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solar panels Chile

Massive solar panels in Chilean desert point to our renewable future

6 November 2019

These futuristic solar panels in Chile’s Atacama desert are part of ambitious plans to go carbon neutral, as unrest forces the country to abandon hosting a UN climate conference


sun

How to watch Mercury's transit of the sun with just binoculars

6 November 2019

On 11 November, the innermost planet of the solar system will make a rare crossing of the face of the sun. Here's how to see it without expensive kit


Seeing around corners: How to decipher shadows to see the invisible

Seeing around corners: How to decipher shadows to see the invisible

6 November 2019

Reflected light gets everywhere and even shady spots are full of images we can’t see – not least what’s happening around corners. But new technology is beginning to expose these hidden scenes


Silly Putty

Flop, an exhibition about failure, shows the joy and pain of mistakes

6 November 2019

From the accidental creation of Silly Putty to an abandoned attempt to build a universal language, University College London's latest exhibition, Flop, offers new ways to look at failure


Facebook's war room during Brazil's elections last year

Facebook has a plan to tackle fake news – here's why it won't work

31 October 2019

Ahead of the UK general election, Facebook says it is tackling interference and misinformation. But the firm’s efforts are unlikely to have much effect


A drone flies in front of the Golden Gate Bridge .

Delivery drones could land on public transport to extend their range

31 October 2019

By landing on the roofs of buses, delivery drones could travel four-and-a-half times as far, making them more useful for transporting packages


AlphaStar in green dealing with flying units from the Zerg players with a combination of powerful anti-air units

DeepMind’s StarCraft-playing AI beats 99.8 per cent of human gamers

30 October 2019

AlphaStar, the AI built by tech firm DeepMind, has reached the top ranks of StarCraft II players, above 99.8 per cent of human gamers


battery

Electric cars could charge in 10 minutes with a new kind of battery

30 October 2019

New batteries will mean it could take just 10 minutes to charge electric cars enough to travel 300 kilometres – and the batteries still work after 2500 charge cycles


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