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Image Description: cast of the skeleton of Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis fossil Researchers have discovered a new species of ancient ape that provides hints as to how bipedal walking evolved in modern humans. The species, given the scientific name Danuvius guggenmosi, was found in clay pits in south-eastern Germany, in the state of Bavaria. […]
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Image Description: Fireworks. The sparks from a sparkler are 1000-1600°C. Yet, they are still safe to use because there is a difference between temperature and energy. The thermal energy of the spark is related to its mass, as well as its temperature. As sparks have little mass, they do not have enough thermal energy to […]
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Image Description: Harbour Seal pup Seagulls are attracted to urban areas. This is because temperatures are generally 4-6°C warmer, meaning their breeding season can last for longer. There are also fewer predators in urban locations, and street-lighting allows them to forage in bins for food after dark, as well as stealing it straight out of […]
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Image description: hurricane. Researchers from Florida State University have discovered “stormquakes” – a new geophysical phenomenon formed when large storms interact with the ocean to cause a release of seismic waves that can travel for thousands of miles. These previously unknown seismic events can have the equivalent effect of earthquakes with magnitudes of over 3.5. […]
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Image Description: an optical circuit. As time goes on, our computer are becoming more and more powerful. This is primarily due to the ongoing development of the CPU (or GPU): the ‘brain’ of the computer. A pressing question facing the electronics industry is whether computers will one day become more powerful than a human beings. […]
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Image Description: YouTube In August 2019, the Indian rapper Badshah was widely accused of using a network of servers for the promotion of his latest music video ‘Paagal’. One day after release, this video had reached as many as 75 million views on YouTube, a record. The rapper maintains that he merely employed Google advertising […]
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Image Description: Prof. Sir John Gurdon. On Friday evening, Prof. Sir John Gurdon was invited to give a talk by the Oxford University Biological Society. His talk, titled ‘Over 60 years at the bench, and still there’ was a modest and candid account of his science career, from anecdotes about his school days, through to […]
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Image Description: roasted coffee beans. 600 billion cups of coffee are drunk globally each year. Coffee is one of your five-a-day, as it is a fruit. It’s also a seed, and not a bean. There are two types of coffee, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica coffee tends to be sweeter, but more acidic. Originally from the […]
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Image Description: a goat eating grass. Goats have rectangular pupils. This allows a wider range of vision of 340°, so pretty much everything, except what is directly behind them, which is essential for spotting predators and not getting eaten. However, with a rectangular pupil, goats cannot look up or down without moving their heads. […]
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Image Description: iPhone. On October 9, 2019, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino for “the development of lithium-ion batteries”. Look around and you will find lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries everywhere in your life – phones, computers and electrical vehicles. However, can you imagine that a […]
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Image Description: two people at the Biological Society stall at the Freshers’ Fair. All I remember of my Freshers’ Fair two years ago was how hot Exams Schools was, and how so many people kept trying to make small talk with me, neither of which agreed with (what is still) the worst hangover of […]
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Smartphones are one of the best tools in modern history. We have a second brain in the palm of our hands, ready to help us answer and solve the many problems we cannot fix on our own. The Internet itself is a modern marvel and having access to it anywhere and everywhere opens up a […]
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Image Description: Elizabeth Warren speaking at event. At what point does a company seem more like a country? In San Francisco in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented his vision of America during his presidential campaign in a speech now known as the Commonwealth Club Address. He noted that concentrations of economic power were not to […]
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In the continuing quest for novelty, two artists, Jan Crombie and Luke Skiffington, have struck upon a new seam of inventiveness. It’s a bit like culinary deconstruction, but with paint instead of food. The title of the exhibition, Blue Screen, refers to the technique of using a blue background that subjects are filmed against, which […]
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Recently, the University of Oxford suspended new donations and research grants from the telecoms giant Huawei. In these past tumultuous months, Huawei has been at the epicentre of a series of controversies, stemming from accusations that its technology could be used to conduct espionage. On 28th January, the US Justice Department filed 13 charges against […]
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The City of Paris Museums voted on 15th November 2018 that photos of the works belonging to their collection would become free for all to look at and use. The museums that form part of this group include the Palais Galliera Museum of Fashion, the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Petit […]
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Running from 8th to 11th January, CES 2019 played host to almost 200,000 attendants, all browsing the latest tech produced by the world’s leading companies. Billed as the ‘global stage for innovation’, this year exhibitors presented new products and technologies across the entire consumer electronics industry, from immersive entertainment to smart devices. Evolutions in television […]
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If O2’s recent data failure showed us anything, it’s that we live in a time in which our reliance on connectivity is much like our reliance on a snow-free winter: any disturbance throws the nation into havoc. And much like a half inch of sleet, such instances may be easy to trivialise without considering the […]
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Image Credit: WundermanWiki Student diabetics need to look out for their future health. Recently, there’s been a lot of attention in the press about diabetes, such as the news that hundreds of people are dying due to diabetes-related illnesses. So, for a young person, it’s a bit disconcerting. I feel a responsibility to speak out about my […]
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