Gas boilers: Ban for new homes in England should start in 2023, say MPs

A committee of MPs says the UK government should update plans to ban gas boilers from new homes, introducing the move next year rather than in 2025 Environment 3 February 2022 By Adam Vaughan The control panel on a household gas boiler Shutterstock / KsanderDN A ban on gas boilers in new homes in England … Read more

Covid-19 news: US army discharges unvaccinated soldiers

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 Members of the National Guard, outside the U.S. Capitol Building, 14 January 2021 Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Latest coronavirus news as of 11am on 3 February … Read more

Privacy policies are four times as long as they were 25 years ago

A machine learning analysis of 50,000 privacy policy texts shows they have ballooned to an average of over 4000 words since 1996 Technology 3 February 2022 By Chris Stokel-Walker Privacy policies are getting harder to read Antons Jevterevs / Alamy Privacy policies have become longer and less readable, and require more access to user data … Read more

Fix the Planet newsletter: Can tree diversity help the climate?

By Adam Vaughan Rainforest at dawn, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Uganda, Africa. Dylan Garcia Photography / Alamy Stock Photo This is Fix the Planet, the weekly climate change newsletter that reminds you there are reasons for hope in science and technology around the world. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. Hi, welcome back … Read more

NASA Plans a Fiery End for the International Space Station by 2031

The International Space Station’s final nine years are going to be busy. NASA just released a report outlining the big-picture goals for the rest of the orbiting lab’s operational life, which is expected to end with a controlled deorbit in January 2031. These goals are: enabling deep-space exploration, conducting research to benefit humanity, inspiring our species to … Read more

Best Lego Star Wars sets 2022

If you’re looking for the best Lego Star Wars sets in the universe, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve covered all types of kits from smaller, kid friendly builds all the way up to huge centerpiece models that can take days to complete like the Millennium Falcon or the Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) … Read more

Long-Haul COVID Cases Could Spike after Latest Wave

When Omicron started its gigantic surge across the country, many Americans took solace in data suggesting that this variant is milder than earlier versions of the coronavirus. But one urgent question is whether Omicron changes the risk of “long COVID,” a cluster of debilitating symptoms that include fatigue, headache, pain and shortness of breath that … Read more

NASA hopes James Webb Space Telescope will unlock secrets of ‘super-Earths’ and hot rocky worlds

Some of the first James Webb Space Telescope investigations will focus on a variety of planet very different from what’s found in our cosmic neighborhood. Once Webb finishes its six-month commissioning period around June, it is scheduled to start a series of studies in exoplanets. One such project will study 11 “super-Earths,” which are worlds … Read more

Strongest magnetic field did not produce exotic particles called magnetic monopoles

Researchers have used the strongest magnetic field ever measured to search for exotic particles called magnetic monopoles, but they came up empty Physics 2 February 2022 By Leah Crane Accelerator beam pipes at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland Daniel Dominguez/CERN The strongest magnetic field ever measured anywhere in the universe has … Read more

A Strange Creature Discards Genes to Make a Better Heart

As far as sea squirts and their close relatives go, the genus Oikopleura represents a decidedly strange group of organisms, both from the standpoint of physical attributes and genetics. It belongs to a larger group of invertebrate animals that are closely related to all vertebrates: the tunicates. But unlike most others in that group, it … Read more