the conversation
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Grímsvötn: Iceland’s Most Active Volcano May Be About To Erupt
The ice-covered Grímsvötn volcano on Iceland produced an unusually large and powerful eruption in 2011, sending ash 20km into the atmosphere, causing the cancellation of about 900 passenger flights. In comparison, the much smaller 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull led to the cancellation of about 100,000 flights. Understandably, any mention of another explosive eruption from an…
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How to Buy a Second-Hand Electric Car in Australia
Many Australians say they would consider buying an electric car. But unfortunately, new electric vehicles don’t come cheap. Even at the more affordable end of the market, a new Nissan Leaf or Hyundai Ioniq cost around $50,000. The popular Tesla Model 3 would set you back $66,000. But there’s another option: buy second-hand. A used…
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We Discovered a Missing Gene Fragment That’s Shedding New Light on How Males Develop
It’s one of the most important genes in biology: “Sry”, the gene that makes males male. Development of the sexes is a crucial step in sexual reproduction and is essential for the survival of almost all animal species. Today in the journal Science, my international collaborators and I report the surprise discovery of an entirely…
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Coronavirus: How the Pharma Industry is Changing to Produce a Vaccine on Time
To bring COVID-19 under control a vaccine needs to be available to every nation, rich and poor – and it needs to happen quickly. But pharmaceutical breakthroughs are usually the result a slow process involving competition, secrecy, risky investments and extensive trials. Changing any big industry to speed its processes up is going to be…