Life

Streep, Dench voice outrage at Weinstein sex revelations

  by Thomas Urbain Agence France Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Movie legends Meryl Streep and Judi Dench led a chorus of outrage Monday following the revelation that Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed women for decades, as Hollywood stood accused of covering up a pattern of misconduct that finally cost the film mogul his job. Weinstein was fired late Sunday from his own film studio, three days after a bombshell New York Times […]

How coffee could power your car

LONDON, England (Reuters) — A new one-step process that turns spent coffee grounds into biofuel could help in the fight to reduce our reliance on diesel made from fossil fuels, say researchers at Lancaster University. Using feedstocks, such as soybean, rapeseed, or corn, grown specifically to extract oils to make biodiesel is controversial because of their cost and because they divert crops from food production. Lead researcher Dr Vesna Najdanovic-Visak told Reuters: “These kind of […]

Wind farms in Atlantic could power the world: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Wind farms in the open ocean can generate far more renewable energy than those on land, possibly enough to power the whole world, said a US study on Monday. Researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science found that higher wind speeds over the open seas could produce five times as much energy as wind turbines over land. While no commercial-scale deep water wind farms exist at present, the findings suggest […]

Japan scientists grow drugs in chicken eggs

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese researchers have genetically engineered hens whose eggs contain drugs that can fight serious diseases including cancer, in a bid to dramatically reduce the cost of treatment, a report said Monday. If the scientists are able to safely produce “interferon beta”, a type of protein used to treat illnesses including multiple sclerosis and hepatitis, by rearing the hens, the price of the drug — currently up to 100,000 yen ($888) for a few microgrammes — […]

Epic world solar car race begins in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — An epic 3,000-kilometer (1,860-mile) solar car race across the desert heart of Australia designed to showcase new technology that could one day help develop commercial vehicles got underway Sunday. The World Solar Challenge, first run in 1987 and last held in 2015, began in a high-tech, futuristic flurry from Darwin’s State Square. Dutch team Nuon is aiming to defend its title but Belgium’s Punch Powertrain led the 41 cars — powered […]

Iraqi animal lovers go online to help save Baghdad’s strays

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) – The welfare of stray cats and dogs roaming Iraq’s capital Baghdad is far from a priority for most residents after years of bloodshed and insecurity. Homeless animals typically face cruelty or even extermination on the streets of the city, but now some pet lovers are looking to use social media to change attitudes and find loving owners for the four-legged friends. Agricultural college student Assan Attallah, 22, has just helped get […]

Orthorexia: When ‘healthy eating’ ends up making you sick

by Clara WRIGHT Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — People, it seems, have never been so afraid of their food -– and, say some experts, an obsession with healthy eating may paradoxically be endangering lives. Twenty-nine-year-old Frenchwoman Sabrina Debusquat recounts how, over 18 months, she became a vegetarian, then a vegan — eschewing eggs, dairy products and even honey -– before becoming a “raw foodist” who avoided all cooked foods, and ultimately decided to […]

Italy’s high-rise forests take root around the world

by Céline CORNU Agence France Presse ROME, Italy (AFP) — As balconies bristle with tree branches and sunshine dapples the leaves of thousands of plants, two apartment buildings in the heart of Milan have almost disappeared under lush forest. The brainchild of Milanese architect Stefano Boeri, the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) uses more than 20,000 trees and plants to adorn the high-rise buildings from top to bottom – a project now being exported all over […]

Polish scientists hope for success in plastics-to-fuel sector

WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) — A group of Warsaw-based scientists say they have developed a new, economically viable method for transforming non-recyclable plastic waste into gasoline and diesel fuel which complies with European standards. Inventor Adam Handerek’s team have worked together with the Automotive Industry Institute in Warsaw to construct a prototype reactor that converts popular plastics including polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene into gasoline and diesel fuel fractions. Their method uses a vertical reactor with internal […]

Balloons to help restore Puerto Rico’s cell networks

  NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Google’s parent company is set to launch balloons into the Caribbean skies in an attempt to restore telephone networks in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. Alphabet Inc., which controls Google, obtained authorization from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy the devices — developed from 2013 as part of a project known as “Loon.” It aims to temporarily re-establish Puerto Rico’s cellular network — where 83 per cent of cell […]

A changing China on view in New York art show

by Thomas Urbain © Agence France-Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A generation of artists deeply marked by the Tiananmen Square massacre, globalization and the liberalization of China’s economy is at the heart of a new exhibition at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The period bookended by Tiananmen (1989) and the 2008 Beijing Olympics witnessed what the museum’s senior curator for Asian art Alexandra Munroe called “the greatest transformations in the lives of 1.3 billion […]

Go weightless in Zero-G aircraft and help science

MERIGNAC, France (Reuters) — This aircraft has a very special mission. It allows its passengers to experience zero gravity – or weightlessness – the next best thing to being in the International Space Station. Passengers of the Zero-G plane, an Airbus A310, can experience zero gravity for over 20 seconds at a time when the plane leaps through the sky. Company Novespace runs the program with French space agency CNES, allowing researchers to study the […]