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Larsen C ice shelf on the east of the Antarctic peninsula

A third of Antarctic ice shelves risk collapsing due to climate change

8 April 2021

Around a third of the ice shelves holding back huge glaciers in Antarctica are at risk of collapse if the world fails to take sufficient action on climate change


Bushfires burn along a mountainside in New South Wales, Australia

Australian bushfires warmed the stratosphere by 1°C for six months

8 April 2021

Smoke pollution from the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires warmed the stratosphere over the southern hemisphere by at least 1°C for six months after the fires


Regular headphones can detect a heart rate and hear your conversations

Regular headphones can detect a heart rate and hear your conversations

8 April 2021

Standard headphones with no microphone or sensors can detect your heart rate, identify you from the shape of your ear canal and even record your voice


Dementia risk doubles if people have both vision and hearing loss

Dementia risk doubles if people have both vision and hearing loss

7 April 2021

Over six years, a study following thousands of people aged 58 and up found that those who started to lose their vision and hearing were more likely to develop dementia


Dead eagles found across the US had rat poison in their blood

Dead eagles found across the US had rat poison in their blood

7 April 2021

Tests on 133 dead bald eagles and golden eagles from across the US show that 80 per cent of them had rat poison in their body, which could affect their reproduction or lead to death


physics experiment

Strange muon behaviour hints at mysterious new particles and forces

7 April 2021

Particles called muons spin slightly faster than our best models of physics predict, which may mean that there are more particles and forces that we haven't yet discovered


Lego pieces

People are bad at spotting simple solutions to problems

7 April 2021

We tend to default to solving problems by adding features rather than removing them, potentially failing to recognise efficient solutions that involve simplification


A drone in the sky

Redesign makes drones quieter and less annoying without losing thrust

7 April 2021

Drones can be loud and irritating, but by redesigning the rotors the noise they make could become more palatable without a loss of thrust


Mining bitcoin requires a lot of computer power

Bitcoin mining emissions in China will hit 130 million tonnes by 2024

6 April 2021

The carbon emissions associated with mining bitcoin in China alone will soon outstrip the total annual emissions of mid-sized European countries


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