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Nicole Bell

Benefits and Allowances for Residents in the United Kingdom

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

The United Kingdom provides a variety of benefits and allowances to support its residents in various aspects of life, ranging from financial assistance to healthcare coverage. These provisions aim to ensure a certain standard of living for all citizens and alleviate financial burdens in times of need. Here’s an overview of some key benefits and allowances available to residents in the UK:

1. Universal Credit:
Universal Credit is a payment to help with living costs for individuals or families on low incomes or out of work. It replaces six existing benefits: Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Child Tax Credit, and Working Tax Credit. Universal Credit is designed to provide a comprehensive support system for those who are unemployed or underemployed.

2. State Pension:
The State Pension is a regular payment from the government that most people can claim when they reach State Pension age. The amount one receives depends on their National Insurance record. There are also additional pension benefits available for those with certain disabilities or caring responsibilities.

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Space

A flat Earth is not a myth, but a very likely past of our planet

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Scientists from the University of Central Lancashire have obtained indirect evidence for the presence of flat planets in the Universe. This is an unstable state, some intermediate variant between planetesimal and protoplanet. It is unlikely that a planet could fully form and retain such a shape, so the existence of flat worlds is still in question.

As explained by Dr Dimitris Stamatellos, in modelling the formation of cosmic bodies, scientists have always defaulted to the idea that the accumulation of matter occurs in the form of a sphere. In this case, the very process of attraction to each other particles of dust and dirt from interstellar space proceeds very unevenly. Researchers used modelling with the help of a supercomputer to test various hypotheses.

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Space

Kioxia has sent a unique 130TB SSD drive to the ISS

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Kioxia (a subsidiary of Toshiba, Japan), together with the US Hewlett Packard Enterprise, developed and sent to the ISS a composite solid-state SSD drive with a total capacity of 130TB. It is designed for the HPE Spaceborne Computer-2 orbital computer.

Now, thanks to the efforts of Kioxia and NRE, this can be done on-site, reducing the size of data transmitted by a factor of 30,000. Among the tasks to be performed are healthcare experiments, monitoring the restoration of nature and infrastructure after natural disasters, working with AI, 3D printing and other operations.

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Space

Solspace orbital mirrors will increase energy production on earth

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Serial launches of SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets have reduced the cost of putting cargo into orbit to $1500 per 1kg. When the larger Starship rocket starts flying, the price will drop by another third, and when these rockets can be used on a permanent basis, the price will drop to $232 per 1kg. This is the threshold that makes various bold experiments in space cost-effective and the launches themselves affordable to small private entities.

The Solspace project from scientists at the University of Glasgow is focused on this price factor. They intend to build a full-fledged orbital constellation of sunlight reflectors to transmit it to Earth. Here this light will receive typical fields of solar panels and produce additional energy from it. The system will not affect light pollution in any way, the brightness of the reflected light does not exceed the background lighting on a cloudy day.

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Space

Navajo Indians said the lunar missions were a desecration of it

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

The United Launch Alliance has taken the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle to the launch pad, whose launch is scheduled for 8 January. The launch window is limited and the alliance plans to have 5-6 more launches this year alone, so the launch is certain to happen. This means that the US authorities have ignored the demands of the Navajo Indians to recognise the Moon as a sacred place for the Native American peoples.

The rocket’s payload is the Peregrine lunar module from space contractor Astrobotic. It fulfils a contract with Celestis and Elysium Space, which offer services for the burial of human ashes on the Earth’s natural satellite. Due to extensive publicity about the service, the Navajo Indians found out about it and filed a collective protest.

The essence of the protest is that in Navajo culture the Moon is a place with a special, sacred status. Visiting it is not forbidden, but intentionally leaving what could be interpreted as “waste and rubbish” there is not allowed – it is considered desecration. Human remains clearly fall under this definition, so the head of the Navajo tribal alliance, Buu Nigren, filed a formal protest with NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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Space

Scientists have come up with a new way to search for water and life on exoplanets

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Birmingham have proposed a new tactic for searching for the basis of life on distant worlds. As a basis, they took Earth, where carbon is the basis of life, but the content of carbon dioxide is only 0.04% of the atmosphere. By comparison, Mars and Venus have about 95 per cent, but there is no life there, and this is directly correlated.

The low concentration of CO2 on Earth is due to the fact that this gas is absorbed by the huge volume of water on Earth. The higher the CO2 concentration, the less water on the exoplanet, and vice versa. But the presence of water alone does not guarantee the origin of life on a cosmic body. This is only a basic marker, for example, because the James Webb Space Telescope is very good at measuring CO2 levels on exoplanets.

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Science

New type of cotton bandage kills germs without antibiotics

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new kind of antibacterial bandage that doesn’t use antibiotics. There’s also no drug in there – the germs are destroyed by the bandage material itself. This is Lawson or henotanninic acid, which is derived from henna leaves and is prized for its anti-inflammatory properties. It also has antioxidant properties.

It is not easy to work with this substance, as due to its strong hydrophobic properties it cannot be mixed with water and get a convenient solution for wound treatment. Therefore, the scientists used carbohydrates cyclodextrins, “hiding” looson inside their hollow structure. The outer surface of cyclodextrins is well wetted with water, so a kind of solution was obtained.

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Science

Taylor Swift’s music could save your life

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Scientists at Monash University have identified the music best suited to first aid for heart attacks. As it turned out, the songs of Taylor Swift are optimally suited for this purpose. The fact is that the singer found almost 50 tracks in which the rhythm is 120 beats per minute. The researchers hope that the younger generation will learn to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to these songs.
For the manipulation to be successful, it is necessary to keep the number of chest compressions in the range of 100-120 times per minute. Swift’s work includes many songs that fall into it – these findings were presented at the Swiftposium 2024 scientific conference. Taylor’s songs, being iconic for the younger generation, are best suited for teaching resuscitation skills and can replace their counterparts that have begun to lose relevance.

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Science

Tai chi exercises improve cardiovascular health better than aerobic exercise

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences have proven that the use of the traditional practice of “tai chi” contributes to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases better than classical aerobic exercise. Numerical indicators do not matter, because the assessment of patients’ condition is largely subjective. The main thing is the impact of the technique on people’s quality of life and the possibility of its scalability, which is highly relevant to the Chinese population.

The main idea is to replace the dynamics of aerobic exercise with the relaxed execution of tai chi moves. Doctors have long understood that physical activity is necessary to prevent heart disease, but without excessive physical exertion – especially for the elderly. To solve this controversial problem is impossible in principle, but there are various private methods of realising the required conditions. And tai-chi is one of them.

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Science

Clownfish have learnt to count their stripes – but only to annoy their brethren

by Nicole Bell

written by Nicole Bell

Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have discovered that clownfish have counting skills. They are able to accurately determine the number and size of white stripes on each other’s bodies – but use this skill only to defend territory. Woe to the individual whose stripes coincide with those of the “owner” of a particular house-actinia – it will be mercilessly expelled.

The formation of white stripes in clownfish is considered one of the main signs of maturation. Three wide and brightly coloured stripes on the body is a sign of an adult. As a rule, by this time it has its own home in the form of a separate actinia (coral polyp). This is a successful, but fragile symbiosis, so the fish is not going to allow anyone to go there – especially its closest relatives.

In the course of research, scientists have found that the older the individual, the more ruthless she is to all other clownfish. The alpha female always drives out all the newcomers, but even if we are talking about a colony of young fish, there too the largest female takes on the function of “guard”. To avoid confusion, clownfish recognise each other’s age and status by the type and number of white stripes on their bodies.

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