Top 5

A rice field in northern Japan has got tourists flocking to it after being transformed into a giant artwork. The scene is about the legend of Mount Fuji and has been created by artists using coloured rice plants. The display has been made to commemorate the Mount Fuji’s registration as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.

 

All eyes will be on Glasgow this week as it hosts the Commonwealth Games. Some of the world’s top athletes will be there – so it may come as a surprise to hear that Glasgow is also one of the unhealthiest places in the UK. Life expectancy at birth in Glasgow is the lowest in the UK.  Glaswegian men are only expected to live to their 71st birthday, according to the Glasgow Centre for Population Health. That’s six years shorter than the rest of the UK average.

 

A new study has revealed that oceans are vital in moderating climate on Earth-like planets, thus sustaining alien life. Until now computer simulations of habitable climates on Earth-like planets have focused on their atmospheres, but the presence of oceans is vital for optimal climate stability and habitability. The research team from UEA’s schools of Mathematics and Environmental Sciences created a computer simulated pattern of ocean circulation on a hypothetical ocean-covered Earth-like planet and looked at how different planetary rotation rates would impact heat transport with the presence of oceans taken into account.

 

Millions of tonnes of food are wasted every year – so one supermarket has found a way to put its rubbish to good use. Sainsbury’s has taken one of its stores off the national grid, which is the system used to get electricity into most of our homes and other buildings. Now the store in Cannock in the West Midlands is being powered directly from food waste.

 

In a bid to enter the race to develop space technology, the United Arab Emirates has launched a project to send an unmanned spaceship to Mars by 2021 which will go down in history as the first space mission from the Arab world. With a view to coincide the journey with the 50th anniversary of UAE’s formation, a new space agency will be created to supervise the mission. With this mission, UAE will be one of the nine privileged countries in possession of the space programme to explore Mars. The report quoted President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan as hailing the moment as the Islamic world’s entry into the realm of space exploration. He also added that space technology will be used in enhancing the country’s development plans.