Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, US, have developed ultraviolet LEDs that have the ability to decontaminate surfaces — and potentially air and water — that have come in contact with the Sars-Cov2 virus. The UV light shows a lot of promise: the power to kill off 99.9 per cent of coronaviruses in 30 seconds, according to the UCSB researchers. Their LED products make use of rare ultraviolet waves (UV-C), a type that is not produced by the sun.
Sourced by the Telegraph
City birds
Pigeons don’t mix freely — in a genetic sense — in the US. There’s a clear difference between pigeons from New York and Boston, representing two distinct pigeon megapolises, found a study by biologist Elizabeth Carlen of Fordham University, US. Although the birds can fly the 200 miles (400km) that separate New York and Boston, a huge rural green space in between might have dissuaded them from crossing over and mating.
Sourced by the Telegraph
Hunters’ stick
A recently-unearthed 3,00,000-year-old wooden stick may have once been thrown by extinct human ancestors hunting wild game, according to research by an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen, Germany. The find — which is a short, pointy piece of brown wood loosed from the mud — was likely a throwing stick used by either the Neanderthals or their even more ancient relatives, the Homo heidelbergensis, to kill quarry such as waterfowl and rabbits.