Humans 14 October 2019 By Adam Vaughan Eliud Kipchoge crosses the finish line of a specially designed marathon course in ViennaALEX HALADA/GettyEliud Kipchoge has become the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, breaking the totemic milestone by 20 seconds. A previous effort by the Kenya runner two years ago fell short…
Technology 14 October 2019 By Adam Vaughan A wind turbine farm off the coast of Yorkshire, UKBerndBrueggemann/iStock/Getty ImagesUK wind turbines, solar farms and other renewable sources of energy generated more electricity this summer than coal and gas power stations, marking the first quarter in history that renewables have eclipsed fossil fuels in the country. In…
By Alison George Lee Berger at New Scientist LiveJAMES WINSPEARHumanity’s ancient family tree is set to be shaken up by fossil skeletons found embedded in rock at a site near Johannesburg, South Africa, could be another long lost human cousin. “We have another major hominin discovery,” said Lee Berger at New Scientist Live on Saturday. In the…
As research reveals ever more similarities between the human experience and that of many animals, it becomes harder to defend the pursuit of such knowledge Life | Leader 9 October 2019 Experiments have shown that macaques can grasp a certain type of logicKsumano/GettyAS A primate with sophisticated cognitive abilities, you may remember a recent story…
By Clare Wilson Getty ImagesFor people who are addicted to cannabis, one treatment option may be, paradoxically, to take pills containing an extract of cannabis. The first test of the idea has found that people taking capsules of this extract, known as cannabidiol or CBD, nearly halved the amount of cannabis they smoked, according to…
Technology 12 October 2019 By Leah Crane Three headline-generating bots were revealed at New Scientist Live Bots sometimes get a bad rap. Automated accounts on social media platforms have been accused of many abuses, including large-scale political manipulation, but they aren’t all bad. Speaking at New Scientist Live in London today, Tony Veale from University…
By Sam Wong Your reaction times may be slower during a heartbeatPeter Stark/Getty ImagesDrivers may be more likely to crash if an obstacle appears at the same time as a heartbeat. To investigate how the beat of our hearts influences our reaction times, Sarah Garfinkel at the University of Sussex, UK, and her colleagues designed…
Technology 12 October 2019 By Adam Vaughan Gloucestershire Constabulary has been using data analysis to identify potentially vulnerable childrenpaul weston / Alamy Stock PhotoA trial using data to prevent child abuse helped a UK police force detect a child gang and drastically cut the time it takes child protection experts to review cases. High profile…
By Adam Vaughan A mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, by the Thames rivermike lane / Alamy Stock PhotoCrabs in the Thames river in the UK have been found to be ingesting “shocking” amounts of plastic and may be passing it on in high doses to other marine species, researchers have found. A UK team surveying the…
Technology 11 October 2019 By Adam Vaughan James Dyson said the firm had developed a “fantastic” carAlamyUK taxpayers gave around £5 million to Dyson to support the electric car project that it scrapped this week, the company says. James Dyson told staff yesterday that, while the firm had developed a “fantastic” car, it wasn’t commercially…
