New and spectacular radio signals or bursts are being received from way out in deep space. It’s reported in the journal, Nature, that the signals are being emitted by a neutron star some 3-billion light years* away and that they are powerful and fast. This means that the radio bursts are coming from one of the most highly magnetised regions of space ever observed and that they come from a source otherwise unknown to Earth-bound researchers. Those space whiz-kids working on this project are doing so from observatories in Germany, the United States and Puerto Rico.
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The signals are of different times and energy levels because they have been dispersed by 3-billion years of travel through inter-galactic space. The neutron star has been designated the code of FRB121102 (the FRB being Frequent and Rapid radio Bursts).**
*I have exhausted the possibilities of my pocket calculator, the calculator on my computer and even the long-hand method of multiplication that endless frustrated teachers tried to drum into my head back in the 1940s and 50s (I was never a star pupil at such things), and the best I can do as far as billions and light years are concerned, is very roughly 28 followed by either 21 or 22 zeros, but who’s counting? Actually, this means that the radio signals reaching us now left home not long after the formation of our planet, so perhaps we should keep counting.
Changing the subject, a coral island in the South Pacific, nearly 5 000km from the nearest major human presence, has been described as possibly the world’s most littered place.
A marine biologist from the University of Tasmania in Australia has visited the island and reports that there are about 40 million bits of man-made litter on its beaches, most of it plastic.
An analysis of the litter shows that it comes from places as far afield as China, Russia and the United States.***
Appropriately, Britain’s first and only zero waste shop has opened in the county of Devon. The shop, called Earth. Food. Love, sells everything from dispensers, shoppers have to bring their own containers, including bottles or jars. It sells 200 organic vegan dry foods such as rice, pasta and spices, as well as eco-friendly cleaning products and toiletries.***
And finally, for those who think they have the perfect herb garden. A British firm is marketing the Smart Herb Garden, which comes in a box sort of thing that is self-watering, has automatic artificial sunlight at just the right times and you can keep an eye on its progress from a distance with an app on your smart ‘phone.
*** It does not say whether or not you can order a tablespoon of freshly plucked and chopped rosemary for the lamb chops on your Sunday braai. Thank whoever that we have had a traditional herb garden for many years, with most of the fun being planting it, tending to it and reaping the fresh and fragrant benefits of it.
**Sources: The Daily Maverick and Professor Google.
***The Week: The Best of the British and Foreign Media.
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