All posts tagged: waves

The ‘Taylor Swift effect’ aims to provide water during Brazil’s life-threatening heat waves

The ‘Taylor Swift effect’ aims to provide water during Brazil’s life-threatening heat waves

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian climatologist Núbia Beray Armond for years had been sounding the alarm about Rio de Janeiro’s need for an extreme heat plan including water distribution. Interest was tepid until a disastrous Taylor Swift concert — and now her phone won’t stop ringing. A stifling heat wave blanketed southeast Brazil the day of Swift’s concert last November, just before the start of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Tens of thousands of “Swifties” lined up for hours under a sweltering sun, some huddling beneath umbrellas. Once inside, a group of parched fans managed to get Swift’s attention; she paused her performance to ask staff to provide them with water. Not everyone was so lucky. Ana Clara Benevides, 23, suffered heat exposure that caused cardiorespiratory arrest during the concert, and she died. Her death sparked outrage. Many accused organizers of failing to deliver sufficient water for concertgoers. Brazil’s justice minister said the death was unacceptable, and his ministry issued a regulation obliging organizers of big events during heat waves to guarantee water for attendees. Others were galvanized …

Sir Lenny Henry waves goodbye to Comic Relief for final time with ‘I’m Just Len’ Barbie ballad

Sir Lenny Henry waves goodbye to Comic Relief for final time with ‘I’m Just Len’ Barbie ballad

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sir Lenny Henry tearfully took his final bow as the host of Comic Relief on Friday night (15 March), after fronting the annual fundraising event for the past 39 years. As one of his last hosting duties, the presenter, 65, donned a blonde wig and fur coat as he transformed into Barbie’s Ken in a rendition of “I’m Just Ken” from the hit 2023 film. In the remix called “I’m Just Len”, Henry sings about his decades hosting the annual programme, with the lyrics: “What will it take for me to leave these shows, retire this nose… face destiny?” Later in the programme, he said it had been an “honour and a joy” to be the face of Comic Relief. He said: “It is not about me – it is about the mirth and the money, the comedy and compassion.” Henry co-founded the charity behind the annual comedy …

7 best hair wavers to perfect the trending mermaid waves

7 best hair wavers to perfect the trending mermaid waves

The mermaid waves trend is continuing in 2024, and the effortless hairstyle is a go-to for instantly looking put-together. The beachy look is a particularly popular choice for the spring and summer months, and we’ve seen everyone from Hailey Bieber to JLo and Zendaya rocking the voluminous do.  The tool behind the gorgeous waves? The mermaid hair waver. The three-barrel tool creates crimped waves in a matter of seconds, and for those who struggle when it comes to using hair gadgets, it’s one of the easiest to perfect.  Whether you’re looking to nail the beachy waves for your upcoming holiday or love the curled appearance for everyday styling, I’ve searched for the top-rated hair wavers loved by the likes of Khloe Kardashian and Molly Mae, with options suitable for all hair types from BaByliss, Beauty Works, Revlon, and more.  Khloe Kardashian, Molly-Mae Hague and Hailey Bieber are all fans of the hair trend How to use a mermaid hair tool The mermaid waver tools have been praised for how easy they are to use, though …

Huge 60-foot-tall buoy uses ocean waves to create clean energy

Huge 60-foot-tall buoy uses ocean waves to create clean energy

Giant buoys over 60-feet tall may one day generate clean energy to feed into local power grids—but making it a reality isn’t as simple as going with the ocean’s flow. To successfully keep the idea afloat, it’s all about timing. Swedish company CorPower recently announced the completion of its first commercial scale buoy generator demonstration program off the coast of northern Portugal. Over the course of a six-month test run, CorPower’s three-story C4 Wave Energy Converter (WEC) endured four major Atlantic storms and adapted to constantly shifting wave heights. Although final analysis is still ongoing, CorPower believes the technology offers a promising new way to transition towards a sustainable future. As New Atlas explains, the basic theory behind CorPower’s C4 is relatively straightforward. As its air-filled chassis bobs along the rolling waves, an internal system converts the up-and-down movement into rotational power for energy generation. At the same time, however, a tensioned, internal pneumatic cylinder reacts in real-time to wave phases—slightly delaying its movements behind the waves amplifies the buoy’s bobbing, thus creating even more …

Lowest-ever frequency gravitational waves detected by researchers

Lowest-ever frequency gravitational waves detected by researchers

A team of physicists has developed a method to detect gravitational waves with such low frequencies that they could unlock the secrets behind the early mergers of supermassive black holes. The new method can detect gravitational waves that oscillate about once every thousand years. This is 100 times slower than any previously measured gravitational waves. “These are waves reaching us from the farthest corners of the Universe, capable of affecting how light travels,” said Jeff Dror, PhD, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Florida and co-author of the new study. “Studying these waves from the early Universe will help us build a complete picture of our cosmic history, analogous to previous discoveries of the cosmic microwave background.” The work is published in the Physical Review Letters. What are gravitational waves? Gravitational waves are like ripples in space. They vary in both frequency and amplitude, which offer insights into their origin and age. Gravitational waves can oscillate at extremely low frequencies, much lower than those of sound waves detectable by the human ear. …

Mistral AI makes waves with deals across tech giants including Microsoft, IBM

Mistral AI makes waves with deals across tech giants including Microsoft, IBM

Paris-based startup Mistral AI has cemented itself as a rising star in the artificial intelligence world, landing major partnerships with IBM, Microsoft, and others just one year after its founding.  The fledgling company is moving fast to commercialize its state-of-the-art natural language processing models and conversational AI capabilities. Mistral unveiled its flagship commercial model, Mistral Large, on Monday through a deal with Microsoft to offer it via the Azure cloud platform. This makes Mistral only the second provider after OpenAI to offer a commercial large language model on Azure. Mistral Large is designed to compete head-to-head with OpenAI’s dominant GPT-3 and GPT-4 models by generating human-like text and conversing knowledgeably on a wide range of topics. According to Mistral’s benchmarks, it is the world’s second most capable commercial language model behind GPT-4. Mistral-Large ranks second among all models generally available through an API and provides top-tier reasoning capabilities, according to the company (Credit: Mistral) Microsoft deal signals Mistral as top AI innovator Securing a deal with Microsoft to deploy Mistral Large on Azure is a …

The 4 big black hole frontiers for gravitational waves

The 4 big black hole frontiers for gravitational waves

It’s hard to believe, but less than 10 years ago, humanity still wasn’t certain that gravitational waves were real. Sure, we had seen evidence that massive objects in tight orbits were exhibiting orbital decay, but we had yet to directly detect the energy being radiated away from them: theoretically in the form of gravitational waves. All of that changed with the dawn of Advanced LIGO, which detected its first gravitational wave signal — from two merging black holes — on September 14, 2015. In the time since, LIGO has been upgraded, joined by additional gravitational wave detectors, and has seen over 100 mergers and merger candidates, detecting low-mass neutron stars and black holes up to ~100 times the mass of our Sun. Then, last year, in 2023, a novel method for detecting gravitational waves achieved its first success. By using an array of natural, astronomical clocks — millisecond pulsars — astronomers were able to uncover the first evidence for a low-frequency gravitational wave background to the Universe. The ultimate goal of gravitational wave astronomy is …

King Charles smiles and waves in Sandringham after first round of cancer treatment | UK News

King Charles smiles and waves in Sandringham after first round of cancer treatment | UK News

The King has been spotted smiling and waving to onlookers before going to church with the Queen. The 75-year-old monarch has been staying at Sandringham, in Norfolk, after his first round of cancer treatment in London this week. King Charles arrived at St Mary Magdalene Church and was seen holding an umbrella for Queen Camilla before being greeted by the Rev Canon Dr Paul Williams. It comes a week after the monarch spoke for the first time since being diagnosed with a form of cancer while undergoing a procedure for an enlarged prostate. Image: Pic: PA Writing from Sandringham, the King said: “I would like to express my most heartfelt thanks for the many messages of support and good wishes I have received in recent days. “As all those who have been affected by cancer will know, such kind thoughts are the greatest comfort and encouragement.” Read more: King’s cancer diagnosis: What we know so farQueen’s support now more important than ever for the King Image: King Charles and Queen Camilla leave church. Pic: PA …

Blasting sluggish sperm with ultrasound waves gets them moving

Blasting sluggish sperm with ultrasound waves gets them moving

Sperm that don’t move fast enough may struggle to reach an egg, resulting in fertility issues Alexey Kotelnikov / Alamy Exposing immobile sperm to ultrasound waves gets them moving, a lab study has shown. Sperm that don’t move properly are a key cause of infertility, as it is harder for them to reach the egg. With further research, this technique could help improve the success rate of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Previous research has suggested that high-frequency ultrasound increases the motility of sperm. However, this work didn’t involve isolating the sperm to assess which individual cells benefited, which could then point doctors towards the optimal ones to use in fertility treatments. In the latest research, Ali Vafaie and his colleagues at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, separated 50 semen samples into three groups according to their sperm motility: rapid, slow and immotile, based on guidelines that assess swimming velocity. After separating the individual sperm cells from the semen samples, the researchers measured the motility of the cells before and after they were exposed to ultrasonic …