Tag: #16

Spiders or mice can make us jump instinctively. Butterflies, meanwhile, use a special technique to escape their enemies. First they bend their wings upwards to gather air. Next their wings collide to push the air out backwards, enabling rapid acceleration. The downward stroke keeps the insects in the air. Through the use of high-speed cameras in wind tunnels researchers...

For previous generations it was perfectly normal. If a device was faulty but too good to throw away, it was repaired. Now with its ‘right to repair’ law, France is stepping back into the past – at least where electronic devices are concerned. The new directive, in force since January, allows consumers to repair their device in favor of...

Sometimes it’s enough when friends begin a sentence. We know straightaway what they mean. In a foreign country we communicate by using hands and feet. And now people who are limited in their speech – tracheostomy patients for instance – can access support too. Working with an ICU in a British hospital, a Belfast-based company has developed an app...

Plastic-free shopping and green energy are no longer the end of the story. For the environmentally-conscious among us, even death can be sustainable. We’ve seen coffins made from mushrooms; now in the US, a pioneering human-composting funeral home has opened its doors for the first time. The process, which transforms the corpse into fresh mineral-bearing soil, begins in a...

Vegetables rich in vitamins, fresh air and puzzles... all help to keep our minds active. And when we get out on the bike, we want our brains to be protected against spaghetti junctions and speeding trucks. With its ingenious new helmet concept a German design firm has its sights set on improving safety for cyclists everywhere. Intelligent, energy self-sufficient...

Feelings all over the place? It’s a sensation that many of us are familiar with thanks to the on-going global pandemic. A new twenty-hour course run by Yale University entitled ‘The Science of Well Being’ offers a rare glimmer of hope. Key topics are getting to know yourself, identifying individual strengths, and learning to integrate concepts such as appreciation...