The solar cells in the large pilot plant are a full five metres high and consist of many mirrors that are angled towards the solar cells to concentrate sunlight.
Blog
A Vision for Water Must Match the Reality We Face – Not Just the Rhetoric
The UK government’s publication of A New Vision for Water represents the most significant attempt at water policy reform in decades - arguably since privatisation itself.
NASA study finds ancient life could survive 50 million years in Martian ice
Mars’ frozen ice caps may be time capsules for ancient life. Lab experiments show that key building blocks of proteins can survive tens of millions of years in pure ice, even under relentless cosmic radiation. Ice mixed with Martian-like soil, however, destroys organic material far more quickly. The findings point...
40,000-year-old signs show humans were recording information long before writing
More than 40,000 years ago, Ice Age humans were carving repeated patterns of dots, lines, and crosses into tools and small ivory figurines. A new computational study of more than 3,000 of these Paleolithic signs reveals that they were not random decorations but structured sequences with measurable complexity. Surprisingly, their...
Scientists finally solve the mystery of the horse whinny
Horses have a vocal trick no one fully understood until now. Scientists have discovered that when a horse whinnies, it produces two completely different sounds at the same time. One is a deep tone created by vibrating the vocal folds, similar to how humans sing. The other is a high-pitched...
A Solution That Could Reduce Aviation Emissions by up to 30 Percent
In the future, regional flights such as Trondheim-Oslo could become much more environmentally friendly with the help of a hybrid aircraft engine.
Storms and Shifting Sands – Assessing the Ocean’s Impact on Start Bay
Experts have warned that extensive storm damage caused to one of South Devon’s most iconic routes is likely to become more frequent as global sea levels rise and the impacts of extreme wave events increases.
New Research Forecasts the Impacts of Fire on Birds
Up to 30% of bird diversity hotspots, places where large numbers of different bird species occur, in the western United States face threats from high-severity wildfires in the future that could eliminate critical forest habitats, according to new research published in the journal Nature Communications.
190-million-year-old “Sword Dragon” fossil rewrites ichthyosaur history
A newly identified ichthyosaur from the UK’s Jurassic Coast is rewriting part of the prehistoric playbook. Nicknamed the “Sword Dragon of Dorset,” the three-meter-long marine reptile lived during a poorly understood window of evolution when major ichthyosaur groups were disappearing and new ones emerging. Its beautifully preserved skeleton — complete...
Can solar storms trigger earthquakes? Scientists propose surprising link
Scientists have proposed a surprising connection between solar flares and earthquakes. When solar activity disturbs the ionosphere, it may generate electric fields that penetrate fragile fracture zones in Earth’s crust. If a fault is already critically stressed, this extra electrostatic pressure could help trigger a quake. The idea doesn’t claim...