Month: March 2018

The Rise Of Taiwan: An Overlooked Corner Of Asia

Posted on Saturday, 31 March, 2018Saturday, 31 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a de facto independent entity in East Asia. Its neighbours include the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations. The PRC has consistently

Galaxy With Almost No Dark Matter

Posted on Saturday, 31 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

An unusual galaxy far, far away is stumping astronomers not because of what’s there, but because of what’s missing. About 65 million light-years away, the galaxy called NGC1052-DF2 is dim and diffuse, coming in at about one two-hundredths the mass of our Milky Way. Normally, not all of a galaxy’s

America’s Wildlife Crisis

Posted on Saturday, 31 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

An extinction crisis is rippling through America’s wildlife, with scores of species at risk of being wiped out unless recovery plans start to receive sufficient funding, conservationists have warned. One-third of species in the US are vulnerable to extinction, a crisis that has ravaged swaths of creatures such as butterflies,

Global Antibiotic Consumption Soars

Posted on Saturday, 31 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Drug-resistant superbugs are rising in the UK because of lack of regulation of antibiotics in developing countries, experts have warned. One of the biggest studies of antibiotic use around the world has established that while antibiotic use in Britain has slowed, global consumption jumped by 65 percent, to 34.8 billion daily doses

The Corona Borealis Constellation

Posted on Friday, 30 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Corona Borealis is a small constellation in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Its brightest stars form a semicircular arc. Its Latin name, inspired by its shape, means “northern crown.” In classical mythology, Corona Borealis generally represented the crown given by the god Dionysus to

Young Rohingya Lives Hang By A Thread

Posted on Friday, 30 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Nazima Begum watches as a strip of paper with green, yellow and red bands is placed around her baby’s upper arm. If the circumference falls in the green zone, that’s good. If it falls in the red, it’s dangerous. Her seven-month-old son, Ataur Rahman, is firmly in the danger zone. The circumference

Eating Out Increases Levels Of Phthalates In The Body

Posted on Friday, 30 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Eating at restaurants and fast food chains may increase exposure to potentially harmful hormone-disrupting chemicals used to increase the flexibility and durability of plastic, a study has found. Researchers investigating levels of phthalates in the human body, which have been linked to asthma, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and fertility

All The Data Facebook And Google Have On You

Posted on Friday, 30 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Want to freak yourself out? I’m going to show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it. Google knows where you’ve been Google stores your location (if you have location tracking turned on) every time you turn on your phone.

The Unequal Cost Of A Plate Of Food Around The World

Posted on Thursday, 29 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

There is a massive disparity in the cost of basic nourishment around the world and when people go hungry, it is often because the food is unaffordable. While people in developed nations tend to spend a relatively small share of their income feeding themselves and their families, those in poorer

New Human Organ Hiding In Plain Sight

Posted on Thursday, 29 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Lurking just under your skin might be a new organ only now identified for the first time, say a team of scientists. In a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from New York University’s School of Medicine say they have found a new organ they’re calling the “interstitium.”

Tiangong-1 Crashing To Earth

Posted on Thursday, 29 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Tiangong-1 (Chinese literally: “Celestial Palace 1”) is China’s first prototype space station, serving as both a manned laboratory and an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities. Launched unmanned aboard a Long March 2F/Grocket on 29 September 2011, it is the first operational component of the Tiangong programme, which aims to place a larger, modular station into orbit by 2023. Tiangong-1

Project Pressure

Posted on Thursday, 29 March, 2018Wednesday, 4 April, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Under the title Vanishing Glaciers, Project Pressure is presented at the Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change – Hong Kong. Walking through the museum, audiences can see photographs by the artists; Corey Arnold, Michael Benson, Scott Conarroe, Peter Funch, Simon Norfolk and Klaus Thymann. The walls are covered with full

Bipolar I Disorder

Posted on Wednesday, 28 March, 2018Friday, 30 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Bipolar I disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder or manic depression, is a form of mental illness. A person affected by bipolar I disorder has had at least one manic episode in his or her life. A manic episode is a period of abnormally elevated mood and high energy, accompanied by abnormal

Hepatitis B Sufferers Unaware Of Silent Killer

Posted on Wednesday, 28 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

About 300 million people worldwide are living with hepatitis B, yet the majority of cases remain undiagnosed or untreated, researchers have found. According to a study published on Monday in the Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal, roughly 90% of people infected by the virus, which is incurable but manageable, are unaware they

Clean Indoor Air China’s Latest Luxury

Posted on Wednesday, 28 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The newly opened luxury Cordis hotel looks much like many other high-end hotels in Shanghai, with its glass-sided swimming pool, vast twin ballrooms and an upscale spa. But the first Cordis hotel on mainland China boasts something that is genuinely rare in big Chinese cities: clean indoor air. Modest occupancy rates

Is India’s Biometric ID Scheme Hurting The Poor?

Posted on Wednesday, 28 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

For six to seven days every month, says Muniya Devi, her five-member family doesn’t get food to eat. The frail 31-year-old lives with her children in an arid village in Jharkhand, one of India’s poorest states. Her husband, Bushan, works in a brick kiln some 65km (40 miles) away, earning

Government Controls On Social Media In China

Posted on Tuesday, 27 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Based on extensive interviews with writers, poets, artists, activists, and others personally affected by the government’s grip on online expression, as well as interviews with anonymous employees at Chinese social media companies, Forbidden Feeds: Government Controls on Social Media in China lays bare the destructive impact of the Chinese government’s vision of

How Effective Are Early Earthquake Warning Systems?

Posted on Tuesday, 27 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Earthquake early warning detection is more effective for minor quakes than major ones. This is according to a new study from the United States Geological Survey. Seismologists modelled ground shaking along California’s San Andreas Fault, where an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 or more is expected within 30 years. They found that warning

Three Perfect Days On Kauai

Posted on Tuesday, 27 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Chances are when you picture “Hawaii”, and the standard array of clichés crowds your mind’s eye—rainforests, waterfalls, blinding white-sand beaches—you are thinking of Kauai, the lushest and oldest of the main Hawaiian islands. Predictably enough, Hollywood chose Kauai as the backdrop for “Jurassic World” and the coming “Jungle Cruise,” in which Dwayne

Drug Resistance Spreads To Humans At Shocking Rate

Posted on Tuesday, 27 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Resistance to the antibiotic of last resort spread from a single Chinese pig farm to human patients on five continents within the space of a decade, scientists have discovered. The study is the first to identify the “shocking” speed with which a gene that gives bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella

Photographs March 2018 4

Posted on Monday, 26 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Credits: The Guardian, International Business Times, Reuters, The Sony Photography Exhibition, The Sunday Times.

Man Living With Alzheimer’s Climbs Mountain Everyday

Posted on Monday, 26 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The night before we are due to climb the Old Man of Coniston, Sion Jair calls to warn that, chances are, we won’t be able to go up the 803m Lake District fell in the morning. I look out the window of my hotel. There’s little wind; the temperature is

Fake News And Online Disinformation

Posted on Monday, 26 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

In January 2018, the European Commission set up a high-level group of experts (“the HLEG”) to advise on policy initiatives to counter fake news and disinformation spread online. The main deliverable of the HLEG was a report designed to review best practices in the light of fundamental principles, and suitable

Facts About Time Zones

Posted on Monday, 26 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Telegraph Travel has uncovered a few oddities on the subject of time zones. Greenland is in the same time zone as Britain Despite its location in the middle of the North Atlantic, between Iceland and Canada, a narrow slither of eastern Greenland – the weather station of Danmarkshavn and a

The Corruptibility of Political Power

Posted on Sunday, 25 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

John 18: 33 – 39; John 19: 1 – 15. The Apostle John was the only one, among the four gospel writers, who mentioned at some length the interrogation of Jesus by Pontius Pilate. The interview with the Roman Prefect or Governor of Judaea stood out as one of the

Over 800 Million People Travel 30 Minutes For Safe Water

Posted on Sunday, 25 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Water inequality is increasing in the world’s most environmentally stressed nations, warn the authors of a report that shows more than 800 million people need to travel and queue for at least 30 minutes to access safe supplies. Despite an overall increase in the provision of tap water, the study – the

Destruction Of Nature As Dangerous As Climate Change

Posted on Sunday, 25 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Human destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food, water and security to billions of people, according to the most comprehensive biodiversity study in more than a decade. Such is the rate of decline that the risks posed by biodiversity loss should be considered on the same scale

The Guardian’s View On Regulating Facebook

Posted on Sunday, 25 March, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg began Facebook, or The Facebook, as an undergraduate at Harvard University. Its roots lie in a prank played on unsuspecting fellow students. The punchline was how many would blindly turn over their secrets to him. “I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses,” Mr Zuckerberg bragged to a friend. “People just