Common medicines that have passed through patients’ bodies are ending up in the environment, but the threat many of them pose to wildlife and human health still needs to be determined. It may even be possible to recover some of these life-saving compounds so they can be reused. By Vittoria D’Alessio
Author Archives: Horizon Magazine
How do we know if an asteroid headed Earth is dangerous?
There are a lot of things that pose a threat to our planet – climate change, natural disasters, and solar flares, for example. But one threat in particular often captures the public imagination, finding itself popularized in books and films and regularly generating alarming headlines: asteroids. by Jonathan O’Callaghan
Here’s how scientists planning to deflect asteroids that might damage Earth
Asteroids – the bits and pieces left over from the formation of the inner planets – are a source of great curiosity for those keen to learn about the building blocks of our solar system, and to probe the chemistry of life. Humans are also considering mining asteroids for metals, but one of the crucial …
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Why buying local food isn’t necessarily better for the environment
Fears over supermarket shortages during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic led many people to buy their food from local producers, raising the prospect of a transformation in the way people get their food in the future. But while eating locally and shorter supply chains are often viewed as a more sustainable alternative to …
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How life on Earth could help us find life on Mars
In our continuing search for other life in the universe, one place has always looked promising – Mars. It is a rocky planet like Earth, orbiting the same star, and at a distance where water could have been present on the planet.
Galactic archaeology: astronomers are using stars as fossils to study the Milky Way
Understanding the stellar population of our galaxy could reveal a great deal, not only about our own home but also about the universe as a whole. So-called galactic archaeology can reveal how galaxies take shape and explain some of the interesting complexities of our own.
Interview: It’s time to rethink the Milky Way
The Milky Way might be right on our cosmic doorstep, but a group of astronomers suspects that the way we currently study it is stunting our understanding. Professor Ralf Klessen at Heidelberg University in Germany is one of four researchers who have recently begun a six-year project, ECOGAL, to try something new: imagine our home …
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Organic solar panels: lightweight, bendy, cheaper
Today’s silicon solar panels are an industry standard, but these rigid, heavy blocks may be shunted aside by plastic rivals – lightweight, flexible solar panels that could be printed and stuck onto buildings or placed in windows or cars, turning light into electricity in locations inaccessible to their heavier cousins. The standard solar panels we …
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Human spaceflight is a risk worth taking, says ESA head
On 12 April, the International Day of Human Space Flight commemorates the first human – Yuri Gagarin – traveling to space in 1961, and the inaugural Space Shuttle mission on the same day in 1981. Since Gagarin, humans have flown to space hundreds of times, including six missions to the moon, and have maintained a …
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