Tag: Nature
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Rights of Nature will be meaningless without a fundamental shift in how we think
More than 2,500 trees will be uprooted as construction works for new subway lines begin in Athens, Greece. This follows a devastating summer in which more than 110,000 hectares (424 square miles) of forest areas have burned, more than five times the average from 2008 to 2020. Granted, the new routes are expected to lower…
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The only way to save our natural world is by giving it rights
Imagine a world where nature itself is a political actor recognised in law. In this world, deforestation would be genocide, and the use of bee-killing pesticides a hate crime. It may seem like a radical approach to environmental law, but charging 5p for a plastic bag clearly isn’t going to stop us from hurtling towards…
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Bacterial prospectors take on the final frontier
Bacteria currently used as catalysts in earthbound mining processes could one day be used to extract critical elements in space and further the human settlement of other planets. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh struck gold with their discovery in a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications. Led by Charles Cockell, Professor of…
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Cosmic ghost hunting: CNO neutrinos from the Sun detected for the first time
An international collaboration of particle physicists has announced the detection of solar neutrinos originating from the secondary fusion cycle powering the Sun. This is a world-first that could shine a light on the otherwise unseen solar core and further our understanding of stellar evolution. The Borexino Collaboration, using the eponymous Borexino detector at the Gran…
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The colours of nature
The colours most commonly associated with nature are shades of blues and greens. Very rarely does red make a vibrant appearance, and researchers at the University of Cambridge may have explained why. A team from the Department of Chemistry used computational modelling to determine that ‘matt structural colour’ – responsible for the most intense colours…
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What can we learn from ye olde medicine?
Ellie Bennett explores how answers to the global problem of antimicrobial resistance, a decidedly modern phenomenon, may lie in the lotions and potions of our ancient predecessors. The Romans gargled urine for mouthwash, the Ancient Egyptians used dung as remedy for, well, everything and Hippocrates diagnosed his patients’ by nibbling on an amuse bouche of…
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Myth-busting the Golden Ratio
[latexpage] The Golden Ratio is widely praised for its aesthetic beauty: has its significance been blown out of proportion? Number enthusiasts are likely familiar with the idea of the golden ratio, and the artistically minded may have heard of its applications in design. The golden ratio is a simple relation between two quantities commonly occurring…