The families of two contractors who died following an incident at a  LyondellBasell plant in La Porte, US, in July have filed lawsuits alleging gross negligence and wrongful death claims against LyondellBasell and its subsidiaries.  More than 45 tonnes of a mixture of chemicals – including acetic acid, methyl iodide and hydrogen iodide – leaked […]

Fast fashion is a lucrative business model offering trendy, mass-produced replica catwalk trends and haute couture designs at bargain prices. While enticing consumers to spend, it has paved the way for a throwaway culture in the clothing industry characterised by overconsumption and single-use purchases. But things are changing thanks to innovations in technology coupled with […]

New light has been shed on the size of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon in August 2020 that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands more. Estimate of the explosive yield of the blast, which resulted from the detonation of thousands of tonnes of improperly stored ammonium nitrate and damaged more than half the […]

Circadian clocks, which regulate most of the physiological processes of living beings over a rhythm of about 24 hours, are one of the most fundamental biological mechanisms. By deciphering the cell migration mechanisms underlying the immune response, scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in Switzerland, and the Ludwigs-Maximilians University (LMU), in Germany, have shown […]

As a robotics engineer, Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, gets her inspiration from biological systems. The collective behaviors of ants, honeybees and birds to solve problems and overcome obstacles is something researchers have developed in aerial and underwater robotics. Developing small-scale swarm robots with the capability to traverse complex terrain, […]

New methods of detecting ultra-low frequency gravitational waves can be combined with other, less sensitive measurements to deliver fresh insights into the early development of our universe, according to researchers at the University of Birmingham. Gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of Einstein’s spacetime – that cross the universe at the speed of light […]

Astronomers have used a planet-hunting satellite to see a white dwarf abruptly switching on and off for the first time. The researchers led by Durham University, UK, used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to observe the unique phenomenon. White dwarfs are what most stars become after they have burned off the hydrogen that fuels […]

Are we born to fear punishment or crave rewards? Or do those capacities evolve with experience? Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Bo Li and his lab found that mice have pre-programmed circuits that process “positive” and “negative” stimuli. These neurons are found in the mouse’s amygdala, a section of the brain that deals with learning rewards […]

International research led by Luke Grant, Inne Vanderkelen and Prof Wim Thiery of the VUB research group BCLIMATE shows that global changes in lake temperature and ice cover are not due to natural climate variability and can only be explained by massive greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution. The influence of human-induced climate change […]

Everyone knows the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, when you’re walking along city streets, a straight line may not be possible. How do you decide which way to go? A new MIT study suggests that our brains are actually not optimized to calculate the so-called “shortest path” when navigating on […]