YOUR WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE
- Athletes have lashed out at the Olympic organisers over poor living and training conditions, despite Beijing having vowed that the Winter Games would be “streamlined, safe and splendid”. Some athletes claim that their conditions are unbearable to live and train in, moving them to petition organisers for improvements. The rules of the International Ski Federation prohibit events to take place in temperatures below -20C, but the Swedish team manager Anders Bystroem told reporters that, with wind chill, temperatures were closer to -31C.
- Archaeologists have found new fossil remains which call into question the existing idea that Neanderthals were driven to extinction by Homo sapiens (modern humans) soon after they arrived in Europe from Africa. A team led by Prof. Ludovic Slimak of the University of Toulouse discovered a child’s tooth and several stone tools in a cave in the Rhone Valley, in southern France. These discoveries suggest that modern humans arrived in Europe much earlier than previously thought, implying that the two species may have coexisted for a long time.
- A team of Swiss researchers has developed an electrical implant that can be attached to the spines of paralysed individuals, allowing them to walk again. Michel Roccati was involved in a motorbike accident five years ago which severed his spine. The newly developed device was surgically connected to his spine and has restored his ability to walk, although he still has no feeling in his legs. Another paralyzed patient received the same treatment and was able to become a father. Previously, nobody with such injuries could ever walk again.
- A newly released Samsung Galaxy smartphone range offers enhanced camera quality as well as a stylus. This release forms part of Samsung’s “Galaxy for the Planet” initiative to reduce and recycle plastic products from its manufacturing and packaging processes. Polyamide resin pellets made from nylon fishing nets are used to make the brackets that bind the volume and power buttons in place. Other Smartphone components are also created from recycled CD cases and discarded water bottles.
- A Soviet-era painting at the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg, Russia, has been vandalised by a newly recruited security guard. The guard is alleged to have drawn eyes on Anna Leporskaya’s artwork of the Three Figures. The avant-garde painting shows three abstract figures, all of them eyeless. This addition to the painting – drawn with one of the Center’s own branded ballpoint pens – was first noticed by two visitors in December. The security guard was fired and accused of vandalism. A criminal case has been opened for further investigation.
- Thought to be the world’s largest cut diamond, a mysterious billion-year-old diamond was sold to Richard Heart, founder of the HEX blockchain, for £3.16m. The 555.55-carat stone, named The Enigma, weighs as much as a banana. The stone had been expected to be sold for no less than £4.4m in the online auction. Auctioneer Sotheby initially withheld the buyer’s name but Mr. Heart revealed himself on Twitter as the buyer. He also announced that he would rename the diamond to the ‘HEX diamond’ after his blockchain platform.
NEWS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMELA MOORE
Date: 11/02/22
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