Latest news with #PortsmouthUniversity
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Time of India
Looksmaxxing: When grooming turns problematic & misleading
AI-generated image for representative purposes only G en Z and Gen Alpha have been popularising numerous maxxing trends like sleepmaxxing, geomaxxing, testosteronemaxxing, rizzmaxxing, starvemaxxing, etc. over the past year. Now, the trend of looksmaxxing is gaining traction. Rise in the number of looksmaxxing influencers, viral content and rising beauty pressure to score romantic connections fuels the trend's resurgence. WHAT IS LOOKSMAXXING It is a maxxing trend that promotes pseudoscientific methods to achieve everything – from pouty lips to chin extensions and almond-shaped hunter eyes. The trend is a mix of basic grooming and extreme techniques. WHY LOOKSMAXXING IS PROBLEMATIC Looksmaxxing may seem to be just another grooming trend, but its roots are troubling. Experts say it's tied to incel (involuntarily celibate) ideology, with many influencers exploiting young men's insecurities to promote appearance-based fixes aimed at attracting women. 'The ideology is being rebranded as looksmaxxing,' said Anda Solea, a Portsmouth University researcher. 'While we work to protect women from gender-based violence, we must also be mindful of young men and boys.' THE TREND IN INDIA Though it began on TikTok, the trend has gained traction among Indian social media users too, particularly male beauty and skincare influencers. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy Brass Idols - Handmade Brass Statues for Home & Gifting Luxeartisanship Buy Now Undo Psychologist Parth Gupta says, 'In India, where mental health conversations around men are still rare, such trends can trigger body dysmorphia, low self-esteem, depression, and social anxiety.' Looksmaxxing can fuel unhealthy comparisons, pressure of masculinity and a constant urge to 'improve' based on external validation. This can lead to dissatisfaction and push them towards risky or costly procedures without expert guidance Dr Debeshi Bhattacharjee, a cosmetologist DO THE BASIC Maintain oral hygiene for clean, white teeth Stay authentic to be attractive Prioritise daily exercise, sufficient sleep, hydration and a balanced diet Embrace realistic grooming habits Work on self-acceptance. Try therapy, journaling, or honest conversations with mentors Boost confidence through skills, achievements and personal growth, not just by fixating on looks (As suggested by Parth Gupta, a psychologist & Dr Debeshi Bhattacharjee, a cosmetologist) KEY TYPES SOFTMAXXING A minimal skincare routine, healthy diet, daily workouts, and stylish clothes to boost attractiveness HARDMAXXING Using steroids, plastic surgery, and leg-lengthening procedures to enhance attractiveness. It can involve the following techniques: Bone-smashing: Hitting facial bones with hard objects to stimulate bone growth and change the shape Teeth-whitening: Applying hydrogen peroxide to the teeth Mewing: An unproven method of pressing the tongue to the mouth's roof to improve jawline and facial structure There is limited scientific evidence claiming the effectiveness of mewing. Further, using hydrogen peroxide in moderation can help in teeth whitening, but overuse can cause sensitivity. Bone smashing, however, is a false technique and can cause injury to facial bones and skin Dr Satish Bhatia, a dermatologist LOOKSMAXXING SUB-TRENDS GYMMAXXING Building an ideal physique through strict workouts and diet plans, often tied to misleading masculinity MONEYMAXXING Refers to career building, investing, flaunting wealth and financial success to boost attractiveness One step to a healthier you—join Times Health+ Yoga and feel the change
The Guardian
08-04-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Secret to stronger pour-over coffee with no extra beans unlocked by scientists
Forget expensive beans and pricey filters – if you want a stronger cup of pour-over coffee, just add water slowly, steadily and from a height, researchers say. While there are myriad ways to make coffee – from moka pots to cafetieres and barista-style machines – pour-over coffee is an everyday staple for many. Now scientists say they have discovered how to make a stronger cup using the same quantity of ground coffee. Dr Arnold Mathijssen, a co-author of the study from the University of Pennsylvania, said pouring the hot water slowly from a goose-neck kettle increases the contact time between the water and the coffee grounds, while pouring from a greater height increases mixing, both of which result in more coffee being extracted. But he added: 'If you pour too slowly, or if you go too high, then the jet tends to break up into these smaller droplets, and that's what you want to avoid as well.' Writing in the journal Physics of Fluids, Mathijssen and colleagues report how they carried out a number of experiments involving transparent silica gel particles – representing ground coffee – that were illuminated with a laser sheet, which were recorded with a high-speed camera. While slow pouring increases contact time, the team found that at low heights the velocity of the water was too low to dig into and disturb the bed of particles. Water poured from greater heights resulted in greater agitation of the particles, but the team found that water must flow in an unbroken jet to dig into the bed of particles and displace those at the bottom of the funnel – a process that results in particles building up on the sides and then falling in, creating an avalanche-like effect that increases mixing. 'The increased height compensates for the slow pouring. You only get the avalanche if there is enough energy available,' Mathijssen said. When the team applied their findings to coffee itself, they found pouring from a greater height resulted in stronger brews, provided an unbroken flow of water was used. The team add that a good starting point for those at home is to reduce the amount of ground coffee by 10%, say from 20 to 18 grams per cup, then taste the coffee produced by pouring the hot water at different heights – keeping to a limit of about 30cm for safety. Researchers have previously revealed that to make the perfect espresso every time, it is best to use coffee that is ground slightly coarser than normal. Both that study and the new research found that the proposed adjustments meant less coffee was needed to produce a drink of given strength. Experts say this is important given that climate breakdown is already causing problems for cultivation of the Coffea arabica plant. Prof Jamie Foster, of Portsmouth University, who was not involved with the new research but carried out the study on espresso-making, said it seemed 'totally plausible' that the proposed method would lead to a stronger cup of pour-over coffee and a more optimal use of the coffee grounds, and he saw no reason why similar logic could not be applied to cafetiere-style brewing. 'Of course, there is a cheat open to those who prefer cafetiere coffee,' he said. 'That is, put in a spoon and give the grounds a stir, but perhaps a cleverly chosen pour could save dirtying cutlery.'
BBC News
04-03-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Water appeared in universe not long after Big Bang, say scientists
Over 1,000 quintillion litres of water exist on Earth, mostly making up the huge oceans that cover the surface, but when did water first appear in our universe?Well a new study suggests this important resource formed 200-400 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe formed, which is thought to have happened 14 billion years ago. This is a lot earlier than previously thought. Dr Daniel Whalen from Portsmouth University and co-authors published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy. Using computer simulations the researchers created the explosions of two the virtual supernovae - the name for when a star explodes - the temperatures were found to be high enough to turn the former star gases into Oxygen. This gas then cooled and mixed with another gas hydrogen which formed water. Scientists say their discovery shows that habitable worlds could have formed billions of years earlier than previously thought. They also say the simulations show that water was a key part of the first galaxies and that the amount formed then is only a tenth of what is seen in the galaxy today.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Water May Have Come Into Existence Far Earlier Than We Ever Realized
Life's most vital elixir may have formed within 200 million years of the Big Bang, new research suggests. Conditions for producing water were thought to be lacking this early on because heavier elements like oxygen were scarce, but new simulations indicate the baby Universe could still have been wet. Cosmologist Daniel Whalen from Portsmouth University in the UK and colleagues virtually recreated the explosions of two stars using early Universe parameters, and found the means to make water were already present as early as 100 million years after the Universe exploded into existence. The video below illustrates gases of hydrogen, helium, and lithium from the Big Bang coalescing into the first stars, releasing heavier elements like oxygen into the Universe during their explosive deaths: "Our simulations suggest that water was present in primordial galaxies because of its earlier formation in their constituent haloes," the researchers write in their paper. Today, highly metallic stars have an abundance of oxygen in their cores, but the first stars were made almost entirely out of hydrogen and helium. These early stars likely burnt hot and fast, making it hard for astronomers to catch traces of them, but new data from JWST may have just revealed the first direct evidence of their existence. Whalen and team simulated the explosion of these early stars, one that was 13 times and another 200 times the mass of our Sun. Within the first second of the virtual supernovae, the temperatures and pressures were high enough to fuse more of the former star gases into oxygen. In the aftermath of this cataclysm, the expelled energized gases, stretching out as far as 1,630 light-years, began to cool. The rapid cooling happened faster than the material coalesced, causing ionized hydrogen molecules to pair up, forming water's other key ingredient: molecular hydrogen (H2). As these particles jostled about, particularly in the denser regions of the supernova haloes, oxygen collided with enough hydrogen to make the Universe wet. What's more, these denser clumps of supernova leftovers, with their higher concentrations of metals, likely also become the sites of the next generation of heavier element-filled stars and future planet formation, the researchers suspect. "The higher metal content… could, in principle, lead to the formation of rocky planetesimals in protoplanetary disks with low-mass stars," Whalen and team say. This means the potential planets could also harbor water. Several stars may also form together in the same region, the researchers explain. "If so, several supernova explosions may occur and overlap in the halo," Whalen and colleagues explain. "Several explosions may produce more dense cores and, thus, more sites for water formation and concentration in the halo." In areas where the halo gas is sparse, multiple explosions would destroy the formed water, but in the denser cloud cores, H2O has a higher chance of surviving, thanks to dust shielding it from radiation. The team's calculations suggest the amount of water produced by the earliest galaxies may have been only ten times less than what we see in our galaxy today, suggesting one of life's major ingredients was amply abundant very long ago. This research was published in Nature Astronomy. Fast Radio Burst Traced Back to The Last Place We Expected Blue Ghost Makes History With Perfect Moon Landing: Amazing Photos This Star Goes Nova Every 80 Years. Here's Where to Look For It in 2025.
BBC News
07-02-2025
- Science
- BBC News
How to shift from lorry driver to space engineer
David Boutflour's background is as far from the glamour of space launches as it's possible to 31-year-old worked in hospitality for nine years, becoming the general manager for a gastro-pub in Cheshire. But it wasn't the real career for him. "I felt I could do more," he Boutflour had been interested in space and aviation from a young age, mentioning Concorde as an early inspiration.A course at Portsmouth University caught his imagination - the UK's first Space Systems Degree Apprenticeship launched in conjunction with BAE build up funds to help pay for the course, he switched to lorry driving - a move which did not prepare his social circle for his change of direction."Everybody thought I was lying when I said I'd been accepted on this course. They thought I was pulling their leg, going from truck driver to space engineer!"The four-and-a-half year course involves on-the-job learning at sites where BAE Systems designs and assembles at Portsmouth they'll be studying space systems academic side of the course consists of four modules, in thermodynamics, programming, digital systems and maths, all split between lectures and laboratory time. Mr Boutflour is joined by four others on the of those is Alice 21, she had already worked on satellite assembly and testing when she applied for the Portsmouth work involved the ill-fated Prometheus 2 satellites that were lost during a failed attempt to launch a satellite into space by Virgin Orbit in incident made a deep impression on her. "It was quite surreal, we were all watching the launch in the office and when the coverage ended we just went home."Unsuccessful satellite launches are part of life in the space business. But the Virgin Orbit loss stuck in the mind of other Portsmouth students. It stands for the risk element in space Overend's background in satellite testing has given her a head-start in terms of understanding how a sprawling UK space industry fits together. "The whole space sector is going in a good direction."She explains the true meaning of "space systems" in her world."Systems is about making sure everything is where it should be, such as the satellite weight being precisely right." George Smith is the youngest of the group at 18, and joined the course straight from A levels in physics, maths and his home town of York he and some friends took apart an old lawn mower to build a go-kart out of the did the go-kart perform? "It only wanted to turn to the right, but we learnt a lot about why it wasn't working."Not everything in space exploration goes to plan either, but practical work like this is an integral part of the course."The apprenticeship appealed to me. I find studying and applying the lesson in practice means I learn better. So I was looking at degree apprenticeships and this course was a checklist of everything I wanted to do."Space is an expanding sector and he harbours a desire to get beyond earth's atmosphere one day "if I can tick all the right boxes to become an astronaut".Right now the course is meeting his expectations. "To say it's a dream come true is cheesy, but I've got in the door." Elizabeth Seward is the head of space strategy at BAE her own background as a physicist, Ms Seward thinks people are put off this sector by a perception that it's exclusively for rocket scientists."Space tends to get put on a pedestal. But the truth is we need more people from other backgrounds. A career here is for anyone interested in space, such as project managers or lawyers."The appeal of space is evident at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University, where Dr Stephanie Docherty teaches orbital mechanics, how a satellite gets on the right path, as part of the aerospace agrees that specialisation is less important than aptitude in the space sector. "Employers want a problem solving mind-set. And I have noticed a real appetite from students for more space content in their course." Proposals to build rocket-launching sites in remote locations such as the Shetland Islands mean more positions should open up in the UK space industry in the very near the grounding of the Space Shuttle in 2011 Mr Boutfleur felt space exploration "took a step backwards."Now he says the success of Elon Musk's SpaceX reusable launchers is enormously significant."Musk has very much re-ignited the space race". All three students agree that the hands-on side of the course is outside of the space syllabus what do they get up to?"Most of us play video games," says Mr Smith, with Ms Overend nodding in diving is another popular pastime. "We all like gaming," says Mr Boutflour, "and scuba diving is good training for working in space."
