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From fighting memory decline to warding off some cancers, drinking coffee continues to emerge as a way to improve your health. Now, a new study says that the time of day during which you drink your daily brew is key to boosting some of its effects. · For the new research, which has just been published in the European Heart Journal, a team led by Ju Qi from Tulane University, looked at data from over 40,000 adults who participated in the US…

Imagine having a picture on your wall that completely changes when the room gets too warm. Engineers at MIT have created a new printing technology called Thermochromorph to make full-color images that switch in response to temperature. · You might recognize thermochromic inks as those that change colors when warmed up to a certain temperature, like the old Hypercolor t-shirts. In most applications, they’re basically black sections that turn…

The death of a spy is rarely newsworthy, due to the secrecy surrounding it. But when a white beluga whale suspected of spying for Moscow was found dead in Norwegian waters in September, the animal soon became a minor celebrity. · Hvaldimir (a play on the Norwegian word for whale, hval, and the first name of the Russian president Vladimir Putin) was even given an official autopsy by the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. · The whale had been…

In October, the National Health and Medical Research Council invited public consultation on new draft limits for 'forever chemicals' — also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — found in Australia's drinking water. · The draft guidelines propose lowering the limit for three PFAS compounds and setting a new value for a fourth. · PFAS can bioaccumulate in the human body, meaning their concentrations can increase over time…

Internationally acclaimed author Katherine Mansfield revolutionised 20th-century English short-story writing. She died from tuberculosis in France, on January 9th, 1923, aged just 34. · Katherine Mansfield was the pen name of Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp. Finding New Zealand too provincial, she sailed to London in 1908 and never returned. Despite this, she never lost her ties to the country of her birth, the setting for some of her best-known…

The global transition to green technologies has increased the demand for lithium dramatically.  · This critical mineral, abundant but distributed unevenly, is essential for energy storage and transport electrification.  · According to the International Energy Agency, by 2040, the demand for lithium could be up to 42 times its 2020 levels. · Lithium-ion batteries are used to power electric vehicles and store renewable energy such as wind and…

New York City will soon be getting its own personal offshore wind farm. The Empire Wind 1 project just received a US$3 billion project financing package and is expected to go online in 2027, powering roughly half a million borough residents. But what's the catch? · In the energy sector, levelized cost of energy (LCoE) is a key metric that looks at the cost of electricity generated over the lifetime of the unit generating the power. LCoE takes…

The re-election of Donald Trump as the next US President was greeted in the Middle East with a mixture of rapture and dread, especially among Palestinians. · While it is impossible to know exactly how a second Trump Presidency will act toward the Palestinian people and their demands for statehood, his first Presidency provides a guide to what they might expect. · Like all his predecessors, in his first term, President Trump’s dealings with…

Loneliness has long been associated with ill health but researchers say they have fresh insights into the link between the two. · While poor health can result in people becoming isolated and lonely, studies have also suggested loneliness can itself lead to poorer health. · Now researchers say they have unpicked a mechanism for the latter relationship, finding loneliness can affect the levels of a handful of proteins associated with various…

On January 8th 1863, geologist Julius von Haast led an expedition in search of an overland route from the east to the west coast of the South Island. He found a suitable route from the upper Makarora River, crossing the Southern Alps by the saddle now known as Haast Pass. · Although prospector Charles Cameron is credited with ‘discovering’ the pass, Haast was rewarded by having it named after him. His expedition reached the pass on 23 January.…