, scientists recently reported. This type of star, known as a magnetar, is a neutron star with an exceptionally strong magnetic field, and magnetars often flare spectacularly and without warning. … Read more

Satellite navigation: GPS software boost gives location to within 10 cm

The software that allows smartphones to locate themselves is generally accurate only to within a few metres, but UK start-up Naurt claims its software can locate a device to within 20 centimetres Technology 4 January 2022 By David Hambling Satellite navigation software allows smartphones to determine their location Radoslav Zilinsky/Getty Images It is possible to … Read more