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A row has broken out between scholars after an expert claimed to have discovered an extra penis on the Bayeux Tapestry. Dr Christopher Monk, a medieval scholar and expert on Anglo- Saxon nudity, believes the genitalia of the figure on the right was restitched with black
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
German nuclear fusion company Proxima raises 130 million euros of development funding
FRANKFURT, June 11 (Reuters) - Proxima Fusion, a Munich-based nuclear fusion technology company, said on Wednesday it has raised 130 million euros ($148.8 million) to help it move closer to its goal of developing a novel power plant. Worldwide, dozens of initiatives are exploring nuclear fusion, a nascent technology that seeks to harness the intense process that powers the sun to generate electricity. Competition has sprung up between state and private companies, between governments in European countries, the United States and China, and between technology options, such as plasma confinement, used by Proxima, or the use of lasers. Germany's new conservative-led government supports the technology within its energy agenda, putting Proxima and domestic sector rivals Gauss, Marvel and Focused Energy on the map. Proxima listed venture capital firms Cherry Ventures of Berlin and Balderton Capital of London as lead finance partners, along with 10 other entities. "Fusion energy is entering a new era - moving from lab-based science to industrial-scale engineering," said Proxima CEO Francesco Sciortino. "This investment validates our approach and gives us the resources to deliver hardware that is essential to make clean fusion power a reality." Cherry Ventures Founding Partner Filip Dames said: "Proxima Fusion combines Europe's scientific edge with commercial ambition. This is deep tech at its best, and a bold signal that Europe can lead on the world stage." Proxima said it will use the funding to complete a major hardware demonstration while continuing to grow its teams in Munich, near Zurich in Switzerland, and at a campus near Oxford in Britain. ($1 = 0.8739 euros)
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Menstrual tracking app users cautioned by Cambridge researchers
Women who tracked their menstrual cycle using smartphone apps have been warned about the privacy and safety risks of doing so.A report from the University of Cambridge's Minderoo Centre said the apps were a "gold mine" for consumer profiling and collecting cautioned that in the wrong hands, the data could result in health insurance "discrimination" and risks to job Gina Neff, executive director at the Minderoo Centre, said: "Women deserve better than to have their menstrual tracking data treated as consumer data, but there is a different possible future." The apps collect information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, an independent team of researchers at the university, said this data could give insights into people's health and their reproductive report added that many women used the apps when they were trying to get said data on who is pregnant, and who wants to be, was some of the "most sought-after information in digital advertising" as it led to a shift in shopping patterns."Cycle tracking apps (CTA) are a lucrative business because they provide the companies behind the apps with access to extremely valuable and fine-grained user data," they said."CTA data is not only commercially valuable and shared with an inextricable net of third parties (thereby making intimate user information exploitable for targeted advertising), but it also poses severe security risks for users."The research team called for better governance of the "femtech" industry, improved data security of these apps and the introduction of "meaningful consent options".They also wanted bodies like the NHS to launch alternatives to commercial tracking apps with permission for the data to be used in valid medical Stefanie Felsberger, lead author of the report, said: "Menstrual cycle tracking apps are presented as empowering women and addressing the gender health gap."Yet the business model behind their services rests on commercial use, selling user data and insights to third parties for profit."There are real and frightening privacy and safety risks to women as a result of the commodification of the data collected by cycle tracking app companies."The report said work published by Privacy International showed major CTA companies had updated their approach to data sharing, but device information was still collected with "no meaningful consent".Additional reporting by PA Media. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
May was world's second-hottest on record, EU scientists say
BRUSSELS, June 11 (Reuters) - The world experienced its second-warmest May since records began this year, a month in which climate change fuelled a record-breaking heatwave in Greenland, scientists said on Wednesday. Last month was Earth's second-warmest May on record - exceeded only by May 2024 - rounding out the northern hemisphere's second-hottest March-May spring on record, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a monthly bulletin. Global surface temperatures last month averaged 1.4 degrees Celsius higher than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, C3S said. That broke a run of extraordinary heat, in which 21 of the last 22 months had an average global temperature exceeding 1.5C above pre-industrial times - although scientists warned this break was unlikely to last. "Whilst this may offer a brief respite for the planet, we do expect the 1.5C threshold to be exceeded again in the near future due to the continued warming of the climate system," said C3S director Carlo Buontempo. The main cause of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Last year, opens new tab was the planet's hottest on record. A separate study, published by the World Weather Attribution group of climate scientists on Wednesday, found that human-caused climate change made a record-breaking heatwave in Iceland and Greenland last month about 3C hotter than it otherwise would have been - contributing to a huge additional melting of Greenland's ice sheet. "Even cold-climate countries are experiencing unprecedented temperatures," said Sarah Kew, study co-author and researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. The global threshold of 1.5C is the limit of warming which countries vowed under the Paris climate agreement to try to prevent, to avoid the worst consequences of warming. The world has not yet technically breached that target - which refers to an average global temperature of 1.5C over decades. However, some scientists have said it can no longer realistically be met, and have urged governments to cut CO2 emissions faster, to limit the overshoot and the fuelling of extreme weather. C3S's records go back to 1940, and are cross-checked with global temperature records going back to 1850.
