🛩️ The world's largest electric hybrid aircraft has flown for the first time – the electricity cost five dollars
Heart Aerospace has flown the X1 demonstrator, the largest battery-electric aircraft ever and as large as a regional airliner. The electricity for the flight cost about $5. The X1 is the forerunner of the 30-seat ES-30.
🚗 Electric car sales in Latin America have gone from near zero to rapid growth
Five years ago, almost no one in Latin America bought an electric car. In Colombia, electric cars now account for 10 percent of new car sales. In Mexico, the share rose from 2 to 7 percent in a single year.
🚭 Tobacco use in India has halved in twenty years
At the turn of the millennium, about one in five adult Indians smoked. That share has roughly halved since then. Almost half of all adults used some form of tobacco at the time. That figure has also roughly halved. The decline applies to both men and women, unlike the trend in some other countries.
💡 Light is 16,000 times cheaper than in the 14th century
One million lumen-hours cost around £34,000 in the early 14th century. By 2023, the same amount of light cost £2.15. The price drop amounts to a 16,000-fold decline, measured in constant prices. New lamps, new fuels, and expanded electricity grids made the development possible.
📜 Text charred in the Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD, read in full 2,000 years later
Researchers have read a complete scroll from Herculaneum. The scrolls were carbonised by the heat and are so fragile they cannot be physically unrolled without being destroyed. Instead, high-resolution scans and computational techniques are used to virtually unwrap the scrolls.
🧬 The bluebuck went extinct in 1799, now it is being de-extincted
The bluebuck was the first large African mammal driven to extinction by humans in modern times. The company Colossal Biosciences is now working to bring the species back using genetic technology. The work is building methods that can also help other threatened antelope species.
🚧 Researchers build material atom by atom, long considered impossible
Researchers have placed individual carbon units at exact locations on a silicon surface and built structures atom by atom, something dismissed for decades as unworkable. In most attempts the carbon landed correctly, with an accuracy of up to 97 percent.
✂️ New CRISPR method seeks out and destroys cancer cells
In lab tests the method destroyed the mutated cells but left healthy cells almost entirely unharmed, even though they differed by just a single building block in their DNA. The technique is programmable, which means a new mutation only requires researchers to create a new guide RNA.
🛫 Autonomous system designed to fly itself from takeoff to touchdown
Merlin's autonomous flight system is built to handle the entire flight, from takeoff to touchdown, and can reduce crew workload. The technology is designed to fly several types of large aircraft, including commercial jets and military transport planes.