Richard Gray

Why do people discriminate against speakers with foreign accents?

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Eric Bridiers, for U.S. Mission. CC BY-ND 2.0

Listening to someone speaking with a foreign accent makes human brains work harder which can lead to unintentional discrimination against people communicating in languages other than their own, new research suggests. But exposure to foreign accents can also change the way people speak, and over time, the ensuing accents can become new languages. While most … Read more

Drone jamming system to protect European airports, public spaces

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Image Credit - Pexels

Airports could be equipped with technology capable of detecting and bringing down drones that stray into their air space, according to Dan Hermansen, chief technology officer of Danish anti-drone firm MyDefence. The company has developed a drone alarm and protection system that is being installed at a number of prominent sites around Europe, including an … Read more

Why we may be able to save the Greenland ice sheet

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Dr Teodóra Pados

Studies of ice melt in the Arctic suggest that world may have a fighting chance of preventing huge sea level changes that would result from the dramatic collapse of the vast ice sheets that cover Greenland, but that more work is needed to understand the wider effects. Greenland has more than two trillion tonnes of … Read more

To reduce food waste, scientists are making labels that track produce as it spoils

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This new label mimics the product's decline in freshness by forming a bumpy surface.

A new type of use-by label for milk bottles that decomposes as the liquid inside goes sour could appear on UK supermarket shelves later this year. Labels such as these, capable of telling consumers exactly when fresh produce has gone bad, are being developed by scientists who want to stop food from being prematurely discarded. … Read more

To slash emissions, industries must capture carbon and store it

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Carbon capture and storage is the only way for many industries to significantly reduce emissions, according to Sintef scientist Kristin Jordal.

The technology to help limit global warming to 1.5˚C already exists, but there needs to be the will to use it, according to Kristin Jordal, an engineer and senior research scientist at the Norwegian research organisation Sintef. As coordinator of the CEMCAP project, she and her colleagues have been investigating how to reduce greenhouse gas … Read more

In a zero-waste society, people will need to share and repair

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Recycling can be inefficient when parts such as dashboards from cars are too hard to dismantle, says Felipe Maya.

Businesses and consumers need to stop thinking of products as things to own and move towards a culture of sharing and repairing if we are to fulfil the ambition of creating a circular economy, according to Felipe Maya, project and innovation manager at sustainable engineering firm Exergy, headquartered in Coventry, UK. Maya and his colleagues … Read more