Can you take a clean cruise holiday and which vessels are the worst emitters? | Cruises

Toxic, filthy and cheap, the sludge-like substance known as heavy fuel oil has powered the shipping industry since the 1960s. What is perhaps less well known is that this same substance is still used to power more than half of cruise ships today, making what many choose as an alternative to flying one of the most environmentally damaging ways to travel.

The good news is that the industry, under pressure from environmentalists and new regulations, is adopting new technologies, energy saving designs and studying alternative fuels.

But can cruises, especially at the rate the market is growing, ever be considered a “sustainable” way to travel? And, with a target date of net zero by 2050, are they decarbonising fast enough?


How green is my cruise holiday?

While the cruise sector forms a tiny part – just 2% – of the shipping industry, the ships are growing in size and number. As a result, they need to do more than they are doing now towards sustainability, says Inesa Ulichina, sustainable shipping officer at Transport & Environment (T&E) campaign group.

“Part of the reason we focus on cruise ships is because they are close to people,” she says. “Cruise ships spend, proportionately, more time in port than other ships, particularly in pristine and natural locations where the impact of pollution is greater.”

Passengers wait to board after a day’s stop-over in Cancun, Mexico. The biggest cruise ships have doubled in size since 2000. Photograph: Richard Baker/Corbis/Getty Images

Critics say the cruising boom – ships have soared in number from 21 in the 1970s to 515 today and the world’s biggest have doubled in size since 2000 – dwarfs decarbonisation efforts by individual lines and vessels. A study commissioned by the high level panel for a sustainable ocean economy concluded that the 2% annual improvements in carbon intensity reported by two leading cruise lines in recent years is “cancelled out many times over” by an expected 6% to 7% rise in passenger traffic.

“If we look at Europe, the worst emitting ships are cruise ships or large ferries,” says Ulichina.

A list of Europe’s top 20 worst carbon emitters, compiled by T&E from data required by EU laws for ships to report carbon dioxide emissions, featured nine of the largest cruise liners, 10 ferries and just one cargo vessel.

Up to 40% of the total energy consumption of a cruise ship is the “hotel operations” – swimming pools, spas, lounges and restaurants – on board, according to Sintef, a European research organisation.

It is unsurprising then, that cruise ships pumped out 17% more carbon dioxide in 2022 than they did in 2019, according to a T&E study, while methane emissions rose 500% over the same period.


So should I choose a ship powered by a different type of fuel?

Earlier this year, Icon of the Seas, a 20-deck, 7,600-passenger, theme-park rich party-ship, longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, drew crowds when it launched in Miami. It runs on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which its owner, Royal Caribbean, describes as the “cleanest burning marine fuel available”. Another similarly sized vessel, Star of the Seas, will follow in 2025 and a third in 2027 – all powered by LNG.

Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, which runs on liquefied natural gas. Photograph: Royal Caribbean

Only 19 ships, or 6.7% of the fleet are powered by LNG, says the Cruise Lines International Association (Clia), which represents 90% of operators in the sector. By 2028, it will rise to 10%. More than 15% will be equipped with battery storage and 15% capable of running on methanol in the next five years, the first in 2025.

But environmentalists have warned that, while LNG, a fossil fuel, burns more cleanly than marine oil, there is a risk LNG-powered ships will leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, into the air. Bryan Comer, director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a US thinktank, estimates that using LNG as a marine fuel emits 120% more life-cycle greenhouse gases than marine oil.

Marcie Keever, of Friends of the Earth US, says the industry has a history of adopting the “wrong” technology. When told in 2020 to reduce air sulphur emissions, many cruise lines instead adopted “scrubbers”. These are systems built into ships to clean exhaust gases – but they dump the chemicals removed from the exhaust directly into the sea instead.

The wrong technology?: an LNG fuel tank on the Royal Caribbean. Photograph: Mirza/LNG Prime

“They [cruise operators] are talking about converting to other types of fuels but when they choose to use LNG, they are locking in climate-destroying technology,” says Keever. “Our opinion right now is just pause. Don’t adopt the next failing technology for the climate.”


Which cruise companies do best on sustainability?

While the larger vessels (greater than 10,000 gross tonnes) are the biggest contributors, producing 90% of the sector’s total greenhouse gas emissions, the leaders in decarbonisation tend to be companies with smaller vessels.

Hurtigruten, a Norway-based company that operates three small vessels with hybrid technology, aims to launch “SeaZero”, the first climate-emissions free, electric cruise ship in 2030.

A concept image of the Sea Zero electric cruise ship, which Hurtigruten plans to launch in 2030. Illustration: VARD Design

“For expedition cruise ships, some of the companies, like Hurtigruten, are the ones investing in batteries and vessels that could be sustainable,” says Ulichina.

Hurtigruten’s goal of a climate neutral ship by 2030, has “a lot of dependencies” Gerry Larsson-Fedde, the company’s chief operating officer, acknowledges, such as whether or not the technology will be sufficiently mature. “We’ve gone for batteries because the technology is developing quickly, meaning you can get more and more energy stored in less and less space, with less weight.”

One of the biggest challenges is land-based infrastructure, he says. “You need a lot of electricity in charging areas and you need to charge quite quickly.”

Sönke Diesener, of German based NGO the Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union, says battery capability is hugely dependent on the places a ship visits. “If they [Hurtigruten] sail in the Norwegian coast, they have infrastructure for reloading batteries. But for ships that sail to the Galápagos, or the Arctic, batteries would be too heavy.”

That is one reason cruise companies are focusing on alternative fuels for bigger ships.

A CGI image of the lounge on the solar and wind powered Captain Arctic Selar ship currently under construction. Photograph: Selar

There are companies looking to take things even further – though only for smaller, high-end vessels. French Polar company, Selar, aims to power the futuristic Captain Arctic, a 36-passenger polar expedition ship using sun, water and wind by 2026. The “almost zero emissions” ship design has 35m sails that retract like a Swiss army knife when not required.


How does the industry aim to mitigate its impact on the climate?

The Clia says its member cruise lines are investing in new ships and engines that “allow for fuel flexibility”. By this it means they have included capacity for renewable biodiesel, green methanol when available, and LNG. Data published by the International Maritime Organisation shows cruise lines have reduced their use of heavy fuel oil from 74% in 2019, to 57% today.

Ships operating on LNG will be able to switch to renewable “zero and near-zero fuels” such as bio or synthetic LNG when it becomes available at scale with little or no engine modification, says the Clia.

A cruise ship connects to an onshore power supply at the port of Kiel in Germany. Photograph: Port of Kiel

Half of all ships can connect to an onshore power supply, a 23% increase from 2023. This will rise to 76.5% by 2028. However, only 35 of the world’s ports (3% of the total) have a cruise berth with onshore power supply.

The EU is bringing in significant penalties for sailing on dirty fuel from next year, and has set targets for greenhouse gas reduction. The hope is that this kind of legislation, coupled with pressure from environmentalists and the public, could drive more positive changes for cruise ship holidays in the future.

Continue Reading

Environmental Defenders Office to pay $9m in costs to Santos over failed challenge to Barossa gas project | Santos

The federal court has ordered the Environmental Defenders Office to pay $9m in costs to Santos after a failed legal challenge to the company’s Barossa offshore gas project.

The case, brought by the EDO on behalf of three Tiwi Island traditional owners, was dismissed in January when Justice Natalie Charlesworth delivered a scathing judgment that made adverse findings against the legal firm.

On Thursday the court ordered the EDO to pay $9,042,093.05 to Santos on an indemnity basis, after lengthy costs proceedings throughout the year.

Santos said the EDO had volunteered to pay the sum, which represented 100% of the legal costs it had incurred throughout the proceedings.

The company said it had not sought costs from the Aboriginal and Tiwi Islander applicants but had sought information relating to the funding of the proceedings from the EDO and other third parties opposed to project, some of whom were involved in the “Stop Barossa Gas” campaign.

The EDO’s chief executive, David Morris, said: “After careful consultation with our insurer and with deep consideration of the best interests of our clients, staff, and the organisation, EDO has agreed to resolve the claim.

“Throughout this matter, EDO has diligently adhered to client instructions. We have also treated the court’s findings with the utmost seriousness.”

The traditional owners, led by Simon Munkara, a member of the Jikilaruwu clan, challenged the construction of an export pipeline from the Barossa field off the Northern Territory to the existing Bayu-Undan pipeline, which connects to Darwin.

The proceedings were launched in late October 2023, shortly before Santos planned to start work on the pipeline.

The case argued Santos had not properly assessed submerged cultural heritage and sought an injunction on the pipeline works until the company submitted a new environmental plan and it was assessed by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.

In a judgment in January, Charlesworth made adverse findings against the EDO, ruling that one of its lawyers and a cultural heritage consultant had engaged in a form of “subtle coaching” in a meeting with Tiwi islanders. She also found that evidence from one expert witness involved “confection”.

Charlesworth found that evidence from witnesses for the three applicants asserting that the pipeline posed a risk to intangible underwater heritage, including Crocodile Man songlines and an area of significance for the rainbow serpent Ampiji, was not “broadly representative” of the beliefs of Tiwi people who would be affected by the pipeline.

The judge dismissed evidence provided in an expert report about potential impacts to underwater archaeological sites, finding there was a “negligible chance” of a significant impact to tangible cultural heritage.

skip past newsletter promotion

In her judgment, Charlesworth found a cultural mapping exercise undertaken by an expert witness for the applicants and “the related opinions expressed about it are so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed on them”.

Santos said on Thursday that the cultural mapping exercise had led to “an adapted account” which was said to involve a “reinterpretation” of traditional cultural beliefs “through a Western scientific lens”.

The company said the judgment had also found the EDO “was an active participant in the ‘Stop Barossa Gas’ campaign”.

“The clear, advertised objective of the ‘Stop Barossa Gas’ campaign was to disrupt, delay and potentially shut down the Barossa gas project, thereby causing economic harm to the Barossa [joint venture] partners and to participants in the Darwin LNG JV,” it said.

Morris said the EDO “has been providing crucial public interest legal services for nearly 40 years, with a formidable track-record of success for clients”.

“We look forward to continuing to provide public interest legal support to communities fighting to keep the climate safe, defend cultural heritage and protect the species and places they love,” he said. “Our role has never been more critical.”

The federal government sought a review of the EDO’s funding arrangements this year after the court judgment in January.

The review found the EDO had not breached the conditions of its $8.2m in federal funding.

Continue Reading

Two companies drop Conor McGregor after jury rules against him in rape case | Conor McGregor

Two companies have cut ties with Conor McGregor after a civil court jury in Ireland ruled last week that he must pay nearly €250,000 ($257,000) to a woman who accused the mixed martial arts fighter of raping her.

Proximo Spirits, the owner of Irish whiskey brand Proper No 12, will no longer feature McGregor’s name or image on the drink.

“Going forward, we do not plan to use Mr McGregor’s name and likeness in the marketing of the brand,” the company told the Irish Independent newspaper.

Video game developer IO Interactive also ended its collaboration with McGregor, who had played the role of a fighter in the game Hitman.

“In light of the recent court ruling regarding Conor McGregor, IO Interactive has made the decision to cease its collaboration with the athlete, effective immediately,” the company said in a statement on X. “We take this matter very seriously and cannot ignore its implications. Consequently, we will begin removing all content featuring Mr. McGregor from our storefronts starting today.”

It follows the ruling last Friday in a civil case where Nikita Hand claimed McGregor “brutally raped and battered” her in a Dublin hotel penthouse in 2018.

Hand said the alleged assault after a night of partying left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The 36-year-old McGregor testified that he never forced the woman to do anything against her will and said she fabricated the allegations after the two had consensual sex.

The jury of eight women and four men found him liable for assault after deliberating about six hours in the High Court in Dublin.

Continue Reading

Doctors hail first breakthrough in asthma and COPD treatment in 50 years | Asthma

Doctors are hailing a new way to treat serious asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease attacks that marks the first breakthrough for 50 years and could be a “gamechanger” for patients.

A trial found offering patients an injection was more effective than the current care of steroid tablets, and cuts the need for further treatment by 30%.

The results, published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, could be transformative for millions of people with asthma and COPD around the world.

Benralizumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets specific white blood cells, called eosinophils, to reduce lung inflammation. It is used as a repeat treatment for severe asthma at a low dose, but the trial found a higher single dose could be very effective if injected at the time of a flare-up.

Lead investigator Prof Mona Bafadhel, of King’s College London, said: “This could be a gamechanger for people with asthma and COPD. Treatment for asthma and COPD exacerbations have not changed in 50 years, despite causing 3.8m deaths worldwide a year combined.

“Benralizumab is a safe and effective drug already used to manage severe asthma. We’ve used the drug in a different way – at the point of an exacerbation – to show that it’s more effective than steroid tablets, which is the only treatment currently available.”

The trial involved 158 people who needed medical attention in A&E for their asthma or COPD attack.

Patients were given a quick blood test to see what type of attack they were having, with those suffering an “eosinophilic exacerbation” being suitable for treatment.

About 50% of asthma attacks are eosinophilic exacerbations, as are 30% of COPD attacks, according to the scientists.

The trial, led by King’s and carried out at Oxford University hospitals NHS foundation trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust, saw patients randomly split into three groups.

One group received the benralizumab injection and dummy tablets. Another group received standard care of prednisolone steroids, 30mg daily for five days, and a dummy injection. The third group received the benralizumab injection and steroids.

After 28 days, respiratory symptoms of coughing, wheezing, breathlessness and sputum were found to be better in those on benralizumab. After 90 days, there were four times fewer people in the benralizumab group who failed treatment compared with those receiving steroids.

Treatment with the benralizumab injection also took longer to fail, meaning fewer visits to a GP or hospital for patients, researchers said. Furthermore, people also reported a better quality of life on the new regime.

Scientists said steroids could have severe side-effects such as increasing the risk of diabetes and osteoporosis, meaning switching to benralizumab could provide huge benefits.

Benralizumab could also potentially be administered safely at home or in a GP practice, as well as in A&E, they said. AstraZeneca provided the drug for the study and funded the research, but had no input into trial design, delivery, analysis or interpretation.

First author Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan, clinical senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia, said: “Our study shows massive promise for asthma and COPD treatment.

“COPD is the third leading cause of death worldwide but treatment for the condition is stuck in the 20th century. We need to provide these patients with life-saving options before their time runs out.”

Dr Samantha Walker, director of research and innovation at Asthma and Lung UK, welcomed the findings, but said: “It’s appalling that this is the first new treatment for those suffering from asthma and COPD attacks in 50 years, indicating how desperately underfunded lung health research is.”

Continue Reading

Mohamed Al Fayed may have raped and abused more than 111 women, say police | Mohamed Al Fayed

Police believe Mohamed Al Fayed may have raped and abused more than 111 women over nearly four decades, with his youngest victim said to have been just 13 years old.

The scale of the criminality would make Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94, one of Britain’s most notorious sex offenders, and raises urgent questions about how he got away with his crimes.

Five unnamed individuals suspected of facilitating Fayed, the former owner of the luxury Knightsbridge store Harrods, are being investigated as potential “facilitators”, Scotland Yard said.

A huge review is also being undertaken into whether opportunities were missed in past police investigations and whether there are grounds to pursue past or current officers over historical corruption claims.

Last month, the Guardian reported claims that corrupt police officers had helped Fayed in persecuting members of his staff, including a young woman who allegedly rebuffed the Harrods owner’s sexual advances.

The 111 alleged cases of abuse involving Fayed include 21 alleged victims who reported crimes to the police between 2005 and his death, and 90 women who have come forward since the BBC aired a documentary on Fayed in September.

The Guardian understands that as soon as next week the Met will find out if it faces an independent investigation into whether it bungled the claims of sexual violence against the Harrods boss.

The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, is considering whether its own investigators should investigate Britain’s biggest force.

A Met spokesperson said: “Following complaints from two women about the quality of investigations conducted in 2008, the Met has voluntarily referred these cases to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

“While these cases date back over a decade and we cannot change what happened in the past, we are committed to understanding, being open about any shortcomings and improving our response to survivors moving forward.”

Cmdr Stephen Clayman, of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said he recognised that trust in the police may have been eroded by its past conduct but called for any other survivors to come forward.

He said: “I recognise the bravery of every victim-survivor who has come forward to share their experiences, often after years of silence.

“This investigation is about giving survivors a voice, despite the fact that Mohamed Al Fayed is no longer alive to face prosecution. However, we are now pursuing any individuals suspected to have been complicit in his offending, and we are committed to seeking justice.

“We are aware that past events may have impacted the public’s trust and confidence in our approach, and we are determined to rebuild that trust by addressing these allegations with integrity and thoroughness.

“We encourage anyone who has information or was affected by Al Fayed’s actions to reach out to us. Your voice matters, and we are here to listen and to help.”

The crimes of which Fayed is accused span between 1977 and 2014. The Met said they had already reviewed more than 50,000 pages of evidence, including victim and impact statements, and retrieved “significant amounts of material from these investigations” stored in their archives.

As part of the inquiry, detectives from the Directorate of Professional Standards are seeking to establish if any serving or former officers at the Met were involved in any misconduct.

Detectives have been examining a witness statement from a former security director at the Knightsbridge store, Bob Loftus, who had claimed that one ex-Met commander received luxury hampers “whenever he had been a particularly great help to Harrods”.

Loftus had further claimed that a detective constable, who was accused of regularly taking cash bribes to carry out Fayed’s wishes, was secretly given a mobile phone from Harrods to facilitate his illicit work.

“It’s amazing what they will do for just a few readies,” John Macnamara, Fayed’s longtime security chief and an ex-detective, was said to have remarked about the police.

Loftus, 83, who worked for Fayed as the director of security at Harrods between 1987 and 1996, was unable to comment due to ill health when approached by the Guardian, but Eamon Coyle, 70, who was Loftus’s deputy, said he recognised the allegations contained in the statement to be true.

Coyle said: “I knew that there was a tame policeman. He was under the direct control of Macnamara. He was on tap. He was on the payroll.”

It is understood that detectives have interviewed a number of potential witnesses as part of the investigation into potential misconduct.

A Met spokesperson said: “The Metropolitan police is committed to thoroughly reviewing all information relating to historical allegations in the case of Mohamed Al Fayed, which includes our Directorate of Professional Standards assessing any indication of police misconduct.

“In line with this, we always look to acquire relevant documents, including witness statements, and other materials which we will actively review.”

Continue Reading

Democrats criticize Harris for ‘self-congratulatory’ review of election loss | US elections 2024

Some Democratic figures have accused Kamala Harris’s campaign of being self-congratulatory after a series of recent public appearances from the candidate and her senior staff in which they declined to admit making any errors that could have contributed to her defeat.

Some of the criticism was aimed at Harris herself, following a video call to thank campaign donors in which the vice-president expressed pride in her failed race for the White House.

She appeared to boast that the coalition assembled during her three-and-a-half-month campaign after succeeding Joe Biden as the Democrats’ nominee ranked among the “best political movements”. She insisted it would have “a lasting effect”, despite it ending in a decisive loss to Donald Trump, something she and her supporters warned beforehand would be a catastrophe.

“I am proud of the race we ran, and your role in this was critical,” the vice-president said in a 10-minute address. “What we did in 107 days was unprecedented. Think about the coalition that we built, and we were so intentional about that – you would hear me talk about it all the time.”

Although she admitted the election “didn’t turn out like we wanted”, she noted that the campaign raised nearly $1.5bn dollars, a record, and praised the success in fundraising from grassroots donors – despite reportedly ending the race $20m in debt and sending post-election fundraising emails to donors.

After some of the vice-president’s key staffers also appeared on a podcast billed as dissecting reasons for the defeat, one member of the Democratic National Committee’s finance team called the Harris campaign “self-congratulatory” .

Lindy Li told NewsNation she was “stunned that there was no sort of postmortem or analysis of the disastrous campaign”.

“It was just patting each other on the back,” she said. “They praised Harris as a visionary leader, and at one moment during the call, she was talking about her Thanksgiving recipe.”

Referring to a Pod Save America podcast posted on Tuesday in which Harris’s key aides discussed the $1bn-plus campaign spend, Li said: “They failed to mention that hundreds of millions of dollars went to them and their friends right through these consulting firms.

“These consultants were the primary beneficiaries of the Harris campaign, not the American people.”

One explanation on the podcast by Stephanie Cutter, a Harris adviser, on why the vice-president had declined to break with Biden despite the president’s persistently low approval ratings drew criticism.

“She felt like she was part of the administration. So why should she look back and cherry pick some things that she would have done differently when she was part of it?” Cutter told the podcast. “She had tremendous loyalty to President Biden. So the best we could do, and the most that she felt comfortable with was saying like, look, vice-presidents never break with their presidents.”

One X user posted: “If the guys at pod save America don’t have an episode just straight shit talking all these losers who helped us lose im never listening to another episode. [Because] wtf was this nonsense.”

skip past newsletter promotion

Another podcast guest, David Plouffe, a former adviser to Barack Obama, was criticised after claiming: “It’s really hard for Democrats to win battleground states.” He said the party needed “to dominate the moderate vote” to win future elections.

Jeet Heer, a writer for the leftwing Nation magazine responded: “Is it too much to ask for a little humility and self-reflection from the people whose strategies failed badly?”

Another social media user posted: “Anybody with more than two brain cells who’s committed to building up the democratic party would be analyzing the depressed voter turnout numbers. But the dudes at pod save America have no goal other than reliving their glory days.”

The discussion, which also included Harris’s campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, and Quentin Fulks, the campaign’s deputy manager, was also ridiculed by some on the right.

Bill O’Reilly, a former Fox News host, told NewsNation: “It’s kind of like the New York Jets. You guys follow the football, nobody did anything wrong, and they’re 3-8 … I hope people see the absurdity of this.”

James Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist and the architect of Bill Clinton’s 1992 election win, criticised aides who advised Harris not to go on the Joe Rogan podcast before election. Trump, by contrast, granted a three-hour interview to Rogan.

“If I were running a 2028 campaign and I had some little snot-nosed 23-year-old saying, ‘I’m going to resign if you don’t do this,’ not only would I fire that motherfucker on the spot, I would find out who hired them and fire that person on the spot,” Carville said in a foul-mouthed video rant posted on social media. “I’m really not interested in your uninformed, stupid, jackass opinion as to whether you go on Joe Rogan or not.”

Continue Reading

Nano-scale dinosaur made by Australian researchers from DNA building blocks | Nanotechnology

Australian researchers have created building blocks out of DNA to construct a series of nano-scale objects and shapes, from a rod and a square to an infinitesimally small dinosaur.

The approach turns DNA into a modular material for building nanostructures – thousands of times narrower than a human hair. Developed by researchers from the University of Sydney Nano Institute and published in the journal Science Robotics, it suggests exciting possibilities for future use of nanobot technology.

As a proof-of-concept, the authors made more than 50 tiny shapes to test their precision and express their creativity. These included a dragon, a dinosaur, and a tiny map of Australia measuring only 150 nanometres wide. (A nanometre is one millionth of a millimetre.)

University of Sydney scientist Dr Shelley Wickham, co-author of the paper and research team leader, said the dinosaur was her favourite because it had both compact and flexible parts and was “not something that could assemble by accident”.

The director of RMIT’s micro nano research facility, Prof Arnan Mitchell, who was not involved with the paper, noted that the approach relied on using DNA as a mechanical object rather than as a chemical. This was interesting, he said, because structures made from DNA were potentially small enough to be used in drug delivery.

DNA could be wrapped around a drug to protect it for delivery to a particular part of the body, he said. “Deliver it to where it needs to go, and then use light or heat or something else to make it unfurl and release the drug.”

With increased complexity and greater control, Wickham said the researchers’ approach could be used to make components for robotic boxes capable of delivering targeted drugs, or in the development of smart materials that could respond to the environment.

“This work enables us to imagine a world where nanobots can get to work on a huge range of tasks, from treating the human body to building futuristic electronic devices.”

Wickham outlined the process. The first step involved making the 3D building blocks, called “voxels”, she said. DNA, extracted from a type of virus called a bacteriophage, was “folded” into a cylindrical shape using an approach called DNA origami and held together with synthetic DNA (made by chemists).

Voxels were formed by self-assembly, Wickham explained, relying on carefully sequenced DNA binding together at pre-determined locations, a bit like velcro or specialised glue.

“We throw in 300 of these staples that all have a unique DNA sequence – like a unique glue – and they find different parts of the scaffold and stitch it together,” she said.

Additional DNA strands incorporated on to the exterior of the voxels, acted as programmable binding sites. These could be used to join voxels together to construct more complex shapes and modular objects, which could be viewed under an electron microscope.

“The results are a bit like using Meccano, the children’s engineering toy,” Wickham said. “As experimentalists, we spent a lot of time designing these on computers. And then we take the DNA and mix it together and it assembles itself.”

Continue Reading

Gibson issues cease and desist over Trump-backed guitars | Donald Trump

Gibson, the maker of famous electric guitars, has issued a cease and desist order to the company behind a range of “Trump Guitars” endorsed by the US president-elect.

Gibson told Guitar World, which first reported the story, it took action because the design of the instruments being sold as Trump Guitars “infringes upon Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the iconic Les Paul body shape”.

Named for the American musician whom the Guardian once said “basically invented the electric guitar”, Gibson Les Pauls have been sold since 1952 and played by countless rock legends, among them The Edge of U2, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Slash of Guns n’ Roses.

Trump Guitars were announced last week, as the latest in a line of merchandise including Bibles, sneakers, watches and even digital trading cards.

Multiple outlets reported that though Trump has been shown to own CIC Ventures, a company which has offered endorsed products, he does not appear to own or have a stake in 16 Creative, the company behind the guitars.

Nonetheless, last week Trump posted to his social media platform a picture of him holding a guitar emblazoned with a US flag and a bald eagle, with the message: “Coming Soon! The Limited Edition ‘45’ Guitar. Only 1,300 of each Acoustic and Electric Guitars MADE — Some personally signed!”

Trump was the 45th president of the US, between 2017 and 2021. On 20 January 2025 he will become the 47th president, as the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, failed to take the election this month. The only president previously to serve two non-consecutive terms was Grover Cleveland, a Democrat who served from 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897.

On Wednesday, a website for Trump Guitars featured a picture of the president-elect signing an instrument. Two models were marked sold out: American Eagle electric guitars (priced $1,500) and autographed American Eagle electric guitars ($11,500).

Unsigned ($1,250) and signed ($10,250) acoustic guitars were also offered, each featuring Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again”, on its fretboard. The website also offered a Presidential Series guitar, in the Les Paul shape and with Trump’s name on the fretboard, and God Bless the USA acoustic guitars displaying that message, the title of a song by the country singer Lee Greenwood that is also affixed to Trump’s endorsed Bible.

Allow Instagram content?

This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.

Trump did not immediately comment, whether through his transition team or the Trump Organization, his New York-based, much-penalized commercial company.

Trump is not known to play guitar, though his series of digital trading cards does include an image of him dressed in the style of Elvis Presley, playing a guitar in the distinctive Gibson shape.

As Guitar World pointed out, Gibson has not shown any tendency to tread softly when it comes to protecting its rights and products. A long-running dispute with Dean Guitars, over the Flying V and Explorer shapes Gibson also introduced in the 1950s, is heading for a retrial.

Continue Reading

Western Australia’s endangered cockatoo among world’s longest-living birds | Birds

Western Australia’s endangered Carnaby’s cockatoos can live up to 35 years in the wild, making them one of the longest-lived bird species, according to a study that began in 1969.

Eight Carnaby’s cockatoos aged between 21 and 35 years have been recorded, according to research published in Pacific Conservation Biology.

The oldest bird, at 35 years old, was first recorded as an egg in August 1986. The report co-author Peter Mawson, a researcher with Western Australia’s biodiversity department, said the male cockatoo “looked as healthy as the day he left the nest”, and was still breeding when last sighted in 2021.

Carnaby’s cockatoos are large black birds with white cheeks and tail panels, which only occur in south-western WA. They mature late, produce few young, and have low survival rates in their first year of life, Mawson said.

“They have to live that long to guarantee they can produce enough offspring to replace the breeding pair,” he said. Most of the oldest birds were still with their breeding partner, or in a nest with a nestling when last spotted.

The population at Coomallo Creek, between Perth and Geraldton, has been studied for more than 55 years, with researchers visiting each breeding season during 1969-1996 and 2009-2023. Modern camera technology made it possible to read identifying bird bands, even when the cockatoos were in flight.

The age of wild Carnaby’s cockatoos placed them in the top 2% of long-lived birds recorded according to Australia, UK and US bird band registers, the study said. Shearwaters, albatross, cormorants and petrels were among those reaching maximum life spans of 40-plus years.

‘To live more than 30 years in the wild and still be breeding is a pretty impressive effort.’ Photograph: Rick Dawson

Cockatoos were known for their long lives in captivity, the paper said. “There is a saying in Australia, that if you are given a cockatoo for your 21st birthday, you should provide for it in your will as it will probably outlive you.”

Mawson said birds in captivity had the advantage of being fed, and not getting eaten, “but to live more than 30 years in the wild and still be breeding is a pretty impressive effort”.

In the wild, Carnaby’s cockatoos relied on large nesting hollows in ancient wandoo and salmon gum trees, and foraged on native species such as banksias, dryandras, hakeas and grevilleas.

skip past newsletter promotion

Glenn Dewhurst founded Kaarakin, a black cockatoo sanctuary in Perth, which houses more than 300 birds.

Carnaby’s were messy eaters, Dewhurst said, creating wastage on the ground that provided a food source for other birds and animals.

A lot of native vegetation had not flowered in recent years, he said. “For the first time ever, we’re getting birds that are starving.”

Common in the 1950s, the population of Carnaby’s cockatoos declined due to clearing of their habitat in the wheatbelt, a bounty on the birds to protect pine plantations (revoked in 1982) and traffic collisions on major highways.

Carnaby’s cockatoos have visibly shrunk in number during Mawson’s lifetime. As a child he would see thousands of birds in a flock, he said. “Now, if you see more than a hundred birds in a flock, you’re doing really well.”

Continue Reading

Elusive deer spotted wearing high-vis jacket in Canada: ‘Who is responsible?’ | Canada

In a town of fewer than 1,000 people, it can be hard to keep a secret. And yet no one in McBride, a mountain community in British Columbia, can figure out how a local deer came to be wearing a zipped-up high-visibility jacket – or why the day-glo-clad cervid has been so hard to track down.

The mystery began on Sunday, when Andrea Arnold was driving along the snowy outskirts of McBride on Sunday and witnessed a sight so baffling she slowed her vehicle to a crawl.

“I did more than a double take, to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing,” said Arnold, a reporter for the local newspaper, the Rocky Mountain Goat.

Standing nonchalantly on the roadside was a mule deer clad in a high-visibility work jacket, its legs fit neatly through the arm holes and the zip firmly closed.

She took two pictures before the deer disappeared into the forest, later posting the images on social media, where they drew a mixed response: some suggested that the reflective jacket might keep the deer safe along the highway, but others worried it could get snagged, possibly causing the animal to panic or injure itself.

As Arnold put it, most of the comments boiled down to three questions: “How did it get on the deer and who is responsible? And why would someone do it?”

In the days since the deer was spotted, speculation has produced few leads – or culprits.

Sgt Eamon McArthur of the BC conservation officer service told CTV News he did not want to speculate on how the jacket ended up on the cervid, although he noted: “Deer are not predisposed to wearing clothes.”

McArthur allowed that it was probable that a resident was involved, but he cautioned: “Even if you can get close enough to the wildlife to put it in a sweater or a jacket or boots or what have you, we recommend highly against that.”

Under the province’s wildlife act, it is illegal to “worry, exhaust, fatigue, annoy, plague, pester, tease or torment” an animal – a provision that would almost certainly apply to wrangling a deer into a jacket.

Conservation staff have so far been unable to locate the deer despite its distinct and unfortunate appearance, and have appealed to the public for tips.

If they eventually locate it and the animal appears in distress, McArthur says the team will remove the jacket.

But sedating an animal, especially deer, comes with its own risks. A phenomenon known as capture myopathy, which is common in deer after they are sedated, can prove fatal.

McArthur said officers are hoping the jacket falls off naturally.

“It’s astonishing [to] me that someone was able to get it on the deer without serious injury to either party,” said Arnold. “I hope the jacket comes off either on its own or with help from conservation officers before it becomes a problem for the deer.

“Treating wild animals in a domestic manner … especially putting clothes on them, is not advisable.”

Continue Reading