Новости за 23.08.2017

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Most of the world could switch to 100% renewable energy by 2050, creating millions of jobs, saving millions of lives that would otherwise be lost to air pollution, and avoiding 1.5℃ of warming. That’s the bold claim of a major new study by Stanford professor Mark Jacobson and his colleagues, published in the journal Joule.

Black hole collision and merger releasing gravitational waves

A tiny disturbance in space became an enormous scientific discovery when LIGO amazingly managed to register it early on the morning of September 14, 2015. This was the first ever observation of a “gravitational wave” – a minute ripple in the structure of spacetime itself – predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago. The signal came from two black holes merging more than a billion light years away, and reached our planet on that very morning. Читать дальше...

The British government has outlined its vision for what role the European Court of Justice will play after Brexit. As speculated, its position papers outlining this vision state that it wants to end the ECJ’s “direct jurisdiction” in the UK.

Drax and Eggborough power stations in England. Pete Richman, CC BY-SA

For years, optimists have talked up carbon capture and storage (CCS) as an essential part of taking emissions out of electricity generation. Yes, build wind and solar farms, they have said, but they can’t be relied on to produce enough power all the time. So we’ll still need our fleet of fossil-fuel-burning power stations; we just need to stop them pumping carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere.

Copenhagen is making a great leap forward into the future. Shutterstock

The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities. This creates an unprecedented pressure on cities around the world to optimise the standard of living for citizens, organisations and institutions.

Across cultures, fools, clowns, and court jesters are powerful critics of any existing order. But what happens when they take power? Thanks to Donald Trump, this is a reality we now face – and one that anthropology can help us to navigate.

The far-right group Britain First went on the rampage again recently, this time in the West Midlands of England. Earlier this month, the group held a demonstration in Wolverhampton city centre, where members carried white crosses through the city. The bearing of white crosses is now a trademark of Britain First’s self-styled “Christian Crusade”.

Donald Trump surprised international audiences with his announcement that he plans to expand the US military intervention in Afghanistan, without setting an end date. This is a turnaround from Trump’s own campaign rhetoric and Barack Obama’s previous goal of dialling back the US’s military campaign – but on a more fundamental level, it’s a return to business as usual.

In danger. Poplavsyka/Shutterstock

For many, the title “pet detective” brings to mind Ace Ventura, the fictional character driven by a desire to protect animals from human mistreatment – albeit in a comic fashion. But Ventura’s passion for saving animals is not just something out of the movies. Some real life people are devoting endless personal time and resources to solving cases involving animals, too.

In Las Vegas, on August 26, the unbeaten American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr and the immensely popular Irishman Conor McGregor will face off in a boxing ring, where only striking with hands while standing is allowed. It would be just another boxing match, albeit a huge one, except that McGregor is not even a boxer. Instead, he holds the lightweight and welterweight titles in mixed martial arts (MMA), an emerging combat sport where striking and grappling with both hands and legs is allowed, both while standing and on the ground. Читать дальше...

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The earliest Latin commentary on the Gospels, lost for more than 1,500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in English for the first time. The extraordinary find, a work written by a bishop in northern Italy, Fortunatianus of Aquileia, dates back to the middle of the fourth century.

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Once hackers get into your internet-connected car, they could disable the air bags, brakes, door locks and even steal the vehicle. That’s the finding of researchers who recently uncovered a flaw in the way the different components of a connected car talk to each other. Their work follows several demonstrations of researchers remotely hacking into and taking control of cars, including one that led to a worldwide recall of one connected model of Jeep.

George Vasey, The Philosophy of Laughter and Smiling (1875)., Author provided

Laughter: it’s said to be the best medicine and the cheapest form of therapy. Studies have shown it can help to boost immunity, relieve tension and even reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression – it seems there’s a lot to be said for having a good old laugh.

via shutterstock.com

August is known as silly season in the news trade – it’s the time of year that you get stories about animals doing stupid things on the evening news (as opposed to just in internet memes).

X-ray of person with lung cancer. Puwadol Jaturawutthichai/Shutterstock

Taking vitamin B12 and B6 supplements – previously thought to protect against cancer – is associated with a two to fourfold increase in lung cancer risk, according to a new study. Researchers at Ohio State University found that the risk was increased only in men, and was even higher in current smokers.

Living with your heritage. via shutterstock.com

What is the recipe for long-term happiness? One crucial ingredient cited by many people is closeness in their social relationships. Very happy people have strong and fulfilling relationships. But if we feel rejected by those who are closest to us – our family and friends – it can sour our attempts to master the recipe for happiness.

Bright shooting stars are one of nature’s great wonders. Like the one in the main image, which was visible from Devon in the south-west of England in June, these fireballs are caused by space rocks hitting Earth’s atmosphere. The friction forces them to slow down, producing a tremendous amount of heat at the same time. If the rock is big enough, a fragment will survive this fiery transition and fall to Earth as a meteorite.