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A UK startup is close to full-scale commercial production of solar trees that serve as clean energy charging stations for electric cars, according to the company’s chief executive. SolarBotanic Trees, which was founded last year, is developing two different sized versions of the tree, one 5.5 metres tall tree and another 3.5 metres tall, with the first installations planned for early next year in Oxford. “The idea is to put solar panels on a domed surface like the canopy of a tree, and then place a battery storage system into the trunk,” Chris Shelley, CEO of SolarBotanic, told The Independent. “Putting solar cells and batteries into the same structure is very practical, as it allows them to store excess energy without having to solely rely on its backup grid supply.” The number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the UK has risen by more than a third over the last year in an effort to keep up with growing demand. There are now more than 25,000 locations as of May 2023, according to EV mapping service Zapmap, though this is still well short of the 325,000 charging points that the UK’s Climate Change Committee claims will be necessary by 2032. SolarBotanic already has deals in place with EV infrastructure suppliers to build trees for several sites in the UK, Mr Shelley said, including an order of 200 trees from the Raw Charging Group. The initial idea was to create a structure capable of harvesting both solar and wind energy, using photovoltaic leaves that flutter in the wind to generate additional power. Preliminary research found that wind harvesting via this method is not sufficiently advanced at present to be commercially viable in the near term, however it remains a prospect fot the future. For now, SolarBotanic’s focus is on entering production later this year in order to deliver the solar trees to UK customers at the start of 2024. From there, the company plans to enter other markets, including Europe and the US, as well as develop customisable structures to suit other applications. These include large trees with integrated seating underneath to be used in town squares or pub gardens, with people able to charge their phones or even warm themselves up from inbuilt infrared heating fixtures. “There are quite alot of variations on the core theme,” Mr Shelley said. “Offgrid versions that don’t need to meet the electricity demands of an electric vehicle could serve as work or social areas in town squares with telephone and laptop charging, seating and shelter. “Beyond commercial and municipal uses, the trees could go in people’s gardens to supplement rooftop solar panel setups, or several of them could even meet the annual electrical requirement of a medium-sized house.” Read More Scientists figure out how to turn rocks into batteries Japan aims to beam solar power from space by 2025 Scientists break world record for solar power window material Electric cars could save more than 100,000 lives, study claims Scientists smash world record for solar power window material Instagram has stopped working properly

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After a live worm was found wriggling around in an Australian woman’s brain recently, you could be forgiven for thanking your lucky stars you don’t have a similar parasite living inside you. But it turns out the chances are much more likely than you might think. More than 1 billion people are thought to have threadworms, a type of invertebrate also known as the pinworm, as per a 2019 study by NCBI. Threadworms grow to around 1cm in length and are specific to human hosts. They infect the small intestine, make your bottom feel itchy and can be passed from person to person. They are a common type of infection in the UK, particularly in children under the age of 10. Threadworms are white and look like small pieces of thread – they are usually spotted in people’s poo. According to the NHS website, they can make people irritable and cause them to wake up at night. When things get really bad, they can cause weight loss. The woman in Australia’s worm, by contrast, was found in her brain, and surgeons needed to get it out manually. “Everyone [in] that operating theatre got the shock of their life when [the surgeon] took some forceps to pick up an abnormality and the abnormality turned out to be a wriggling, live 8cm light red worm," said infectious diseases doctor Sanjaya Senanayake, according to the BBC. If you get threadworms, you won’t need to have brain surgery, fortunately. You can buy medicine (mebendazole) for threadworms from pharmacies, according to NHS online. This is usually a chewable tablet or liquid you swallow. The medicine kills the threadworms, but it does not kill the eggs. Eggs can live for up to 2 weeks outside the body. There are other types of worms you can catch, however. Tapeworms, roundworms and hookworms are all relatively common parasites that you can catch from eating raw or undercooked meat. They can also be caught from inadvertently touching infected poo. Roundworms look more like earthworms, tapeworms are long, pale yellow and flat and hookworms, somewhat horrifically, cause a red, worm-shaped rash beneath the skin. Vincent Ho, associate professor and clinical academic gastroenterologist at Western Sydney University in Australia, said that there are four things you can do to avoid these nasty little critters. “Avoid undercooked or raw pork. Freezing meat first may reduce risks (though home freezers may not get cold enough) and it must be cooked to a high internal temperature. Avoid pork if you are travelling in places with poor sanitation,” he said in an article for The Conversation. “Avoid jumping or diving into warm fresh bodies of water, especially if they are known to carry Naegleria fowleri. Although only a handful of cases are reported each year, you should assume it’s present. “Practise good hand hygiene to reduce the risk of rare and common infections. That means washing hands thoroughly and often, using soap, scrubbing for at least 20 seconds, rinsing and drying well. Clip and clean under fingernails regularly. “To avoid soil-borne parasites, wear shoes outside, especially in rural and remote regions, wash shoes and leave them outside.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.