Flying robot generates as much power as a flapping insect

A flying robot with wings controlled by a magnetic field instead of heavy motors and gears slightly outperforms insect muscles Technology 2 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins A small robot with wings like an insect can fly and generate more power than a similarly-sized animal in nature. Most flying robots, whether they use wings or … Read more

A Cosmic Airburst May Have Devastated a Vast Native American Culture 1,500 Years Ago

More than 1500 years ago, a vast culture known as the Hopewell tradition (or Hopewell culture) stretched across what is today the eastern United States.  The cause of the culture’s decline has long been debated, with war and climate change two of the possibilities, but now a new avenue of inquiry has opened up: debris from a … Read more

ASMR sensations linked to anxious and neurotic personality traits

People who get weird sensations in their head and neck when they watch soothing videos are more likely to be anxious – but the tingles may give some relief Health 2 February 2022 By Clare Wilson ASMR videos often involve whispering softly into a microphone Matthias Balk/dpa/Alamy Live News People who experience weird tingles in … Read more

Air pollution: Roadside emissions sensors help Hong Kong clean its air in world first

Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide pollution have fallen sharply in Hong Kong since it introduced a world-first scheme to detect and repair vehicles with the highest emissions Technology 2 February 2022 By Alice Klein A busy road in Hong Kong picturelibrary / Alamy Stock Photo Hong Kong has improved its air quality by using roadside … Read more

Ancient Buddhist Temple Unearthed in Pakistan Is One of The Oldest Ever Discovered

An ancient temple dating from the early centuries of Buddhism has been unearthed in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan – part of the ancient Gandhara region that was conquered by Alexander the Great and gave rise to a mixing of Buddhist belief and Greek art.   Archaeologists think that the temple dates from about the middle … Read more

Making ‘Moonfall’: Geophysicist Mika McKinnon talks about the fun of annihilating Earth in the fictional disaster film (video)

In “Moonfall,” the latest movie from the so-called “master of disaster” Roland Emmerich, Earth faces an extinction-level event caused by an alien that’s been living on the moon.  Despite being plentiful in planetary destruction overflowing with explosions and incorporating an abundant amount of action, you might be surprised at how much care and consideration went … Read more

Scientists deliberately infected people with coronavirus. Here’s what happened | Science

Researchers in the United Kingdom yesterday posted the results of a first-of-its-kind study in which healthy young volunteers were purposely infected with an early strain of the pandemic coronavirus. As hoped, none of the participants got seriously ill, and scientists were able to closely track their symptoms and gain unique insight into how both SARS-CoV-2 … Read more

Mars may have been habitable millions of years later than we thought

Analysis of minerals in a Martian meteorite suggest that the planet may have begun to be hospitable for life 30 million years later than previously thought Space 2 February 2022 By Chen Ly Caption: NWA 7034Copyright: NASA NASA Deformations in a small mineral grain from a Martian meteorite hint that habitable conditions on Mars could … Read more

Gas boiler ban: Bring forward ban date in England to 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

Human Spines Found Mounted on Sticks in Peru, And Archaeologists Think They Know Why

People in the Chincha valley of Peru threaded the spines of the dead onto wooden rods around 500 years ago, a mostly-unknown practice only recently documented by archaeologists.   It may have been an attempt to restore the bodies of the dead during the European colonization, according to a study by the researchers who unearthed … Read more