Category: Science News

Green Hydrogen | HK University Researches Highly Efficient H2 Generation

Hydrogen is a sustainable green energy, but most of it is “locked” in water molecules on earth. To extract hydrogen from water, electrolysis using electricity from solar energy is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, but the efficiency is low and is not cost-effective. However, a research team led by Professor Zheng…


Gates, Bezos Invest in Australian-Designed Brain Implant

Billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are betting on the New York-based Synchron as the answer to Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Founded by Australian professors Tom Oxley and Nick Opie, the company on Dec. 16 announced it had closed a $110 million Series C funding round involving Bezos Expeditions, Gates Frontier, and ARCH Venture Partners. The Synchron…


Scientists Declare 2 Hawaii Volcanoes Have Stopped Erupting

HONOLULU—U.S. scientists declared Tuesday that two active Hawaii volcanoes—one where lava destroyed hundreds of homes in 2018 and another where lava recently stalled before reaching a crucial Big Island highway—have stopped erupting. “Kilauea is no longer erupting,” the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said in a statement Tuesday, followed by a separate one saying,…


A Unique Feature of the Aussie Christmas May Be in Decline

Researchers from the University of Sydney suspect that the iconic Australian Christmas beetle is in decline and are imploring Aussies to assist scientists in a country-wide beetle population count. In an email to The Epoch Times, Assoc. Prof. Tanya Latty, from Sydney University, said that it’s not known for sure that Christmas beetles have declined, as long-term…


Exercises Key to Preventing Muscle Loss

Australian researchers are advising people to start early with a personalised regimen of exercises—rather than medication—to prevent muscle loss in old age. Geriatrician Jesse Zanker from the University of Melbourne says the age-related loss of strength and mobility in which muscles begin losing their youthful bulk starting from about the age of 30, is largely…


Nuclear Fusion ‘Breakthrough’ Touted by White House, Drawing Praise and Some Skepticism

It was 1:03 a.m. on Dec. 5 that experimental physicist Alex Zylstra first spotted it: for the first time, a target yielded more energy from a fusion reaction than a laser put into it—though that’s not counting the much greater input energy that was needed to power the laser in the first place. “One of…


Study of Chess Players Reveal Mask-Wearers Make Poorer Decisions

A study of an international chess tournament has revealed that wearing a face mask significantly reduced the average quality of player decisions, impacting the cognitive performance of competitive chess players. Australian chess Grandmaster and University of Queensland Prof. David Smerdon analysed almost three million chess moves played by 8,531 people in 18 countries before and…


Christmas Tree Shortage Stumps Australian Christmas Celebrations

The extreme rainfall that has fallen across New South Wales in 2022 has created a supply shortage of real Christmas trees, triggering a rapid rise in the price of this Christmas tradition in Australia. This comes as Australia has been hit by its third consecutive La Nina, with Sydney experiencing its wettest October on record,…


Christmas Tree Shortage Stumps Australian Holiday Celebrations

The extreme rainfall that has fallen across New South Wales in 2022 has created a supply shortage of real Christmas trees, triggering a rapid rise in the price of this Christmas tradition in Australia. This comes as Australia has been hit by its third consecutive La Nina, with Sydney experiencing its wettest October on record,…


Japan’s ispace Launches World’s First Commercial Moon Lander

TOKYO—A Japanese space startup launched a spacecraft to the moon on Sunday after several delays, a step toward what would be a first for the nation and for a private company. ispace Inc.’s HAKUTO-R mission took off without incident from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after two postponements caused by inspections of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket….