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Coronavirus: Germany’s new local lockdown is a warning not a disaster
German authorities have had to take the difficult decision of reimposing a pandemic lockdown in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia after a resurgence of the coronavirus. This comes after the country’s R number, a measure of how quickly new cases of the disease are emerging, almost tripled over the courseContinue Reading
New Stonehenge discovery: how we found a prehistoric monument hidden in data
Archaeologists studying the monument site from above ground. University of Bradford The chances of finding another major archaeological monument near Stonehenge today are probably very small given the generations of work that has gone into studying the site. Stumbling across such a monument that measured more than 2km across mustContinue Reading
Could we extract energy from a black hole? Our experiment verifies old theory
Rotating black holes suck up anything that gets near enough. muratart/shutterstock A rotating black hole is such an extreme force of nature that it drags surrounding time and space around with it. So it is only natural to ask whether black holes could be used as some sort of energyContinue Reading
How to make your house and garden more tranquil – tips from an acoustics expert
Pexels Many of us have been spending more time at home than ever before, and chances are unless you live by yourself in the middle of nowhere, at some point unwanted noise will have infiltrated your lockdown. Whether it’s cars passing nearby, a neighbour’s blaring music or the constant droneContinue Reading
Coronavirus: could it be burning out after 20% of a population is infected?
Is coronavirus over in some cities? StreetVJ/Shutterstock More than half a million people have died from COVID-19 globally. It is a major tragedy, but perhaps not on the scale some initially feared. And there are finally signs that the pandemic is shuddering in places, as if its engine is runningContinue Reading
Curious Kids: What would happen if gravity was reduced by half?
Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock What would happen if gravity was reduced by half? – Phoebe, aged 13, London UK Gravity is a force that pulls things towards each other. It is the reason we walk on the surface of the Earth and don’t float off into space. The gravitational pull of the EarthContinue Reading
As coronavirus lockdown eases, Boris Johnson’s UK looks more isolated than ever
The UK has often appeared out of step with the rest of Europe during the coronavirus crisis. Back in early February, prime minister Boris Johnson was breezily telling his compatriots to stay “confident and calm” in the face of a potential global pandemic. Just over two weeks later, Italy appealedContinue Reading
The government should be up front about the trade-offs behind its new social distancing measures
When the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, announced the reduction of social distancing from two metres to “one-metre plus”, he reassured the public that the decision was based on expert advice. He claimed that by adhering to a raft of “mitigating” measures – such as screens and partitions and usingContinue Reading
Liverpool, Premier League champions: ‘A proud supporter of the Reds, I felt blue for 30 years. No longer’
What were you doing 30 years ago? Were you even born? Let me mark your card here. Research at CERN in Switzerland by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989-90 would eventually result in the World Wide Web, linking hypertext documents into an information system accessible from any node onContinue Reading
Why fairness matters more than equality – three ways to think philosophically about justice
Unrest in Chile in October 2019 over inequality of income, but some argue it was as much to do with fair opportunity. abriendomundo/Shutterstock In a sermon in 1956, Martin Luther King distinguished negative peace (as the absence of tension) from positive peace (as the presence of justice). It is certainlyContinue Reading