Articles from ‘elocal magazine’

The good news is that there's a vast ocean of water under the surface of Mars – enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of a mile (1.6 km). The bad news is that this repository is so deep and unreachable that it might as well be in another galaxy. · Mars is one of the most frustrating planets humanity has ever encountered. For the past two centuries it's been a constant pendulum swing back and forth as evidence is found that life could…

Yvette Williams (later Corlett) won the long jump to become New Zealand’s first female Olympic medallist. Thanks to amateur radio operators who were monitoring shortwave broadcasts, New Zealanders who stayed up through the night were able to follow her progress. · After leading the qualifying round with a jump of 6.16 m, Williams began the final round with two no-jumps. Facing elimination, she leaped 5.9 m to make the top six and earn three…

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has experienced its third consecutive year of record coral growth, according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). This recovery spans the entire 1,500-mile reef, from the warmer northern regions to the cooler southern waters, making it the highest coral cover observed since detailed monitoring began. · Yet, rather than celebrating these gains, the media remains fixated on climate change narratives,…

Three years after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, some five million people have left the country, including many of the country’s scientists. Nature spoke to a handful of these refugee researchers and discovered that while most consider themselves lucky, they are anything but settled. · They worry about those that they left behind, about their visas expiring and having to choose between returning to a life-threatening situation or…

News of New Zealand’s latest Pandemic Plan has made the rounds on social media. Tauranga based Lawyer and writer Kirsten Murfitt provides a breakdown of the legal framework and clears up some misinformation. · Existing legal framework · According to Murfitt, the plan’s powers are not new. The existing legal framework includes the Health Act 1956, particularly Parts 3 and 3A, which cover infectious and notifiable diseases and the powers of…

Prenatal exposure to higher levels of bisphenol A, a plastic commonly found in water bottles and packaging and known to leach into our foods and drinks, has been linked to autism spectrum disorder in boys, according to a new study that also identified the biological mechanism underlying this link. · The risks of exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial chemical used in plastic manufacturing and found in a wide variety of plastic products,…

Aerospace startup Dawn Aerospace has made a major advance in its push to create a highly reusable spaceplane. The latest test flight reached transonic speeds of Mach 0.92 and an altitude of 50,000 ft (15,000 m), or 3 times and 5 times, respectively, better than before. · These days, there are any number of companies working on projects to get into commercial supersonic or hypersonic flight, develop spaceplanes, or generally launch small…

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth novels exemplify the principles of Just War through the action of his noblest characters. · Too many pundits, politicians, and priests nowadays treat war as a relic of a barbaric past. In foreign affairs, American presidents appear more interested in the short-term need to be seen “doing something” than in pursuing and articulating a coherent strategy for victory. · Such ambivalence about war is very much the…

Since humanism has been the core of the Western tradition through the centuries, the emergence of anti-humanism and post-humanism represents an inflection point of our civilizational crisis. In confronting this crisis, conservative humanism aims not to erase the positive achievements of modern humanism, but to graft them back onto their roots where they can draw vitality from life-giving tradition. · Is humanity coming to an end? Is the great…

Recently, The Conversation ran an article which claimed to “debunk” a range of myths about antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). · Natalina Salmaso, a clinical psychologist at Carleton University in Canada, highlighted five common myths that make people hesitant to take antidepressants. · Salmaso said hesitancy is often “unfounded” and “may not be grounded in science” and that “debunking the myths surrounding…