Around The Web

You can super size your memory to make it more like the brain of a world memory champion, a scientific study suggests.

Scottish physicist Ronald Drever, one of the architects behind the discovery of gravitational waves, has died at the age of 85.

Britain’s wildlife crime head says urgent security checks are needed to protect 111 rhinos in UK after attack near Paris

Police are visiting every zoo and wildlife park in the UK that houses rhinos to offer security advice after poachers shot dead a white rhinoceros and sawed off its horn at a French zoo.

The head of Britain’s National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) said the French attack, the first of its kind in a European facility, was a wake-up call, and urgent security checks needed to be made to protect the 111 rhinos in captivity in the UK.

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Around the world courts are stepping in when politicians fail to act, with South Africa’s government the latest to lose a groundbreaking climate lawsuit with judges ruling against its plans for a new coal-fired power station

The South African government has lost the country’s first climate change lawsuit after the hight court ruled against its plans for a coal-fired power station, the latest in a rising tide of international climate litigation.

Environmental NGO EarthLife Africa challenged the government’s approval of the proposed Thabametsi coal-fired power station on the grounds that it should have been preceded by an evaluation of its climate change impacts. The North Gauteng high court agreed and ordered the government to reconsider its approval, taking into account a full climate change impact assessment.

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The chancellor promises £270m to put the UK at the forefront of ground-breaking technologies.

The popular limestone arch was featured on the first episode of Game of Thrones and several films.

The Brown tree snakes that have almost wiped out bird populations on Guam may also be damaging its tropical forests.

Cycle schemes have stagnated for 10 months, writes the former cycling commissioner. Will new cycling delegate Will Norman get London up to speed?

Under its first two mayors, London became important for the whole country as a leader in cycling. But Will Norman, Sadiq Khan’s new walking and cycling commissioner, starts work with the capital’s cyclists in a gloomy mood. Not just because of the deaths of three cyclists – and two pedestrians – in a single week last month, but because of the last 10 months’ stagnation in what was previously Britain’s most active programme to promote the bike.

I ran that programme for Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, so perhaps I’m biased. But the figures aren’t biased. Over eight years, cycling increased by 53%. Not bad: but on the new central London segregated superhighways, which we opened in May, we saw the same percentage rise in six months.

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New polling study also shows support for financial penalties for nations that refuse to be part of Paris climate deal, as Donald Trump has threatened

The citizens of four major European countries think the impacts of climate change such as severe floods and storms are already affecting them, according to a major new polling study.

The research dispels the idea that global warming is widely seen as a future problem, and also shows strong support for action to tackle global warming, including subsidies for clean energy and big financial penalties for nations that refuse to be part of the international climate deal signed in Paris in 2015 – as US president Donald Trump has threatened. There was also strong support for giving financial aid to developing nations to cope with the impacts of climate change.

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Wenlock Edge Since the 1960s the great tit population has doubled. These dapper but tough birds are becoming a global power

Great tits will take over the world. You see my problem already – it’s the name. Unless you can disassociate from the Carry On innuendo of “tit”, this bird is always going to be a joke. It supposedly gets its name from titmouse: in Old English, tit means small and “mouse” is a corruption of māse, a bird name of Germanic origins.

There is a theatrical prettiness about great tits: the shiny black head with flashing white cheeks, flamboyantly dapper, green-backed, yellow-breasted, with black tie and cleavage stripe. Their twin-syllabic song sounds like a drunk pushing a rusty wheelbarrow. But the music hall stage persona ends there.

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Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG) and the Energy Infrastructure Trust (EIT) on the successful acquisition of the Bald Hills Wind Farm.

AEMO says legacy coal plants may not be fit for purpose for the current energy transition, and has pleaded for faster and more forward-looking decisions on critical rule changes needed to deal with new technologies.

CEFC invests $100m in AMP Capital fund that aims to make its portfolio of Australian buildings net zero emissions by 2030.

Energy minister lashes out as Coalition seizes on Murdoch media's latest anti-renewables beat-up. Meanwhile, solar marches on in the sunshine state.

Tesla’s Ballarat Supercharger station, the first connection from Melbourne to Adelaide, was officially opened today with a ribbon cutting ceremony held at Wendouree. The Tesla Supercharger is substantially more powerful than any existing charging technology, providing up to 120 kilowatts of power and 270 km of range in 30 minutes.

What drove Victoria’s wholesale electricity market prices up 46% in 2016? We put the screws on the historical data to find out.

LG Chem says that solar and battery storage is already beating grid power in most states.

Recently, Adrian Merrick predicted an imminent "inflection point" for big utilities. Now he's about to put his theory into practice.

Led by a record-breaking Q4, US energy storage deployments totaled 336MWh in 2016, doubling the megawatt-hours deployed in 2015.

The sale continues Mills Oakley’s active involvement in the renewable energy sector, having advised on around 15 renewable energy projects over the last 12 months.