May was the sunniest calendar month on record, and spring was the sunniest spring, the Met Office has said. The UK enjoyed 266 hours of sunshine in May – surpassing the previous record of 265 hours in June 1957. And it is even more extraordinary following a drenching winter, with […]
Science & Technology
The discovery of a new breeding pair raises hope for the survival of the world’s rarest primate, the Hainan Gibbon. Ravaged by deforestation and poaching, the ape now lives only in a patch of forest on China’s Hainan island. In the 1950s, there were an estimated 2,000 left in the […]
US astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have docked with, and entered, the International Space Station (ISS). Their Dragon capsule – supplied and operated by the private SpaceX company – attached to the bow section of the orbiting lab 422km above China. After a wait for leak, pressure and temperature […]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.: SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched two Americans into orbit from Florida on Saturday in a landmark mission marking the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space […]
Nasa astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for their historic mission next week. The pair’s flight to the International Space Station (ISS) will be made in a rocket and capsule system provided by a commercial company, SpaceX. Nasa has […]
Carbon emissions are predicted to fall between 4.2 and 7.5 per cent on last year, as against a rise of 1% that was earlier predicted of 2020 before the COVID-19 outbreak. Global carbon emissions are set to see their steepest fall this year since World War II, thanks to unprecedented […]
Electric bikes can slash transport emissions and offer workers a way to return to the workplace during coronavirus, a new study has found. If e-bikes took off in the same way in the UK, as in many European cities, it would reduce congestion, improve mobility, and save CO2, the study […]
A fossil unearthed in Australia by a volunteer digger has been identified as a rare, toothless dinosaur that roamed the country 110 million years ago. The elaphrosaur, whose name means “light-footed lizard”, was related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor. The five-centimetre (two-inch) vertebrae fossil was discovered during a dig […]
Some of the most sophisticated models of the Earth’s interior ever constructed will be produced in a new project led from Cardiff University. Researchers want to simulate the behaviour of the mantle. This solid rock layer, which resides between the planet’s core and crust, moves very slowly over time – […]
Scientists have developed a “golden tongue” to help producers test the quality of maple syrup. Different grades will find different uses. Not all syrup is suitable for those breakfast pancakes A team of researchers from Canada used the precious metal to develop a way of checking whether samples were […]