Record Breaking Robot

Engineers at The University of Manchester have unlocked the secrets to designing a robot capable of jumping 120 meters—higher than any other jumping robot designed to date.


Using a combination of mathematics, computer simulations, and laboratory experiments, the researchers have discovered how to design a robot with the optimum size, shape, and arrangement of its parts, allowing it to jump high enough to clear obstacles many times its own size.


The current highest-jumping robot can reach up to 33 meters, which is equivalent to 110 times its own size. Now, researchers have designed a robot that could jump more than 120 meters in the air—or 200 meters on the moon, which is more than twice the height of Big Ben's tower.


The advancement, published in the journal Mechanism and Machine Theory, will revolutionize applications ranging from planetary exploration to disaster rescue to surveillance of hazardous or inaccessible spaces.             READ MORE...

King Arthur's Tomb

According to popular lore, Arthur’s Stone, a roughly 5,000-year-old tomb in the West Midlands of England, boasts ties to King Arthur, the mythical leader of Camelot. One legend holds that Arthur found a pebble in his shoe while marching to battle and threw it aside, at which point it grew in size out of “pride [at] having been touched by [him],” per Atlas Obscura. Another story suggests that Arthur clashed with a giant whose elbows left massive impressions in the earth when he fell in battle.

Myths aside, the Neolithic tomb has long mystified experts and the public alike. Now, reports James Thomas for the Hereford Times, the first-ever excavation of the site is poised to shed light on its enigmatic history.

Researchers from the University of Manchester and English Heritage, the charity that cares for the monument, are unlikely to unearth the remains of the legendary king. But they do hope to find traces of the actual Neolithic Britons who built and used the chambered tomb. Though archaeologists initially suspected that Arthur’s Stone formed part of a wedge-shaped stone cairn like those found in South Wales and the Cotswolds, recent excavations indicate otherwise.

“I think it has considerable potential,” Julian Thomas, an archaeologist at the University of Manchester, tells the London Times’ Jack Blackburn. “It’s a monument of an entirely different kind to the one that we’d imagined.”

Per a statement, only the inner chamber of the tomb—made up of nine upright stones topped by a massive capstone weighing more than 25 tons—survives today. A previous dig conducted outside of the monument showed that Arthur’s Stone extended into a field to the south and underwent two distinct phases of construction.  READ MORE...

Artists and Their Private Jets

Artists and bands must swap private jets for trains, festivals and venues need to generate more of their own renewable energy and gig tickets should include free public transport.  

These are just some of the recommendations being made by scientists at the University of Manchester to help the music industry reduce its carbon emissions to stop climate change. 

The roadmap for live music was based on tour data supplied by the band Massive Attack.  The findings are being shared across the industry and, it's hoped, will inspire millions of fans to live more sustainably, too.

What are the recommendations?
Since 2019, scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research have been poring over every detail of Massive Attack's last tour.  They then used lessons learned to create a roadmap for the whole industry.

Their recommendations for "super low carbon practices" deal with how musicians, promoters, tour managers and agents should work in order to keep the rise in global warming restricted to 1.5C.

The suggestions cover how artists move around, the venues they play at, and how fans get to events:

• Plan tour routes in a way that minimises travel and transport
• Include travel by public transport in the ticket price
• Generate renewable energy on site, e.g. solar panels
• Gig and concert venues should use renewable energy
• Use energy efficient lighting and sound equipment
• Use electric vehicles and trains to travel between venues
• Better bike storage at music venues
• Avoiding flying and eliminating private jets
• Perform at venues that are taking action to reduce their building energy use
• Offer incentives to fans who choose to travel by public transport

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