List of All Articles with Tag 's'

Firefighters are rushing to extinguish forest and land fires across parts of Indonesia, with the scorching weather in

Across swathes of Southeast Asia, maturing palm oil trees, some as tall as a 12-storey building, are turning

By Kanishka Singh (Reuters) -Torrential downpours after a week of mostly steady rainfall that brought flash flooding to New York

Scientists are optimistic about the possibility of finding life on other planets. Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found a possible sign of a gas that, on Earth, is produced by simple marine organisms. It was detected this month in the atmosphere of a planet named K2-18b, which is 120 light years away. The planet is in what astronomers call ''the Goldilocks zone' - the right distance away from its star for the surface temperature to be neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for there to be liquid water, which is essential to support life. The team expects to know in a year's time whether the hints are confirmed or have gone away. "We live in an infinite Universe, with infinite stars and planets. And it's been obvious to many of us that we can't be the only intelligent life out there," Prof Catherine Heymans, Scotland's Astronomer Royal told the BBC. "We now have the technology and the capability to answer the question of whether we are alone in the cosmos." Prof Nikku Madhusudhan of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University, who led the study, told the BBC that if the hints are confirmed "it would radically change the way we think about the search for life". "If we find signs of life on the very first planet we study, it will raise the possibility that life is common in the Universe." He predicted that within five years there will be "a major transformation" in our understanding of life in the Universe. If his team don't find life signs on K2-18b, they have 10 more Goldilocks planets on their list to study - and possibly many more after that. Even finding nothing would "provide important insights into the possibility of life on such planets", he said. Meanwhile there are other separate projects all looking for signs of life in the universe. Pretty exciting. 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.

By Ian Ransom HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) -North Korea's Ri Song Gum set a weightlifting world record at the Asian Games

South Africa’s transition away from the dirtiest fossil fuel has been marred by the botched approach to the

The Atari home video game system took the late1970s and early 1980s by storm, complete with faux wood paneling and a classic joystick with a big red button. Rival systems eventually surpassed the video-game pioneer but its iconic status, and fans, remained.

By Jonathan Allen and Brendan O'Brien NEW YORK (Reuters) -Torrential downpours after a week of mostly steady rainfall brought flash

(Reuters) -Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said on Wednesday it will sell its Russia business to newly-launched exchange CommEX, becoming the latest

Blue Carbon, a Dubai-based company, signed a memorandum of understanding with Zimbabwe to generate carbon credits from about

The Biden administration unveiled plans Friday to hold three auctions for offshore drilling rights over the next five

Sea of Stars ($34.99, available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox) is a love letter