Page 112 - Sci Tech News Today

Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 9:30 am When high winds on the Auckland Harbour Bridge last September caused two trucks to topple over, one into a load-bearing strut, NIWA scientists began thinking about what role they could play in preventing it from happening again. The incidents were described at the time as being caused by a freak wind gust of about 127km/h measured at the top of the bridge arch, and meant some of the bridge lanes had to be closed for more than two weeks for repairs, resulting in ...

Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 11:40 am GNS Science, MetService and the Earthquake Commission (EQC) have joined forces to enhance real-time forecasting models for volcanic ashfall to help New Zealand communities manage future eruptions. The ground-breaking EQC-funded project by leading GNS Science and MetService scientists will combine existing eruption scenarios with weather forecasting to better predict the likelihood of an area being affected by volcanic ashfall. “New Zealand is dotted with activ...

Professor Nicola Dalbeth Professor Dalbeth is this year’s winner of the Gluckman Medal for distinguished contribution to research for her work in gout, an arthritis prevalent in Aotearoa. Her more than 400 research papers span everything from the extra risk Covid-19 poses for people suffering from gout to whether the condition – an inflammatory arthritis – should have a different name. (She thinks it should.) Gout is a painful form of arthritis caused by urate crystals accumulating in joi...

Tropical Storm Bising downgraded into an extratropical cyclone after exiting the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) on Sunday morning, state weather bureau PAGASA said. 

Friday, 23 April 2021, 10:45 am   New analysis of roughly 39 million groundwater wells around the world, including in New Zealand, sheds light on just how many run the risk of running dry. US researchers found that between 6 to 20 per cent are shallow enough that they may run dry if groundwater levels dip by only a few metres. New Zealand records were cited as a significant contributor to the large dataset. The SMC asked experts to comment on this research. Abby Matthews, Groundwater Scientist...

Posted on April 23, 2021 | Views: 58 cwebb2021-04-22T20:11:05-07:00 by Forschungszentrum Juelich: Nanostructured material and a new cell design pave the way for the production of silicon solar cells with more than 26 percent efficiency… There is no cheaper way to generate electricity today than with the sun. Power plants are currently being built in sunny locations that will supply solar electricity for less than two cents per kilowatt hour. Solar cells available on the market based...

The SMC asked experts to comment on the study. Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, comments: “It’s encouraging to see such a low number of previously-undiagnosed cases. It does support the evidence from other data sources such as community testing, which have consistently shown low rates of positive tests. So far there’s been no indication that Aotearoa New Zealand has experienced large undetected outbreaks in the commu...

Hundreds of students at the University of Auckland are about to get involved in an experiment that could help better understand how viruses like Covid-19 spread. This is the pilot experiment of Safe Blues , a joint partnership between researchers ...

Published April 21, 2021 2:12pm The Department of Justice-Office of Cybercrime (DOJ-OOC) on Wednesday warned Facebook users tagged in a post containing a link to an “adult video” not to click it as this could activate malware. “When clicked, it will result in the automatic and random tagging in the same post of other Facebook account users,” the DOJ-OOC said in a statement. “If you happen to get a notification tagging you in a post that contains a link to an apparent adult conten...

The medicine chest believed to have been used by Ogata Koan during his later years contains medicine bottles and other items. (Provided by Kyoko Takahashi) OSAKA--The mysterious contents of a sealed glass bottle used by a noted feudal-era doctor of Western medicine have been identified through muonic X-ray analysis. With age, the medicine bottle that Ogata Koan (1810-1863) is thought to have used for his house calls and other purposes has become impossible to open. But by using muons, a type of...