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Environment

Concern about dirty air can galvanise the fight against climate change

Politicians think that climate policy is a vote loser because people see it as a "tomorrow" issue. But immediate worries about the air we breathe offer a way to shift the dial, says London's mayor Sadiq Khan

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What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA???s James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth. Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula???s wall by slowly eroding it away. NIRCam ??? with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity ??? unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. Several prominent features in this image are described below. ??? The ???steam??? that appears to rise from the celestial ???mountains??? is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation. ??? Dramatic pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars. ??? Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars. ??? Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars. ??? A ???blow-out??? erupts at the top-center of the ridge, spewing gas and dust into the interstellar medium. ??? An unusual ???arch??? appears, looking like a bent-over cylinder. This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years ??? but Webb???s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event. Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 was first cat

Space

The JWST is already delivering on its promise to transform cosmology

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Technology

IBM quantum computer beat a supercomputer in a head-to-head test

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NASA Videograb: Type Ia Supernova.This animation shows the explosion of a white dwarf, an extremely dense remnant of a star that can no longer burn nuclear fuel at its core. In this "type Ia" supernova, white dwarf's gravity steals material away from a nearby stellar companion. When the white dwarf reaches an estimated 1.4 times the current mass of the Sun, it can no longer sustain its own weight, and blows up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/2172/type-ia-supernova/

Space

Fastest star in the galaxy clocked at 2285 kilometres per second

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Male harbour seals use complex vocalisations to try to attract females

Life

Male harbour seals may learn vocalisations years before they need them

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Life

Extinct lizard was a bizarrely supersized version of modern skinks

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Life

Flies die sooner if they see dead flies

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Tam P脿 Ling cave in northern Laos, where several human fossils dating back tens of thousands of years have been found

Humans

Fossils in Laos cave imply modern humans were in Asia 86,000 years ago

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Life

Dehorning may affect how rhinos interact and establish territory

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Health

Air quality: How does pollution affect your health?

Recent research is revealing how air pollution damages many parts of the body, who is most at risk and how heatwaves exacerbate the effects

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Life

Microbe map reveals how hundreds of insects got their diets

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Mind

You can learn foreign words as you sleep but it won’t make you fluent

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Environment

North Atlantic Ocean has reached record-high surface temperatures

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Environment

Genetically engineered gut bacterium could protect bees from parasite

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