A giant pool noodle to clean up ocean plastic launches today

On Saturday, engineers plan to tow a gigantic floating boom out of San Francisco Bay, past Alcatraz prison, and to the open ocean. It is destined to begin cleaning up the mountains of plastic rubbish circulating in the Pacific. But is this the right way to do it?

The plastic clean-up begins?

The idea of the project, called The Ocean Cleanup, is to collect plastic passively. As waves lap against the boom, the buoyant rubbish fragments should collect against it. Any drifting animals such as jelly fish, should be washed underneath. The team …

Start to read the story by Joshua Howgego and to continue, subscribe to New Scientist - “A giant pool noodle to clean up ocean plastic launches today.”

Scientists find the temperature that makes you the friendliest

It's a finding that is destined to start a new round of arguments over the aircon remote.

The study found 22 degrees was the ideal average temperature to live in.

A new study covering more than 1.6 million people has revealed that 22 degrees is the perfect air temperature to live in.

A city with an average annual temperature closer to 22 tends to have a population who are more agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable and extroverted.

The study is observational, and does not show cause-and-effect. But the scientists behind it theorise that better weather leads people to leave the house more often, leading to more social interaction, which encourages a friendlier personality.

Read the story by Liam Mannix in today’s Melbourne Age - “Scientists find the temperature that makes you the friendliest.”