Technology, Science and the Environment.

[davieG]

So near.

 

Leicester 50 years ago  · 

Stephen Butt

 

1973 - The prototype Advanced Passenger Train arrives at London Road station.

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

So near.

 

Leicester 50 years ago  · 

Stephen Butt

 

1973 - The prototype Advanced Passenger Train arrives at London Road station.

Did that ever actually run? Didn't it end up being too fast for our rail system?

 

[davieG]

2 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Did that ever actually run? Didn't it end up being too fast for our rail system?

 

Not commercially but it did break some speed records, there were some technical issues which unfortunately showed up on a big publicised run. It then rain out of money the government wanted to spend on it especially as the 125 was doing well.

[BKLFox]

7 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Did that ever actually run? Didn't it end up being too fast for our rail system?

 

 

2 minutes ago, davieG said:

Not commercially but it did break some speed records, there were some technical issues which unfortunately showed up on a big publicised run. It then rain out of money the government wanted to spend on it especially as the 125 was doing well.

After the project was scrapped it went on to have a short acting career in Dr Who playing a dog

[davieG]

[Trav Le Bleu]

On 09/07/2026 at 08:56, davieG said:

Centring most atlas world maps on the Greenwich Meridian is very misleading. If you look at a world, for instance, in a Japanese atlas and it's centred on the international date line, then you have this great big blue space smack in the middle called the Pacific Ocean.

 

[davieG]

 

8.9K views

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 10s  ·

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Europe is about to force phone companies to make a change millions of people have wanted for years.

Replaceable batteries are coming back.

Starting in 2027, new EU rules will push many mobile phones and portable devices to have batteries that consumers can replace more easily.

That does not necessarily mean every phone will have an old-school removable back like the 2000s.

But it does mean manufacturers will have to design devices so batteries are easier to remove and replace without destroying the phone.

And that matters.

Because right now, when a phone battery gets weak, many people feel forced to buy a whole new phone.

Not because the screen is broken.

Not because the camera is useless.

Not because the phone cannot work.

But because one battery has aged.

Europe wants to change that.

Longer-lasting phones.

Less electronic waste.

More repairability.

Less pressure to upgrade just because the battery is tired.

For years, tech companies made phones thinner, sleeker, and harder to repair.

Now the EU is saying something simple:

If the battery dies, the phone should not have to die with it

[Trav Le Bleu]

12 hours ago, davieG said:

 

8.9K views

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 10s  ·

Follow

20h ·

 

 

Europe is about to force phone companies to make a change millions of people have wanted for years.

Replaceable batteries are coming back.

Starting in 2027, new EU rules will push many mobile phones and portable devices to have batteries that consumers can replace more easily.

That does not necessarily mean every phone will have an old-school removable back like the 2000s.

But it does mean manufacturers will have to design devices so batteries are easier to remove and replace without destroying the phone.

And that matters.

Because right now, when a phone battery gets weak, many people feel forced to buy a whole new phone.

Not because the screen is broken.

Not because the camera is useless.

Not because the phone cannot work.

But because one battery has aged.

Europe wants to change that.

Longer-lasting phones.

Less electronic waste.

More repairability.

Less pressure to upgrade just because the battery is tired.

For years, tech companies made phones thinner, sleeker, and harder to repair.

Now the EU is saying something simple:

If the battery dies, the phone should not have to die with it

Typical EU wokeness

[Trav Le Bleu]

The battle over peat: why do some gardeners still insist on using it? | Environment | The Guardian

 

https://share.google/DoUg7ec6HZ0USJQTS

[leicsmac]

Starship Flight 13 late last night, mostly successful in that all objectives were achieved but the ship itself was a little cooked when it landed in the Indian Ocean for recovery.

 

Hopefully they can build on this success. 

[Zear0]

13 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Starship Flight 13 late last night, mostly successful in that all objectives were achieved but the ship itself was a little cooked when it landed in the Indian Ocean for recovery.

 

Hopefully they can build on this success. 

Musk seems to be suggesting they'll try and catch the ship next time which would be a great step forward.

[leicsmac]

13 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Musk seems to be suggesting they'll try and catch the ship next time which would be a great step forward.

That's the logical next step, would end up being a shorter mission unless they do a full orbit, then. 

 

Looks like they still need to sort the engine issues with the heavy booster though, 33 engines is a lot to juggle but I don't think there's been a mission yet where one or more of them hasn't failed at some critical point. 

[SpacedX]

During hotstage/boostback burn the superheavy booster pulls something in the region of 11G. 

[The Bear]

16 hours ago, SpacedX said:

During hotstage/boostback burn the superheavy booster pulls something in the region of 11G. 

Is that the Max-Q for the flight? 

Edited 26 July by The Bear

[SpacedX]

6 hours ago, The Bear said:

Is that the Max-Q for the flight? 

Maximum dynamic pressure and the boostback burn are completely different flight events. Max Q is the point of peak aerodynamic stress during ascent when the vehicle's speed and the density of the air combine while the air is still thick enough to pushback on the rocket. The boostback burn meanwhile occurs after hot stage separation and reverses the booster's momentum and direction creating significant g-force.

[davieG]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y6r9rdxygo

 

Pallab Ghosh

Science Correspondent

Published

27 July 2026, 11:35 BST

1727 Comments

Updated 2 hours ago

The Jodrell Bank Observatory, which has housed the UK's largest telescope for nearly 70 years, has lost its funding and could now close, the BBC understands.

The observatory and its network of telescopes have been pivotal to the country's study of distant galaxies and training future astronomers. Scientists have described the decision as "heartbreaking" and "scientifically misguided".

All scientific observations at Jodrell are expected to cease on the 1 April 2028 unless alternative funding can be found.

The funding body, the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) agency, said it had to focus investment on projects that deliver "the greatest long-term impact".

Prof Brian Cox, professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester - which hosts Jodrell Bank Observatory - described the cuts as "hasty and ill-considered".

"The damage to the UK's science base has already been substantial. I am astonished that UKRI are still ploughing ahead and not working with the Burnham government to find a solution," he said.

The site was first established in 1945 and pioneered radio astronomy and the study of galaxies beyond our own.

It was also pivotal during the Cold War, when it was used to monitor Soviet missiles during the height of nuclear tensions between the USSR and Nato powers.

Its contribution to global scientific efforts earned it Unesco World Heritage status in 2019.

But the UKRI, which has an annual budget of just under £10bn, says it has had to cut the observatory's annual £2.8m budget because planned research costs for physics and the running of its labs had escalated.

The announcement is part of a broader 2.7% cut to astronomy, nuclear and particle physics research over the next four years which will also impact on other projects.

The UK will no longer participate in research at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, which scientists are using to image supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies.

UKRI has also cut funding for the UK's involvement in two instruments on the Extremely Large Telescope which is being built in Chile to search for signs of life on other Earth-like worlds.

And a number of upgrades to improve experiments at the Large Hadron Collider will not be paid for by the agency.

First celestial image unveiled from revolutionary telescope in Chile

Prof Michele Dougherty, executive chair of the science and technology branch of UKRI, said: "After listening to our community we have protected core discovery research. However, the situation does require some tough, but necessary, decisions.

"These are never easy choices, but we have made what we feel are the right decisions to bring... a sustainable financial position by 2029/30."

[Trav Le Bleu]

I was just wondering.

 

Am I the only person who thinks, when listening to Pallab Ghosh present a science item, he has no idea what he's on about? Like he's reading from a script.

 

When he interviews people, he asks really dumb questions, though I get that he may have to do that so that everyone can follow the story, but he seems like a primary school teacher who just covers a bit of basic science.

[SpacedX]

It seems that part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched a pair of lunar landers slammed into the moon as predicted after drifting off course for the past year,  Although the 5,400-mph collision had yet to be officially confirmed, space tracking indicates it was inevitable that the leftover rocket segment impacted the lunar surface. In the 1970s from Apollo 13 onward, NASA deliberately crashed the third stage of the Saturn 5 (S-IVB) into the moon (rather than place it into a heliocentric orbit like in earlier missions) in order to generate moonquakes measured by seismometers and to learn more about the composition of the moon. However, today's crash was not intentional. A combination of solar activity and gravity accidentally put it on a collision course with the moon.

 

J002E3 is a mysterious space object discovered by amateur astronomer Bill Yeung on September 3, 2002. Initially mistaken for a new natural mini-moon of Earth, scientists figured out it was actually a man-made piece of space junk - the S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V rocket from the 1969 Apollo 12 moon mission through spectrographic tests which showed its paint matched the white titanium dioxide paint used on Saturn V rockets. "SEC to aux!" I wonder if it still bears a scorch mark? 

 

 

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y3j3ngevmo

 

Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory, say US researchers.

It is the first time whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI.

The resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people.

The breakthrough has been labelled a "very significant turning point" in science that could unlock a new era for treating disease. But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise "urgent" safety and security concerns.

AI tools are rapidly advancing and have already been used to design new antibiotics.

But that is relatively simple compared with designing a new viable virus from scratch.

 

This week in "most likely headline to feature at the start of a disaster movie"...

[The Bear]

4 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y3j3ngevmo

 

Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory, say US researchers.

It is the first time whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI.

The resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people.

The breakthrough has been labelled a "very significant turning point" in science that could unlock a new era for treating disease. But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise "urgent" safety and security concerns.

AI tools are rapidly advancing and have already been used to design new antibiotics.

But that is relatively simple compared with designing a new viable virus from scratch.

 

This week in "most likely headline to feature at the start of a disaster movie"...

Fast zombies ahoy. 

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Fast zombies ahoy. 

 

But seriously, though, it reads like the intro to the latest Resident Evil. 

[davieG]

Collective Evolution  ·

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The current owners of Myspace, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, have publicly confirmed that they are planning a relaunch of the platform. One of the key ideas they've discussed is creating an alternative to today's algorithm-driven social media environment, which they argue has become dominated by endless scrolling, engagement optimization, and addictive recommendation systems.

The relaunch is reportedly being framed around some of the things people miss about the early internet:

Chronological feeds rather than algorithmic feeds

More emphasis on friends and communities

Greater profile customization

Creativity and self-expression

Music discovery and culture

Less focus on maximizing screen time

This appears to be a response to a deeper shift in social media that many users crave. The original Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter were primarily social networks. Their purpose was to help you keep up with people you knew or chose to follow.

Over time, many platforms evolved into attention-maximization systems - as this led to the greatest profit. Instead of showing you what your friends posted, they increasingly show you whatever is most likely to keep you engaged. The incentive changed from: "Help people connect" to "Maximize time spent on the platform."

And once that became the dominant incentive, many downstream effects followed:

outrage became profitable

polarization became profitable

addiction became profitable

endless scrolling became profitable

creator culture, particularly junk content, displaced genuine social connection

We shall see how this relaunch unfolds.

[davieG]

Met Office  ·

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The UK will experience a partial solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August.

The extent of the Sun’s coverage and the timing of maximum obscuration will differ across the country. Local weather conditions may impact viewing opportunities, so it’s worth checking the forecast in advance

Northeast Scotland will have around 88% covered just before 7pm, whilst in the far southwest of England there will be around 96% coverage just after 7:15pm.

Never look directly at the sun; use a pinhole projector or certified eclipse glasses to view it.

Are you looking forward to this spectacle?

[CheeseHead]

35 minutes ago, davieG said:

Met Office  ·

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Are you looking forward to this spectacle?

Better to look forward to the spectacle than look AT the spectacle I guess

[Free Falling Foxes]

On 08/08/2026 at 13:47, davieG said:

Met Office  ·

Follow

 

The UK will experience a partial solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August.

The extent of the Sun’s coverage and the timing of maximum obscuration will differ across the country. Local weather conditions may impact viewing opportunities, so it’s worth checking the forecast in advance

Northeast Scotland will have around 88% covered just before 7pm, whilst in the far southwest of England there will be around 96% coverage just after 7:15pm.

Never look directly at the sun; use a pinhole projector or certified eclipse glasses to view it.

Are you looking forward to this spectacle?

Sods law it'll be cloudy. Even patchy cloud can be a problem at that time of the day with the sun getting low in the sky.