Errors revealed at Chinese nuclear firm seeking to invest in UK plants
Huge quantity of protective steel was left out of initial construction of China General Nuclear Corp’s first reactor, built close to Hong Kong in 1987 One of the Chinese nuclear power firms pushing for a stake in the UK’s energy industry left out hundreds of critical steel rods when building its first reactor near Hong […]
Introducing Transparent Solar Panels
The cost of solar panels dropped 80% between 2008 and 2015 and solar technology is becoming an increasingly common sight both in business and residential contexts. Panels are now an affordable commodity for the middle classes and a team of researchers at Michigan State University have aimed to take advantage of that new market. They’ve […]
Toyota Aiming For Self-Driving Vehicles By 2020
Once regarded as a distant, almost futuristic technology, it is now a question of “when”, rather than “if”, autonomous driving systems will hit the market at scale. This month, Toyota Motors took a significant step in that direction, announcing that it intends to deploy self-driving vehicles by 2020. That’s just five years into the future. […]
Novice cavers find marvels beneath the fissured limestone
Selside, Yorkshire Dales The young potholers re-emerge into sunlight, blinking like startled moles and buzzing with the marvels they had seen The cavers peer into their hands to check the bright discs of yellow light that show their headlamp beams are switched on. These twentysomething novices then follow their instructor into Lower Long Churn, a […]
True love: tiny Australian desert fish travel vast distances to find new mate
The 6cm long goby is an ‘average swimmer’ but can travel hundreds of kilometres through Australia’s red centre in just a trickle of water A trickle of water running over parched earth is all the encouragement the desert goby needs. The unassuming little fish, reckoned by researchers to be a poor to average swimmer, only […]
France launches global drive for climate deal
Diplomats mobilised for unprecedented PR push, with Paris summit seen as last chance to reach agreement France has launched an unprecedented diplomatic drive to shepherd nations big and small towards a major climate change deal, ahead of a Paris summit next month that is the next major make-or-break moment for the movement against global warming. […]
UK solar power industry proposes emergency plan to save renewables
Trade body says scheme would add just £1 to bills by 2019 and comes in response to government plans to cut subsidies for rooftop solar panels by 87% The solar power industry has proposed an emergency plan to rescue renewables, which it says would add just £1 to consumer bills by 2019, on top of […]
Mystery and beauty in the smoke of garden bonfires: Country diary 100 years ago
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 21 October 1915 OxfordshireThe mists have been unusually heavy these last few days, and, mingling with them, the chief feature of our village landscape has been the garden bonfires. These burn all day and every day, but sunset and the hour after it is the time they make […]
David Cameron dismisses risk of rift with US over China
Prime minister says state visit of Xi Jinping and ‘golden era’ between two nations will not harm transatlantic special relationship David Cameron has insisted that the UK’s new “golden era” with China will not harm the special relationship with the US, as he prepares to roll out the red carpet for a historic state visit […]
A glimpse of a dipper brightens the day
A long weekend in the western Highlands of Scotland gave me the opportunity to catch up with several species I rarely get the chance to see. This was enhanced by our host’s desire to show us as much of this beautiful landscape as possible, which entailed going on very long walks, often involving dauntingly steep […]