All posts tagged: Sand

Dining across the divide: ‘He kept saying, “Bring them all in, borders are just a line in the sand.” I didn’t agree’ | Life and style

Dining across the divide: ‘He kept saying, “Bring them all in, borders are just a line in the sand.” I didn’t agree’ | Life and style

Published by Sam Flores

Abdal-Jabbar, 56, Manchester Occupation Monitors offenders on electronic tags Voting record So far Labour, now looking at options between Corbyn’s Your Party and the Greens Amuse bouche Is an extra in film and TV productions. He recently played a paparazzo in the new Batman movie Will, 28, Manchester Occupation Works in operations and admin at Manchester University Voting record Labour under Corbyn, and was a party member. Voted Green in 2024 Amuse bouche Volunteers at a heritage railway in Wales, a full-sized, preserved old slate railway, the first in the world. His dad is very train oriented For starters Abdal-Jabbar Lovely, presentable, polite chap. Very educated – he’s got a degree in history. I think he knew a bit more about contemporary politics than I did. Will He seemed very well put-together, well-spoken. We chatted about interviews and jobs and things – he seemed like he’d been all round the shop doing all sorts of things. Abdal-Jabbar He had impeccable table manners. I was eating the starter with my hands and he went in with a …

From sand to supply chain power: Can India weaken China’s grip on rare earths?

From sand to supply chain power: Can India weaken China’s grip on rare earths?

Published by Sam Flores

The absence of heavy rare earths presents a structural limitation. EY’s Gupta noted that 60 to 70 per cent of heavy rare earth supply currently originates from Myanmar, much of which is processed in China.  “That supply is very restricted. (Heavy rare earth) is there in Myanmar, there’s some of it in China, which is also a choke point,” said Gupta. India imported between 80 and 90 per cent of its rare earth magnets and related materials from China in the financial year ending March 2025, amounting to about US$190 million, according to government data.  To reduce such dependence, the Indian government has pursued overseas resource acquisition. In 2019, it set up Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), a state-owned joint venture company tasked with securing critical and strategic mineral assets abroad to ensure a stable supply for domestic use.  In January 2024, KABIL signed an agreement with Argentina for lithium exploration and mining projects, and has reportedly been in discussions regarding lithium assets in Australia.  Raju said similar overseas arrangements elsewhere could be explored for rare …

New ladybug species is the size of a grain of sand

New ladybug species is the size of a grain of sand

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Ladybugs are famously harbingers of good luck, and the trait proved consistent at a university in Japan when researchers found a new species of the iconic insect directly on the campus.  Ladybugs, also known as ladybird beetles or lady beetles, consist of the family Coccinellidae within the order of beetles (Coleoptera). The newly identified member is a  black Parastethorus pinicola, and researchers discovered it on a pine tree at Kyushu University’s Hakozaki Satellite. In fact, its species name means “pine dweller.” The identification of the tiny species—barely more than 0.039 inches (or one millimeter) long—occured within the context of a broader study. In a study recently published in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae, two Kyushu University researchers updated the categorization of a group of ladybirds called Stethorini in Japan . Stethorini ladybugs are small and eat spider mites. “I knew that this group of ladybirds often inhabits pine trees. Since there are Japanese black pines growing at the Hakozaki …

Starmer Says UK ‘Can’t Stick Its Head in the Sand’ Over China After Trump Issues Warning

Starmer Says UK ‘Can’t Stick Its Head in the Sand’ Over China After Trump Issues Warning

Published by Sam Flores

BEIJING (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in the Chinese financial center of Shanghai on Friday in his bid to boost business opportunities for British firms in the world’s second-largest economy, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled a possible opposition to any deal between Beijing and London. Starmer, the center-left Labour leader, has brought more than 50 business leaders on his trip to China, the first by a U.K. prime minister in eight years. Starmer suggested Trump’s criticism was aimed more at Canada than Britain. He added that Washington was aware in advance of his trip and its objectives and pointed out that Trump has said he plans to visit China this spring. “I don’t think it’s wise for the United Kingdom to stick its head in the sand,” Starmer told Sky News. “China is the second biggest economy in the world. Along with Hong Kong, it’s our third-biggest trading partner. And through this visit, we’ve opened up lots of opportunities for jobs and wealth creation.” Starmer started his trip in …

Scientists shrink a lab-grade spectrometer down to the size of a grain of sand

Scientists shrink a lab-grade spectrometer down to the size of a grain of sand

Published by Jenni Sidey

For decades, bulky spectrometers have been the main tools for understanding how things are made of chemicals (a thing called composition). Spectrometers are a type of lab equipment that uses prisms or gratings to break down light into its component colours in order to analyse what is in something. Spectrometers require a lot of space, which has kept them from becoming smaller and cheaper. Now, researchers at the University of California, Davis have found a way to get around this limitation of size (physical limitation). Researchers at UC Davis have published their work in the journal Advanced Photonics describing the development of a chip that can measure light spectra that is small enough to fit onto the top of a pin head; that is, only 0.4 mm² in area and capable of providing the same functionality that typically requires laboratory-scale instruments. The UC Davis study was conducted by a group of scientists who took their knowledge of silicon engineering and then applied it to artificial intelligence (AI). They did not want to limit their research …

The Universe in a Grain of Sand: How Consciousness Became the Cosmos Looking at Itself

The Universe in a Grain of Sand: How Consciousness Became the Cosmos Looking at Itself

Published by Sam Flores

I have often marveled at how small we humans and our planet Earth are in the vast cosmic scale. Imagine holding a 100-gram ball in your hand representing our entire solar system. In this analogy, Earth’s “weight” compared to that ball is almost invisible—just a tiny fraction of a gram. The solar system itself, relative to the Milky Way galaxy, is an even smaller speck in a universe filled with trillions of stars and galaxies. Stretching further, the galaxy we call home is but an almost invisible grain if the entire observable universe were held in our hand as a 100-gram ball. This repeated pattern of almost infinite scale difference can be hard to grasp. Take the Sun, the huge star at the center of our solar system—it holds 99.8% of our solar system’s mass. Earth, by comparison, is just an incredibly small fraction of that. The Milky Way, containing billions of stars including the Sun, weighs a trillion times more than our solar system. And the observable universe holds billions of such galaxies, making …